Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
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February 25, 2008
Siegelman

Former democratic Governor Siegelman of Alabama was prosecuted for some bribe issues that never happened and is still in jail.

Yesterday’s 60 minutes report about the case was blacked out in Alabama with a sorry excuse.

It is another example of a corrupted Justice Department and republican politicalization of the judicative and media.

Scott Horton at Harpers has been all over the case for a long time. The questions I have is: Why hasn’t the democratic led Congress acted forcefully on this case yet? Will it ever?

Posted by b on February 25, 2008 at 17:31 UTC | Permalink
Comments

These are private companies acting in their own interests. They are allowed to skewer the information they broadcast to any extent that they want up to (and sometines even including) libel, lies and innuendo.

Posted by: ralphieboy | Feb 25 2008 17:39 utc | 1

They are allowed to skewer the information they broadcast
Not really – they are licenced because they use a public commodity (radio spectrum). The FCC could and should look into the case.
The TV-station also has contracts with CBS and I am sure it has to guarantee “best efforts” to transmit all CBS items. Then there are advertisers who got screwed because this well announced segment didn’t run.
So there were public and private contracts broken here. Let’s see if someone follows up.

Posted by: b | Feb 25 2008 17:49 utc | 2

More on Siegelman here.

Posted by: beq | Feb 25 2008 18:09 utc | 3

Interesting detail:
The current boss at the TV station in question, WHNT-TV, is one Stan Pylant. He gained his position in November 2007. WHNT-TV is owned by Local TV, a private equity holding company. The CEO of Local TV, the guy who brought Stan Pylant into his position was at that time Randy Michaels, the former CEO of Clear Channel Communications, well known for its strict republican leaning.
I am sure that Randy Michaels has impecable republican connections and certainly didn’t put a political inopportune person at the head of one of the stations under his management. Where can I get Michael’s and Pylant’s phone logs?

Posted by: b | Feb 25 2008 18:22 utc | 4

“Appeals Court Ruled That Media Can Legally Lie”
[obligatory Orwell quote goes here]
;p

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 25 2008 18:48 utc | 5

the guy that was convicted with him though – Scrushy – really does belong in jail. he got off on the case where he profited immensely from cooking the books at Healthsouth. claimed his underlings conspired to cook ’em without his knowledge. uh huh. real corrupt douchebag.

Posted by: ran | Feb 25 2008 19:30 utc | 6

if you follow b-‘s links, Local TV is owned by Oak Hill Capital. The Lead Investor is a Bass Brother (robt.), a Texan & Major Bush backer.

Posted by: jj | Feb 25 2008 19:53 utc | 7

Youtube: 60 Minutes ** Don Siegelman part 1

Posted by: Anonymous | Feb 25 2008 21:18 utc | 8

from east to west & from north to south – there is no end to the criminality of the bush cheney junta & all its acolytes – & that fat mephistopholean figure – karl rove – whose only home is hell – have not finished their sorry shenanigans
& in the end we have only touched the tip of the iceberg of their criminality
i would not be surprised in the least if indeed siegleman is a little crooked but in the united states that would include about 98% of all the political & jurisprudential process & that indeed his judicial lynching was politically motivated. of course it was. even the alabama hack curren who is writing a book on the siegleman trial understands that. its been that way all along
this fucking endless burlesque whether it is the stupid fucking doctor frist doing diagnosis over the video, the fuckinf fool foley & his hunger for young flesh, the crude fucking cretin cunningham who wanted to name a boat after his own greed & the whole cast of personnages who appear & dissapear in congressional hearings but we never hear another word
it is clear that even on the most basic issues of peace & justice – even in the motherland – the democrats do not possess the ball to do anything but weep

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 25 2008 22:14 utc | 9

I saw 60 min. powerful, wonder who else they attacked tha way

Posted by: rawdawgbuffalo | Feb 25 2008 23:01 utc | 10

Great find, b, thanks.

Posted by: Argh | Feb 26 2008 0:29 utc | 11

i have been following this for awhile. what i don’t get is why bother to hold congressional investigations if all it takes to stop them is the juntas justice department along w/cheneyco just refusing to hand over the documents. why bother? it’s like a dead end. it is a dead end.

Posted by: annie | Feb 26 2008 3:48 utc | 12

The Democrats in congress are kind of busy with Roger Clemens right now. Once that’s all cleared up, I bet they move like wildfire on this one. After the weapons of mass destruction are found, that is, and they’re done wiping their asses on the constitution. Well in fact, it may be a while.

Posted by: JimT | Feb 26 2008 3:54 utc | 13

What I’m thinking is that this is the case that we know about. How many politicians have been threatened with this kind of treatment with, for example, information gleaned from unlegal wiretaps and other suriveilance? More than one I would bet for sure.
At the root of this is perhaps abuse of plea-bargins, cutting deals with criminals to get convictions — a way of doing things that was introduced in combatting organized crime I think. But, like using torture, cutting corners in the judicial system has blowback.
I read of a recent case where a young mother was sentenced to 10 years based on the false testimony of a pusher cutting a deal — she was released after 18 months when the conviction was overturned — they gave her 70 some dollars and a bus ticket back home, but she has no job and had been evicted from her apartment. Her baby doesn’t remember her. Sorry, I can’t locate the link, but shit like this happens all to often. What is dooubly disgusting here is that the (misAdministration has and is using the DOJ systematically against politicians (if one, then there must be more)

Posted by: Chuck Cliff | Feb 26 2008 11:01 utc | 14

How many politicians have been threatened with this kind of treatment with, for example, information gleaned from unlegal wiretaps and other suriveilance? More than one I would bet for sure.
Prime candidate: Senator Jay Rockefeller, head of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Helps Bush whenever needed.

Posted by: b | Feb 26 2008 11:08 utc | 15

A somewhat colorful and outspoken attorney named Jeffrey Feiger (some may recognize him as the man who defended Dr. Jack Kevorkian)who ran unsuccessfully for governor of Michigan is being prosecuted for illegal campaign donations to John Edwards,a prosecution with strong political overtones.
A court has just ordered him to pull a television commercial in which he compares the Bush Justice Department run wild to Nazi persecution/prosecution of Jews,Gypsies,Catholics,etc.

Posted by: BobS. | Feb 26 2008 15:27 utc | 16

On the Sat CBS news broadcast. NOT Katie Couric and familiar reporters. On Saturday they use the young B-team.
A report on B-2 stealth crash in Guam, and subsequent grounding of the fleet of B-2s, ended with the information that the loss of one B-2 won’t affect any current missions, which can all be covered by other Air Force craft. “But if there are any plans to attack Iran, they will have to wait.”
Doubletake. Then 60 Min on Sunday. Is CBS recovering from the fire after Rather was set up? Will there be retaliation?
When the B-2 story ran again on local news Sunday, the concluding observation was gone.

Posted by: small coke | Feb 26 2008 17:28 utc | 17

Damn, BobS, that’s interesting, got a link or more info on that??

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 26 2008 23:26 utc | 18

you can find a the story at michiganmessenger.com
alluded to in the article is a previous,failed prosecution of a Democratic county official

Posted by: BobS. | Feb 27 2008 0:19 utc | 19

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