Dan Rather’s $70 million lawsuit against his former bosses at CBS died yesterday when the state’s highest court refused to hear his bid to have it reinstated.

Rather, 77, called the ruling by the Court of Appeals in Manhattan “a grave miscarriage of justice.”

He said that the case “was dismissed on purely technical grounds,” and added, “I am disappointed that no court or jury studied the evidence and heard the facts of the case.”

The folksy CBS vet had charged the network ruined his reputation by making him a scapegoat for a flawed 2004 story that relied on apparently forged documents about then-President George W. Bush’s Vietnam-era service in the Texas Air National Guard.

Rather had hoped the suit would vindicate the report, and wanted CBS to pay for costing him job opportunities by effectively sidelining him in the wake of the controversy.