FCC Official Wants Investigation Of "60 Minutes" Rove Blackout

Reuters:

U.S. Federal Communications Commission official is seeking an inquiry into the blacking out of a politically charged segment of the CBS News magazine "60 Minutes" by a local television station in Alabama.

FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said he had asked the chairman of the FCC to open an inquiry into the February 24 incident at WHNT, a CBS affiliate in Huntsville, Alabama, in which civil rights footage from the 1960s was blacked out.

"The FCC now needs to find out if something analogous is going on here," Copps said at a luncheon with media watchdog groups. "Was this an attempt to suppress information on the public airwaves, or was it really just a technical problem?"

Read the whole story: Reuters

Comments

[mamacat]

Hmmm, Republicans wouldn't do anything underhanded and immoral, would they?

[AZM]

About 18 minutes of program missing. Hmmm!

[SmootyBooty]

Rosemary Woods has been eliminated as a suspect...

[Erdgeist]

"The abuse of American justice by the Bush administration in order to ruin Siegelman is so crystal clear that even the corporate media organization CBS allowed "60 Minutes" to broadcast on February 24, 2008, a damning indictment of the railroading of Siegelman. Extremely coincidental "technical difficulties" caused WHNT, the CBS station covering the populous northern third of Alabama, to go black during the broadcast. The station initially offered a lame excuse of network difficulties that CBS in New York denied. The Republican-owned print media in Alabama seemed to have the inside track on every aspect of the prosecution's case against Siegelman. You just have to look at their editorials and articles following the 60 Minutes broadcast to get a taste of what counts for "objective journalism" in their mind." [Source: http://www.alternet.org/rights/78407/]

[GnitenGoodLk]

It was aired against the Oscars, typical bad slot, that tells me the problem may just be out of NY after all.. Run the story again, during prime time, updated.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/21/60minutes/main3859830.shtml

We want to see it in NY.

[kappa08]

"Who would invite such a public relations nightmare on themselves??"
Do you really want us to answer that? Hmmm let me take a guess...the shameless Republicans that made lying an art form. AND if you actually watched the story Miss station manager. Your corrupt redneck state and their nazi republican Attorney General could have something to do with it as well.
Alabama…does anybody want to go there? What a pit.

[GenXer]

Don't condem the whole state because of a few bad apples.

[gopSTEALSyourTAXmoney]

Apples don't grow there.

[IngeniousGirl]

Chairman Kevin J. Martin was nominated by President George W. Bush to a Republican seat on the Commission, and was sworn in on July 3, 2001. He was designated chairman by President Bush on March 18, 2005. Chairman Martin was re-nominated for a second term as commissioner and chairman by President George W. Bush on April 25, 2006.
Before joining the FCC, Martin was a Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy. He served on the Bush-Cheney Transition Team and was Deputy General Counsel for the Bush campaign. Prior to joining the campaign, Martin was an advisor to FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth. He has also served in the Office of the Independent Counsel and worked as an associate at the Washington, DC law firm of Wiley, Rein & Fielding. Before joining Wiley, Rein & Fielding, Martin was a judicial clerk for U.S. District Court Judge William M. Hoeveler, Miami, FL.
Martin received a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Masters in Public Policy from Duke University, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the Federal Communications Bar Association.
Washington, DC - Kevin J. Martin was sworn in today as a member of the Federal Communications Commission for a term that runs to June 30, 2006.
Before joining the FCC, Martin was a Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy. He served on the Bush-Cheney Transition Team and was Deputy General Counsel for the Bush campaign. Prior to joining the campaign, Martin was an advisor to FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth. He has also served in the Office of the Independent Counsel and worked as an associate at the Washington, DC law firm of Wiley, Rein & Fielding. Before joining Wiley, Rein & Fielding, Martin was a judicial clerk for U.S. District Court Judge William M. Hoeveler, Miami, FL.
Martin received a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Masters in Public Policy from Duke University, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
He is a member of the Florida Bar, District of Columbia Bar and the Federal Communications Bar

[Stretchumall]

They should be forced to re-air the entire program all day(24 hrs) without commercial interuption.

Got Rope?

[adled]

But they didn't say, fuck, right? So all is well. LOL This is the worst thing about too many Repulicans' instincts; the ease of wich they can play fast and loose with the very things that separate the US from any other banana republic.

[IngeniousGirl]

Kevin Martin was appointed Chair of FCC in 2005. He is a close associate of Karl Rove. His bio from FCC website is instructive.
Chairman - Kevin J. Martin
Chairman Martin was nominated by President George W. Bush to a Republican seat on the Commission, and was sworn in on July 3, 2001. He was designated chairman by President Bush on March 18, 2005. Chairman Martin was re-nominated for a second term as commissioner and chairman by President George W. Bush on April 25, 2006.
Before joining the FCC, Martin was a Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy. He served on the Bush-Cheney Transition Team and was Deputy General Counsel for the Bush campaign. Prior to joining the campaign, Martin was an advisor to FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth. He has also served in the Office of the Independent Counsel and worked as an associate at the Washington, DC law firm of Wiley, Rein & Fielding. Before joining Wiley, Rein & Fielding, Martin was a judicial clerk for U.S. District Court Judge William M. Hoeveler, Miami, FL.
Martin received a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Masters in Public Policy from Duke University, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the Federal Communications Bar Association.
Washington, DC - Kevin J. Martin was sworn in today as a member of the Federal Communications Commission for a term that runs to June 30, 2006.
Before joining the FCC, Martin was a Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy. He served on the Bush-Cheney Transition Team and was Deputy General Counsel for the Bush campaign. Prior to joining the campaign, Martin was an advisor to FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth. He has also served in the Office of the Independent Counsel and worked as an associate at the Washington, DC law firm of Wiley, Rein & Fielding. Before joining Wiley, Rein & Fielding, Martin was a judicial clerk for U.S. District Court Judge William M. Hoeveler, Miami, FL.
Martin received a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Masters in Public Policy from Duke University, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
He is a member of the Florida Bar, District of Columbia Bar and the Federal Communications Bar Association.

[Colmore]

Why not just air the segment again, so everyone can view it? Maybe Karl won't allow that????

[gcallaghan]

Did any of the story ever air in Alabama, even after the original date? CBS would assure themselves of a massive nationwide audience if they reran it as part of a story on the controversy it caused. Then see if that reaches the Alabama viewers.

[armadillious2002]

It was probably just satanic intervention on Rove's behalf.

[Wiredwilly]

Bank robbers investigating Crooks.

[JScott]

Ohhh the false outrage from the neoconevangelfundie Bush Admin.......so what else is new.

[drauz]

the corruption in Alabama is so inept it shouldn't be hard to nail anyone, if you want to...