The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that the FCC is launching an investigation into an Alabama CBS affiliate’s mysterious signal loss during a 60 Minutes segment investigating allegations former Democratic Gov. Don Siegelman was railroaded by the Republicans in the Justice Department.
According to an advance leak of the text:
FCC chairman Kevin Martin, a Republican, told reporters on Tuesday that the commission received several complaints about the 12-minute blackout of Huntsville station WHNT-TV’s broadcast in Feb. 24. The blackout occurred at the beginning of the broadcast of the 13-minute segment.
“I have instructed the staff to handle this like we do all the other complaints,” Martin told reporters. “We got some 20-odd complaints about it. I’ve asked the staff to send a letter with the complaints attached asking them to respond to it.”
WHNT general manager Stan Pylant told the Associated Press that despite claims that the blackout was a GOP-engineered conspiracy, that the problem was caused by a malfunctioning receiver at the station.
“The receiver failed at the worst possible time, and there’s nothing I can do to make some people believe it,” he told the AP. The showed the story again in its entirety during a newscast later Sunday and again Monday, he said.
Siegelman was governor of Alabama from 1999 to 2003. He was convicted on six bribery-related and one obstruction of justice charge in 2006. He began serving a sentence of more than seven years last June.
Federal prosecutors accused Siegelman of naming HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy to a hospital regulatory board in exchange for $500,000 in donations to Siegelman 1999 campaign for a state lottery. Scrushy was also convicted and is serving a prison term.
The “60 Minutes” story suggested Republican politics was behind Siegelman’s prosecution and imprisonment, a claim prosecutors deny.
It was unclear just what action the commission can take as it has little say in content outside of indecency issues. Still, Martin said he there was enough concern to get the station’s managers to tell the commission what occurred.
“I think it’s important to get the broadcaster to come forward and explain what happened in this particular incidence and not get into speculation,” he said. “The commission in all kinds of contexts asks for broadcasters to respond to complaints the public might have about the way their running their station, and anything can be brought up under license renewal.”
The Hollywood Reporter: FCC Looks Into ’60 Minutes’ Blackout
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