Blacked-out in Alabama
The Siegelman story foreshadows something ugly. The people who are responsible haven't gone anywhere, despite whatever change-of-mood the U.S. has invented.
Alabama station's explanation (that's their misspelling of "technical"):60 Minutes Programming Note
February 24, 2008
We apologize that you missed the first segment of 60 Minutes tonight featuring "The Prosecution of Don Siegelman."
It was a techincal 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.
WHNT-TV Huntsville, Al, 60 Minutes Programming Note
Fuck em, Here's the link to the on-line video:
The Prosecution of Siegelman
More from Larisa Alexandrovna Here...
Soviet America
Now, let me tell you what has been going on. As 60 Minutes was putting its show together, the White House put pressure on CBS -- the parent company -- to kill the show. Over the last few days, as word got out that the 60 Minutes show would air tonight, Karl Rove's associates began planting defamatory stories about journalists working on this story (see example here) and attacking the whistle-blower who came forward, Dana Jill Simpson. If you recall, Ms. Simpson testified, under oath, to Congress about Karl Rove's involvement in politicizing the DOJ. What you may not know, however, is that her house mysteriously caught fire and she was run off the road in the weeks leading up to her testimony.
What you may also not know is that Governor Siegelman's house was broken into twice during his trial as was his attorney's office.
Yesterday, the attacks on Simpson and journalists increased with a series of emails from the Alabama GOP. See here
continues at the link
There's more updates to this story: It wasn't a technical 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.”
For those of You keeping score at home...
In other words, those following the Siegelman story from my post above, may find the following comment from Larisa Alexandrovna's huffpo story of interest...
You know, we're supposed to be going to mandatory digital TV broadcasts for high power stations in 2009. Low power stations are exempt for now, but they serve rural areas. They'll still receive analog.
"To put an exact number on it is difficult but think of it this way " most full-power stations are the stations affiliated with national broadcast networks, like ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, UPN, etc. Low power, Class A or translator stations are generally in smaller or rural markets, distribute non-English programming and/or function in a big market to a smaller niche group of individuals."
The FCC just allowed for mega corps to consolidate media venues too. This is a very disturbing trend. We all know how digital video is editable before broadcast. I'm not sure what the implications are, but it can't be good. Any dissidence or news-suppression is made simpler by going digital. This compromises our media beyond anything we've ever experienced in the history of our nation. Once net neutrality goes, there we go.
A company wishing to block a broadcast like the 60 mins segment will be much easier to do once we go digital. And tracing the source of the block will be impossible. Not good people.
FCC.gov (The Federal Communications Commission). Go getemkids!
I was already working on a story about the nefarious split in online verse print (tailored)news, more on that later...(Tangentially related of course).
Addendum: and final word:
“Appeals Court Ruled That Media Can Legally Lie". It's called, totalitarian management.
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