A Manhattan judge dismissed Thursday most of the claims made by Dan Rather in his $70 million lawsuit against CBS Corp. and Viacom Inc.

The judge preserved several parts of the suit, but dismissed the ones referring to three of the companies’ executives. The parts including the names of Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone, CBS President Leslie Moonves and former CBS News President Andrew Heyward were taken out.

Rather filed the suit in September, claiming that CBS treated him unjustly after the faulty 2004 broadcast on the Vietnam War-era military service of President George Bush.

Rather accuses CBS of forcing him to apologize for the broadcast just to pay court to the Bush administration.

The political issues are out of the lawsuit now, and the judge remained to decide whether CBS respected its full contract obligations, after Rather’s departure.

'We are gratified that the court has dismissed the vast majority of Mr. Rather's claims, including the spurious claims against Redstone, Moonves and Heyward, as well as the false charges of fraud, tortious interference with prospective business relations, breach of good faith and fair dealing,' CBS said in a statement.

The company is also optimistic about the judge’s final decision, claiming it had broken no contract rules.

'With respect to the few remaining claims, relevant to his contract, there are no facts to support them, and we expect them to be dismissed when the discovery process is complete,' the company said, according to CNN Money.

Rather was disposed of by CBS in June 2006, after working with the network for 44 years. He still kept reporting for the weekly news program “60 Minutes,” but he complained of not receiving enough air time on the program.

Rather now produces the show “Dan Rather Reports,” for cable channel HDNet, which is available only for high-definition TV sets’ owners.