WHNT's remarkably timed 'technical problems'
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.
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 suburban Dallas-based company . . . According to a 1976 trust agreement, drawn shortly after Bush Sr. was appointed director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Saudi Sheik Salem M. bin Laden appointed Bath as his business representative in Houston. bin Laden, along with his brothers, owns Binladen Brothers Construction, one of the largest construction companies in the Middle East.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0203/S00035.htm
i hope they don't have problems during the Rove trial.
That's how inbreeding perpetuates itself and I guess they like it that way. One of my clubs held its annual convention in Alabama last year. Didn't give attending any more thought than I would have thought to visit apartheid South Africa.
Ron @ 52:
Thanks Ron. I checked Google under the definition of Fascism [which everyone should read] and it looks like point 6---control of the mass media. Really scary what has become of us!!!
gee technical troubles , hope that doesn't happen wit all those voting machines during your election day
Not quite on the same level of censorship but still censorship,
was Mediacom or their feed blanking out the Aquateen Hunger Force Mooninite episode a month or two after the Boston bomb scare.
There was a black screen and the message 'no feed' until one minute past the transmission time of that episode.
oops sorry all I dropped the h
with
Earl @ 50:
you're right Earl,he is a registered Democrat,and in fact has refused to come out and say he endorses the religious right.I'm going to stop now,because I don't want to offend you or insult him either.have a nice night Earl.
MK Ultra @ 53:
i remember reading this in a book on the bcci scandal back in the 90's. imagine my surprise when the bin laden name came up on the 9-11 hit.
About time you f*****s run this story.
Better late than never.
Welcome to the party, democracy ahead ahoy!
Does what happened to Gov. Siegelman relate to Gonzales-Gate, the firing of federal prosecuters who didn't go after Democrats as they were expected to do? Is this in ANY way "related" to that? It sounds like it is. If I wait a few weeks, it will become obvious to me one way or the other, but I'm wondering RIGHT NOW.
Dan Abrams is doing episodes on his show on MSNBC about Don Siegelman. He had his daughter on tonight. He has asked for his release while the appeal is pending. Fat chance.
Carly Corday @ 63:
it does.
"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."
Most excellently said!
Carly Corday @ 63:
Well, I think the deal is that the federal prosecuters in Alabama were perfectly happy to go after Democrats and not Republicans. Therefore, they did not have to be fired, they were being obedient Republicans. Two Republicans were named by one of the witnesses against Siegelman, namely one U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions and I forget the other name. They of course were not even investigated.
My point is about the business connection between the Texas Bath Brothers of Oak Hill Capital Partners and Bush Jr.
But Im sure its not any kind of wacky conspiracy, just a massive series of incredible Coincidences.
lj @ 49:
6. A controlled mass media
Under some of the regimes, the mass media were under strict direct control and could be relied upon never to stray from the party line. Other regimes exercised more subtle power to ensure media orthodoxy. Methods included the control of licensing and access to resources, economic pressure, appeals to patriotism, and implied threats. The leaders of the mass media were often politically compatible with the power elite. The result was usually success in keeping the general public unaware of the regimes’ excesses.
Here's a good link to all 14 with links to examples"
http://www.oldamericancentury.org/14pts.htm
In the rebroadcast show - Mr. Rove was ID'ed as a Democrat (snark!)
MK Ultra @ 11:
I knew it! Lying liars hang out with other lying liars!
If you go to yesterday's 2/26 schedule for Conyer's hearings "Oversight Hearing on the Implementatation of the US Department of Justice's Special Councel Relations" and look at the documents, you will find letter after letter requesting that Conyers investigate other cases that mirror what happened to Siegelman. Siegelman's frame-up is just the tip of the turdberg.
Here is a link to the schedule:
http://judiciary.house.gov/
right on! @ 71:
This can't be emphasized enough. Bass is the link we have to this.
All network affiliate stations are REQUIRED to have backup sat-receiver dishes and receiving equipment. And, if you drive by WHNT, you will see that they do, indeed, have multiple dish antennas dotted all over their property. They could have switched to their REQUIRED backup at the first sign of trouble. But, they knew what they were doing. And, literally, it is as quick and easy as throwing a switch to switch over to back-up, that's why they call it 'switching over to backup'. WHNT are not just LIARS, they are clumsly, clueless liars who have already switched stories three times now.
