The Nation: The 60 Minutes Blackout

[marmar]

BLOG | Posted 02/26/2008 @ 10:49pm
The 60 Minutes Blackout
Te-Ping Chen


If it truly was an accident that the beginning of the 60 Minutes episode chronicling Karl Rove's machinations to unseat the former Democratic governor of Alabama happened to get blacked out in only one state--Alabama--that surely is a fortuitous coincidence.

As the NYT reported today, the Alabama TV station in question is managed by Robert M. Bass, who along with his brothers has contributed thousands to the Bush administration over the years. The station was also thoroughly hostile to Don Siegelman throughout the Justice Department's multi-year assault on his office.

The CBS connection had been fine before the 60 Minutes program aired. It broke off just as the program was going on.

This latest broadcast incident is only a narrow aperture into the broader Siegelman scandal, in which the former Democratic governor was denied office and subsequently jailed as the result of what 52 former state attorneys general (Republicans and Democrats) have called "irregularities" in his prosecution – that is, what was manifestly a concerted political attack, flamboyantly executed (thus far, with impunity).

If you didn't see the CBS investigation, you can catch it here: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/jstreet?bid=917&pid=291259

[EFerrari]

1. This is great!

:kick:

[madokie]

2. That station should loose its liscense for good

and this Robert Bass never to be allowed to use the publics airwaves again. We need to make sure of that

[Supersedeas]

10. some people think that they OWN the public airways--due to Bush FCC encouragement of such

thinking

[madokie]

11. sure they do

when actually they take an oath of sorts to provide honest verifiable service

[malaise]

3. Bass did everyone a favor by blacking out the

start of the program. The political imprisonment of Don Siegelman is now all over M$M.

We should send Bass thank you cards. The stupid fish forgot that intelligent fishermen often have the last laugh. Bass bit the fucking bait.
sp., gr.

[marmar]

4. I never thought of it that way malaise, but great point!

In a way, they just focused more attention to it. No one ever accused right wingers of being smart.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

9. HERE IS THE LINK TO SEND YOUR THANKS! Great Idea!

http://www.whnt.com/global/Story.asp?s=214960

Here is my e-mail:

Thanks for ensuring the Don Siegelman case gets extended national coverage. It was a brilliant strategy!
Special thanks to Robert M. Bass for crafting such an effective tactic.

[Fly by night]

12. Here is my email to the Pravda branch in Huntsville.

Re: Your Pravda imitation

I want to add my "thanks" to the many I am sure you are receiving these days for your decision to black out the Siegelman story on "60 Minutes". That decision has given this story strong "legs" and has brought the current gulag reality of Alabama to the rest of the country in stark detail. Siegelman's supporters could not have done a better job than you bozos.

When I was growing up in Mississippi in the mid 1960s, our local TV station (in Columbus) would regularly turn the sound off whenever the CBS evening news broadcast a story about civil rights actions in the South. We could see the pictures of police beating protesters and turning water hoses and dogs on them -- we just couldn't hear anything.

The last time I looked, that strategy didn't slow down the pace of progress toward racial equality in Mississippi. Likewise, your strategy will likely hasten the pursuit of justice against the pedophiles, misogynists and election thieves who have highjacked the party of Lincoln.

Thanks again. You have once again demonstrated that ignorance is bliss. Until, that is, it isn't.

Keep up the good work.

[malaise]

16. Great letter n/t

[malaise]

15. Perfect

:D

[Pastiche423]

17. The email response I just received from Ellis Eskew @ WHNT

Victoria,

We are happy to let the public see this story because we have nothing to hide! One day we're getting called media liberals, and the next day right-wing republicans!

The funny thing is, we re-aired it twice and put it on our website for the world to see, got world wide attention drawn to it.... and now people are still mad! What else can we do? We had nothing to do with the blackout.

WHNT is the station that when most of the power went out in Huntsville last month, we stayed on the air and brought our viewers the news reading scripts with flashlights!
Our back-up generator failed last summer during a severe heat wave. Our computers crashed along with our studio cameras. What did we do? We hand-wrote our scripts instead of using computers and brought the news live from our parking lot!
I am proud for a station that stands for what is right and does not let ANYTHING stand in the way of our viewers getting the news!
Come on, if we wanted to censor this we could have found a better way than bring all this attention to it.

Enjoy it though! :)
Hope you have a nice day,

Ellis Eskew
WHNT-TV/ NewsChannel 19
Reporter
[phone]
[e-mail]

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

20. "if we wanted to censor this we could have found a better way"

What "better way" could they have possibly found, other than blaming it on technical difficulties out of their control?

And by this guy's apparent knowledge of "better ways", it sounds like he's been thinking about all the ways things can be censored.

[malaise]

21. They were caught with their pants down

Coverage is everywhere and they will have to release Don Siegelman.
They did Don a great favor with this absolute clusterfuck censorship. Then they were forced to back off and people are really mad. This is fall down funny. I'm lovin it. :rofl:

[burythehatchet]

13. Precisely. They're in a death spiral now. Anything they do makes it worse

May the noose tighten swiftly.

[ray of light]

5. Googlebomb this link

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=60+Minutes&cs=bz&fr=fp-buzzmod (top searches 60 min)

[marmar]

6. I just hit it 25 times in a row......

Woo, I'm tired.

[ray of light]

7. lol--well maybe others will step up and help. Also...people could post the link other places.

[malaise]

8. I gave it 25 hits n/t

[FourScore]

14. Thanks for posting this. k&r.

[indepat]

18. May this incident get proper consideration when renewal of license is the order of the day

[malaise]

19. Dan Abrams is giving this great coverage

Bravo Horton on, Simpson and Don Siegelman's daughter are on. Great!