To be sure, the real outrage in the scandal surrounding trumped up charges against former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman (D) are the charges themselves. Local Republican officials, in apparent conjunction with Karl Rove, railroaded a sitting governor because he was a Democrat. It was political corruption at its most pernicious.
But if we also take a moment to consider the Alabama media, the decisions of WHNT, the CBS affiliate in northern Alabama, are almost comical in their ineptitude.
In 1955, when WLBT-TV, the NBC affiliate in Jackson, Miss., did not want to run a network report about racial desegregation, it famously hung up the sign: “Sorry, Cable Trouble.” Audiences in northern Alabama might have suspected the same tactics when WHNT-TV, the CBS affiliate, went dark Sunday evening during a “60 minutes” segment that strongly suggested that Don Siegelman, Alabama’s former Democratic governor, was wrongly convicted of corruption last year.
The report presented new evidence that the charges against Mr. Siegelman may have been concocted by politically motivated Republican prosecutors — and orchestrated by Karl Rove. Unfortunately, WHNT had “technical problems” that prevented it from broadcasting a segment (the problems were resolved in time for the next part of the show) that many residents of Alabama would no doubt have found quite interesting.
After initially blaming the glitch on CBS in New York, the affiliate said it learned “upon investigation,” and following a rebuke from the network, that “the problem was on our end.” It re-broadcast the segment at 10 p.m., pitting it against the Academy Awards on rival ABC, before Daniel Day-Lewis won the best actor Oscar. As public criticism grew, it ran it again at 6 p.m. on Monday.
WHNT’s president and general manager assured viewers that “there was no intent whatsoever to keep anyone from seeing the broadcast.”
No, of course not, it was only the most remarkable set of coincidences in modern broadcast history.
Consider the tale of the tape:
* WHNT is owned by one of the Bass brothers of Texas, former business partners of George W. Bush and generous contributors to Republican causes.
* WHNT’s broadcast signal was just fine before the Siegelman story on “60 Minutes,” and was just fine after the story ended.
* The Siegelman story was bound to make the state Republican machine and Rove’s office look pretty awful, which was apparent from pre-broadcast commercials.
* WHNT was harsh in covering Siegelman when he was governor.
* WHNT couldn’t keep its story straight about who was responsible for the “technical glitches.”
But no, there certainly couldn’t have been any “intent” to “keep anyone from seeing the broadcast.” Who could ever have thought such a thing?
The irony is, if WHNT was trying to suppress a report that made Republicans look bad, the station ended up creating a backlash — interest in the “60 Minutes” report soared once locals were led to believe they weren’t supposed to see it.
Suppressing the forbidden fruit sometimes only serves to make it more enticing, oddly enough.
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i say we waterboard his ass until he dies or talks…. sound American? well it is!
good to see that they couldn’t get away with the same old dirty tricks.Don’t they do that kinda stuff in communist countries?
Was anyone who owns or manages the station involved with the prosecution of Siegleman? Or was there any other connection?
Speaking of being pro-segregation, William Buckley kicked the bucket!
Republicans are the new Stalinists and the Corporate Media are their Pravda.
White Hate News Television?
White Hate News Television?
mudshark @ 2:
No…in totalitarian countries they shoot them. No need to bother with bull like technical difficulties when a gun is handy. Thank God the Right has few with enough balls to do so.
Yeah Station Owner is a Bush Pioneer
The banana republic of Alabama.
from the NYT story:
WHNT is owned by Oak Hill Capital Partners, a private equity firm whose lead investor is one of the Bass brothers of Texas. The brothers are former business partners of George W. Bush and generous contributors to Republican causes.
wow. WHNT, my old alma mater or whatever.
I now have one more reason for why I moved to California.
The ironic thing is by pulling the plug on the program they generated more interest in the story and made themselves look like a bunch of douchebags.
they hung up a sign “sorry, cable trouble” in 1955??? 1955??? c’mon– surely they were trying to keep all those tv watchers in the dark– right??? 1955???
General_Rennenkampf @ 7:
Like Alabama’s license plate says…
Stars Fell On Alabama… and it seems they fell on the station’s network feed dish at just the right time.
There’s no way to embarrass these f*cks.
The reason Florida doesn’t float away in the ocean is because Alabama sucks.
We have assumed control of your television. We control the horizontal. We control the vertical.
Geez, next thing ya know somethin’s gonna happen to their transmitter, and that’d be a real bummer…
General_Rennenkampf @ 7:
they know we will shoot back, there is a silver lining to 100s millions of guns in ordinary peoples hands.
The 2nd amendment crowd do have a very important point.
A new poll shows that technical glitches favor Republicans by a wide margin.
does harkin energy own that station???
J[Deleted. Off topic-Sitemonitor]
Well at any rate,its deeply satisfying that public demand has forced the repeated re-airing of this sorry tale.You know, when I think about that Sack O’ Shit Rove? I simply can’t help entertaining the notion of an “upside” to torture.I know I’m being hypocritical and glaringly partisan,but still…imagine the enlightening revelations a few smartly administered water boardings would prompt from an upside down,gasping for air,clinging to dear life Mr. Rove.