Key to the scandal, and should be mentioned over and over when it is discussed, is U.S. Attorney Leura Canary. Who?
http://aconstantineblacklist.blogspot.com/2007/12/alabama-babylon-karl-r...
Who did Leura hire?
http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html
The more you dig, the more you find. It's a scandal cornucopia.
http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html
And
Ah, William Pryor. Excellent...
First recess appointed, then passed by complicity of the Senate DINOs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_H._Pryor,_Jr.
Ah, yes, the Gang of Fourteen. These people need REMOVAL from office.
Two are already gone:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gang_of_14
Have you heard of these felons?
Republicans
John McCain, Arizona
Lindsey Graham, South Carolina
John Warner, Virginia
Olympia Snowe, Maine
Susan Collins, Maine
Mike DeWine, Ohio (lost re-election)
Lincoln Chafee, Rhode Island (lost re-election)
"Democrats"
Joe Lieberman, Connecticut (re-elected as an Independent)
Robert Byrd, West Virginia
Ben Nelson, Nebraska
Mary Landrieu, Louisiana
Daniel Inouye, Hawaii
Mark Pryor, Arkansas
Ken Salazar, Colorado
ANYTHING (nonviolent) you can do to remove these Senators has been sanctioned by their elevation of Pryor IF NOTHING ELSE.
Goodguy Senator Sherrod Brown, btw, is on Tavis Smiley tonight.
I live here in Huntsvile and was the first one to blog about the black out.
WHNT's News Director Blogs on Siegelman, 60 Minutes Issueblog: http://www.whnt.com/Global/story.asp?S=7928458
Title revision;
WHNT’s remarkably "well" timed ‘technical problems’, from a neocon perspective, of course.
Welcome to the USSR.
My brother was a republican...
When our Corpse media in 2003 (HBO!) cancelled a Meg Ryan war movie called "Blackhawk Down" my brother became a progressive...
He called that nite and said hey; "I jst sat dwn to watch... and they are not airing it,,, can they do that...???"
That is all it took for him...
CBS can rebroadcast that segment, because of popular demand.
It had better be a high priority of the next president to reform and restore the FCC to integrity. Democracy cannot long survive without a functioning press/media.
the “60 Minutes” report soared once locals were led to believe they weren’t supposed to see it.
disaster accomplished
A number of posters have made references to totalitarianism and the old Soviet Union and rightfully so. The use of "terror" as a way to ramp up the state security apparatus is a common method that is used to control the populace. It is the reason they claim to need warrantless wiretaps and other invasions of personal privacy. The Soviets used these tactics with the exact same rationale; to protect the people.
They also used torture for the same reason and as I recall, we condemned the Soviets for using such tactics, including waterboarding.
It is becoming more and more difficult to overlook the simliarities between the methods Republicans and the Soviets used to tame a complacent or scared populace in to accepting Draconian measures that are supposedly designed to "protect" them.
What happened at WHNT just another example of how much like the Soviets the Republicans have become. And ironically, all in the name of "protecting our freedoms".
I posted this comment b4 on the NYT's blog about this story.
WHNT Ch 19 has some history doing this...I grew up in Huntsville, AL in the late 60's-early 70's. CBS had a documentary series entitled "Of Black America" during that period. It ran in several episodes overs a few weeks and each time it was broadcast, the sound from the program would be intermittant or absent.
john bourne harbour Says:
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???
Historical reference: in 1955, when a TV station referred to the "cable", they meant the "COAXIAL CABLE"; the term for the more-or-less recently-developed connection from the East Coast to the West Coast. The aforementioned "technical difficulties" sign frequently referenced "the cable" being "out" (it "went out" a lot!)
Prior to its completion by AT&T, video programs from the nation's television capital, New York City, were film-delayed to points as far away as California.
And in my own lifetime, hard to believe.
Interesting:
"Firefox can't find the server at www.whnt.com."
Thursday AM.
My question is: If their CBS receiver failed, why were they able to rebroadcast that night?
Timetotalk @ 78:
looks like all links to whnt's website are not working at present.
I hope these sorts of sleazy and illegal suppression-of-information shenanigans put into perspective the junior-high-school-douchebag pranks like putting a D instead of an R after McCain's ID or Rushbo calling it the "Democrat Party." The former are truly disturbing. The latter just makes a person (almost) feel sorry for the Neocons' sad desperation.
lll @ 32:
And the station engineer (and other technical staff) have to have individual FCC licenses, which could and SHOULD be yanked if they are found to be lying about this incident. "..the receiver 'failed'"? Why? because it was deliberately turned off? Damaged?
