WHNT’s word of “honor” isn’t good enough for at least one FCC official. Commissioner Michael Copps has asked the chairman to launch an inquiry into the Alabama television station blacking out an episode of 60 Minutes that dealt with the railroading of former Governor Don Siegelman.
On February 24th, WHNT in Huntsville first put out a statement saying there was trouble with New York. CBS said that was patently false, and the station then indicated the technical problem was their own.
WHNT reaired the segment twice the following day.
The FCC chairman Kevin Martin says he would look into the matter but has not decided to issue a letter of inquiry.
Peter Kaplan at Reuters writes:
In a posting on WHNT’s Web site, the station’s news director, Denise Vickers, said the station had been “bombarded” with complaints and accusations that the station had sabotaged the broadcast for political reasons.
The WHNT, CBS affiliate in Huntsville, Alabama, blacked out civil rights footage from the 1960s to repress information on the movement.
UPDATE: from at-largely…A ”letter of inquiry” is routine when reviewing complaints against a station and is the first step in an investigation of a broadcast licensee.
The letter was sent by mail and by fax Tuesday afternoon. The station has 30 days to respond.
Filed under: Government, News Headlines, Politics, censorship | Tagged: 60 Minutes, Black Out, CBS, FCC, Siegelman, WHNT
The repubes call the shots at the FCC.
I wouldn’t count on the Bush FCC probing anything.
Did you know that WHNT-TV19 was less than a year ago owned by The NEW YORK TIMES? The company that owns the station now bought it from the NYT’s. Do you not find it ironic that the NYT’s is doing a hit piece on a station it owned less than a year ago? Would they have done this piece on this station if it still owned it? I doubt it very seriously. Also did you know that the general manager of WHNT-TV19, Stan Pylant, is a registered Democrat and he became the station manager less than 2 months ago? These stories about a conspiracy are a bunch of none-sense. This is just another reason to waste tax payer dollars. Do we not have better things to spend our hard earned money on in this country?
Xin, you sound pretty invested. If the people in the WHNT newsroom had not conjured the story that it was New York’s fault and changed their story to “our bad” when CBS said that’s crap, then I suspect this would be much less of an issue.
Rule #1 in television, if you say you’re going to show something, show it or shit will happen.
Rule#2 in television, shit happens.
The thing is,It is censorship.How many backups do you think they have in place?enough to cover a 3 or 4 second delay?how many switches can an operator throw in that much time?
WHNT is a small television market. Chances are they don’t have timed delays and backups.
It really could have been an honest, unavoidable mistake. It sounds like some newsroom ass clowns told people it was New York’s problem when they didn’t know what the hell they were talking about.