"I love it when a plan comes together!"
Doesn't really matter. We're getting a twofer here. Rather's going down and Kerry's boat is listing and taking on water fast. Look for the rats to begin deserting the sinking ship soon. Isn't it great when a plan (Hillary's) comes together?
Isn't Ben Barnes a top official within the Kerry campaign?
And why didn't CBS mention this?
Colin Powell's son is head of the FCC. It has a majority of Republican members. They do indeed have great reluctance to supervise editorial content. But this is a blatant attempt to take down a president in a presidential election with forged documents. That has nothing to do with Freedom to report the news. The government has no right to tell us how to spend our money. It has every right to punish us for spending counterfit money. Rather circulated counterfit news.
Stations are licensed to seve in the public interest, convienence, and necessity. There is no public interest in trying to use fraudulent documents in order to throw an election.
The annoucement by the ever so liberal Viacom President that he is going to vote for Bush shows just how high up the food chain this is going to go. It is an attempt to say.. I can't be accused of trying to defeat Bush.. I am a Bush supporter. It was the ultimate Viacom CYA.
The FCC is getting lots of complaints. Will they ignore them? Or will they hold hearings?
I would not be surprised to have Michael Powell announce hearings(AFTER THE ELECTION) to see if rule making is warrented. He could call in all the Media people and hit them under oath about this and other similar attempts. He could have an investigation of the facts made before hearings are held.
The Broadcast Media could be made to justify other suspecious stories. They could be foreced to testify before the FCC in closed hearings. And if guilty the hearings could become public.
The Supreme court in the Red Lion VS FCC case held that failure to have a broadcast confrom to the public interest was valid grounds for license revocation.
CBS is acting as if that will not happen. If they did think it would happen they would be belly up right now.
But if Powell and the FCC board are planning to go after the media, it is best to give the media enough rope to hang themselves.
It was to the Bush adminstration's advantage to not try to prove to CBS that the fake documents were fake. So they did not.
It is not to the FCC's advantage to warn CBS of the consequences of illegal activity. It is unlikley that the FCC wants to give CBS a way to get off the hook. It is likely that the FCC like most cops wants to give CBS all the rope they need to hang themselves.
This ain't over by a long shot. And after the eleciton CBS and the MSM can't say that Powell is just trying to re-elect George Bush.
The FCC has the power to cost Viacom a billion dollars in station licenses and to cost it billions more in advertising revenue.
CBS and its management is skating on very thin ice.
I sure hope you're right, Jim. I am confident, but this thing is so bizarre, I'm anxious about what may come next.