If upper management sent down an order to the staff to disrupt the CBS feed, the techs need to name names.
Wasn't NASCAR running at the same time "60 Minutes" was on?
Surprised anyone there noticed...
Couldn't there be a class-action lawsuit on the basis that millions of cable subscribers were wrongly deprived of the service they paid for? I'd go for large punitive damages as well.
So when will the FCC begin investigating whether WHNT should lose its broadcasting license?
It would seem to me that intentionally censoring the airwaves in an attempt to suppress information that would be politically damaging to one party or another is not in the best interests of the community which the station serves. Broadcast licenses are suposedly granted on the basis that said station is serving the interests of it's community, therefore shouldn't the FCC revoke thier license or at least admonish them in some way. It seems pretty clear by the reaction of the community that they were not happy with the stations decision to actively censor this information.
Paul in LA @ 75:
Pryor has been a bitter disappointment for some of us Democrats in Arkansas.
fastfeat @ 92:
It was rain delayed until Monday.
Man it seems the "vast rightwing conspiracy" that Hillary was ridiculed for mentioning years ago, may just be bubbling to the surface, due to the fact that they're all incompetent assholes who can't get their bullshit stories straight. If it wasn't so damn serious, this would make for a good Cohen brothers film.
Real American Patriot @ 95:
Naw... censorship is merely an 'opinion' and you'd infringe on the station owner's 'free speech' 8) But if the station accidentally flashed some tit, the FCC would be issuing fines quicker than a bear could shit honey.
RF @ 81:
Meg Ryan wasn't in Black Hawk Down.
Once censorship gets foot in the door, next the elite will have thier way with your children and wife. Who will come to your aid if no one even hears about it, one other thing worth noting. The banks in China could care a less if you get right amount of money out of ATM. There word agaisnt yours. Nothing to see here.
Snarki, child of Loki @ 91:
And the station engineer (and other technical staff) have to have individual FCC licenses, which could and SHOULD be yanked if they are found to be lying about this incident. "..the receiver 'failed'"? Why? because it was deliberately turned off? Damaged?
If upper management sent down an order to the staff to disrupt the CBS feed, the techs need to name names.
Challenging this station's license should really become a priority for someone (McChesney still out there?) This is a great case for pushing the media (owners) bias and we should flog it hard.
"There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission . . ."
91 Snarki, child of Loki
The only children of Loki I know of are Hel and Fenrir and Nari and Narfi.
Must be nice to have a loki dad
Kind of like Robert Young.
AlphaLiberal @ 102:
Challenging this station's license should really become a priority for someone (McChesney still out there?) This is a great case for pushing the media (owners) bias and we should flog it hard.
Yes! Just let me fetch my flog!
"Move along, nothing to see here. Just a improbable set of coincidences. Nothing to be alarmed about. You are in good hands. We control the horizontal. We control the vertical. We control all that you see and hear. For the next 60 years, sit back as we take you to...The Constant Bush$hit."
I swear, I expected something like this to happen, from our sorry local CBS affiliate in Birmingham, WIAT, but I was mistaken.
Coincidence, my foot, IMO, this was deliberate (doesn't even pass the smell test), and only validates my suspicions that the only corruption taking place around here is by some of these these desperately lame, power-mad repubs (and even a large number of them have gone on record saying this whole thing stinks), and a pathetic, self-absorbed, arrogant and impotent media.
This state's going to suffer like never before until the right thing is done by the best governor this state's ever had, this man should either be in the governor's mansion right now or at home among family and friends, not setting in a federal prison.
Thank you, WHNT in Huntsville, for erasing any and all doubt about your integrity and that of the federal judicial system in this state, and for that matter, this country...Free Don Siegelman!!!
The Meg Ryan film was called 'Courage Under Fire,' not Blackhawk Down. It dealt with the first Bush Oil War, not with Somalia, and co-starred Denzel Washington.
I was joking with my Dad about a hour before saying stuff like "You know they'll not air it" and "I bet they are warming up the old 'Technical Difficulties' sign"...
Still, when it happened I was in shock that they'd actually done it.
One good thing came out of this though. I now know exactly what to expect out of them.
I also think it's time that the rest of the people get a education about who runs their local news.
ysbaddaden @ 104:
Here's a picture of Narfi
http://duryea.org/pinky/minstrel.gif
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