Hey I can dream can’t I?In reality,even vermin like Rove should be protected from these dark assaults against dignity and Human rights.
Earl @ 17:
hello Earl……howzit goin?this is a question from another thread.re:Billy Graham.
OK ,I’m not going to insult him or you .You have your beliefs and I respect that.But I do have one question about him.
What do you think BG’s net worth is?
Just imagine the reich-wing outrage if there were “technical problems” during their mockumentary ‘path to 9/11′
below_me @ 1:
just some food for thought.
Golly gee, those coincidences sure are amazing in Alabama. And in other fantasy news I just saw the Easter Bunny crossing the street and he said “hello” to me.
mudshark @ 25:
I have no idea. But wealth does not determine a man’s honor.
my brother emailed the chief engineer at WHNT, a steve king (an acquaintance), and got this reply:
“Simple, a CBS satellite receiver failed at WHNT causing us to loose about 5 minutes of the story ,we aired it again at 10pm last night and again At 6pm tonight and had it posted on the web last night and all day today.”
what mr. king no doubt knows, as does everyone else in the industry, is that the station is required by the FCC to keep very strict logs, especially on such incidents.
i have shared all this info with conyers, whose HJC has already looked into the siegelman affair; thought he might find this additional wrinkle interesting.
they should have had some difficulties with the Preznits State of the Union address.
then I could understand it.
One of the reasons they tried to lose the signal,would be because they probably ran the story 24/7 until the poor guy was put in jail.How do you like that,railroading someone in America,in 2007.they gave him 7?years.He still has 6.5 to go.
Scott @ 29:
That wasn’t the Easter bunny, it was KKKarl Rove on his wy to a lynching.
Earl @ 30:
your absolutely right Earl.
The reason I asked is the Tax Exemption status. hang around for awhile,I’ll see if I can find it.
FYI folks, its off topic that the owner of the station was a partner in Harkin Energy!
[Sorry. Repost. I’m a bit trigger happy, from another thread :D Sitemonitor]
We should write in, pretending to be residents (could be done, with some work) and demand that they rerun the segment.
mudshark @ 34:
I can’t hang around. I’m already hung.
Dr. Matt @ 26:
The damn libral inside my teevee is actin’ up again!
Ron @ 37:
LMAO
I have more on the story if your interested. McCain is tied to this. Check out the story on our tiny little blog.
Scroll down for the McCain tie-in. Thanks C&L, keep up the good work.
Ron @ 37:
I can’t hang around. I’m already hung.
I have to hang it around - don’t be jealous, lol
Hi Ron ;-}
You can’t link from the comments section huh? Oh well.
illiterateelectorate dot blogspot dot com
Come check us out. Thanks
We have you on our blogroll C&L. Love your work
Why have the link button?
Proud2bHumble @ 42:
Hi proud2b, I have to add a little bit of humor in these serious times.
Arrogant. Corrupt. Criminal. And they know they can get away with it.
Earl @ 40:
BG:100 million dollar a year ministry,he refuses to give his IRS files (although he say all ministries and ministers should)his net worth is speculated to be 4 mill.For some reason,I don’t believe that.But you’re right Earl He is good at what he does.
Would someone smarter than me please tell me which one of the 14 points that defines a Fascist government this kind of thing represents?
mudshark @ 48:
I know he helps millions of poor people all over the world. And, he’s a registered Democrat.
MK Ultra @ 11:
note to obama- this station needs it’s fcc license pulled by feb.09.
lj @ 49:
I don’t know about the 14 points but, when you have corporations that write the laws that benefit them and not the overall public, in fact harms the country, it is fascism.
JERRY URBAN, HOUSTON CHRONICLE, JUNE 4, 1992:
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network - known as FinCEN - and the FBI are reviewing accusations that entrepreneur James R. Bath guided money to Houston from Saudi investors who wanted to influence US policy under the Reagan and Bush administrations, sources close to the investigations say . . . The federal review stems in part from court documents obtained through litigation by Bill White, a former real estate business associate of Bath . . . White became entangled in a series of lawsuits and counter suits with Bath, who for some six years has prevailed in the courts. . . . In sworn depositions, Bath said he represented four prominent Saudis as a trustee and that he would use his name on their investments. In return, he said, he would receive a 5 percent interest in their deals. Tax documents and personal financial records show that Bath personally had a 5 percent interest in Arbusto ‘79 Ltd., and Arbusto ‘80 Ltd., limited partnerships controlled by George W. Bush, President Bush’s eldest son. Arbusto means ‘bush’ in Spanish. Bath invested $ 50,000 in the limited partnerships, according to the documents. There is no available evidence to show whether the money came from Saudi interests. George W. Bush’s company, Bush Exploration Co., general partner in the limited partnerships, went through several mergers, eventually evolving into Harken Energy Corp., a subu