60 Minutes broadcast on prosecution goes dark

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

60 Minutes broadcast on prosecution of Alabama governor goes dark in some Alabama cities
02/25/2008
Filed by Larisa Alexandrovna

CBS' 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.

“I contacted CBS News in New York and was told that “there is no delicate way to put this: the WHNT claim is not true. There were no transmission difficulties. The problems were peculiar to Channel 19, which had the signal and had functioning transmitters.” I was told that the decision to blacken screens across Northern Alabama “could only have been an editorial call.”

WHNT, Channel 19 of Huntsville, Alabama, issued a press release shortly after the broadcast.

"We apologize that you missed the first segment of 60 Minutes tonight featuring "The Prosecution of Don Siegelman."

It was a techincal (sic) problem with CBS out of New York. We are working with them right now to see if we can re-broadcast the segment.

Please be patient with us during this time. We are doing our best to correct the problem.

After Horton's report, Channel 19 issued another account of the problem:

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

NewsChannel 19 lost our program feed from CBS. Upon investigation, WHNT has learned that the CBS receiver that allows us to receive programming from CBS failed. WHNT engineers responded as quickly as possible to restore the feed at 6:12 p.m.

Our sincere apologies to our viewers across the Tennessee Valley.

The network said they would re-air the broadcast during the newscast at 10pm. Whether this occurred could not be confirmed.

The interview is available on the CBS website.

The White House has put pressure on CBS to kill the show, those close to the case say. Journalists covering the story have been attacked. The case's most prominent whistleblower, Dana Jill Simpson, recently testified, under oath, to Congress about Rove's involvement in politicizing the Bush Justice Department.

Her house mysteriously caught fire after she came forward.

WHNT in Huntsville Alabama was purchased by Oak Hill Capital Partners from the New York Times Company early last year. Oak Hill is owned by the Bass brothers, Bush fundraisers at the “Pioneer” level – raising over $100 thousand for the Bush-Cheney campaigns in 2000 and 2004. Lee Bass is perhaps the best known member of the Bass family for his role in George W. Bush’s failed energy venture called Spectrum 7 and later for his bailing out of Harken Energy.

The Oak Hill connection emerged last night on Democratic Underground.

RAW STORY has been at the front of the Siegelman story, and was the first to reveal detailed information about former Bush Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove's role in the scandal.