Alabama station drops broadcast of 60 Minutes expose

[BonnieJW]

CBS's 60 Minutes broadcast Sunday regarding the alleged political prosecution of Democratic Alabama governor Don Siegelman went dark in the northern third of Alabama last night. According to WHNT-TV, the local CBS affiliate, the issue was caused by a technical malfunction.

"We apologize that you missed the first segment of 60 Minutes tonight featuring a report titled, 'The Prosecution of Don Siegelman,'" a WHNT story said.

CBS News – which owns 60 Minutes – denied any problem on their end.

Scott Horton of Harper’s magazine reported late last night that CBS was directly pointing back at the local outlets as the cause of the problem.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/60_Minutes_broadcast_on_prosecution_of_0225.html

[Debau2005]

1. Last night

on one of the Siegelman threads, someone from Huntsville, AL posted that they couldn't get the channel!

[VP505]

2. Not much

need be said, the "technical malfunction" speaks volumes, to bad that the local affiliate doesn't get it.

[Debau2005]

3. A check of the

political affiliations of the station owner might be interesting.

[originalpckelly]

4. It's possible, and I'm going to do it!

Thanks! :P

I'll be back with the info in a second or two.

[BadgerKid]

5. There were several threads last night. n/t

[cyclezealot]

6. please do.

[LTR]

9. here's a place to start

Here's the owner:

Local TV LLC is a limited liability corporation owned by Oak Hill Capital. The company was created in 2007, after Oak Hill entered into an agreement to purchase the nine television stations owned by The New York Times Company.

Local TV LLC took ownership of the stations, all located in medium- to small-sized markets, at 12:01 a.m. on Monday, May 7, 2007. Randy Michaels, the former CEO of Clear Channel Communications, was originally CEO. Robert Lawrence is President and COO. On December 20, 2007 Local TV announced that Bobby Lawrence would be CEO.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_TV
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHNT

-------

Local TV has become a somewhat large player in the TV industry as of late. I don't know much about them, but former CEO Randy Michaels, though reported to be a conservative, also is a part-owner of Ed Schultz' radio show. He's not into using media as a bully pulpit, rather he's into putting out what he thinks is compelling product that will be successful.

The fact that they re-ran the piece on their evening newscast does give some credibility to their claims of a technical malfunction. I have little reason not to buy it. What little I know of this company does not make them out to be some sort of propaganda outlet like, say, Sinclair.

I would also think that this story is very big in Alabama, and there's really no way they could get away with blanking it out without a mass newsroom revolt. Unless, of course, the station was owned by Sinclair.

[DeSwiss]

7. This is up on the station's website....

Watch "The Prosecution of Don Siegelman" on WHNT.com
WHNT-TV/NewsChannel 19 experienced technical difficulties last night at the beginning of 60 Minutes, as a special investigative report called "The Prosecution of Don Siegelman" was airing. We re-broadcast the entire piece Sunday on NewsChannel 19 at 10:00. If you missed it, you can watch it on WHNT.com. Click here to go to the CBS Video Player.

Link: http://www.whnt.com/default.asp

[sakabatou]

8. Right...

a malfunction.