Posted on 09/27/2004 5:47:35 PM PDT by wagglebee
WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- The Center for Individual Freedom, a Virginia-based, constitutional advocacy group filed a complaint last week with the Federal Election Commission charging that CBS and Kerry-Edwards 2004, Inc. illegally coordinated election communications. The complaint charges that CBS and the Kerry campaign violated federal campaign finance laws when they colluded to attack President George W. Bush based on claims and documents now believed to be fake.
Jeffrey Mazzella, the Center's Executive Director, said in a press release, "It's obvious that CBS and the Kerry campaign acted improperly. That much is clear to anyone with a pulse."
Mazzella added, "But what's been lost is that CBS and its executives blatantly violated federal election laws when they overtly ignored basic journalistic ethical standards and coordinated with the Kerry campaign in order to run an attack story in an effort to affect the outcome of the November presidential election. Our complaint makes this very clear."
The complaint focuses on a September 8 segment on the CBS program "60 Minutes II." In the segment, CBS correspondent Dan Rather suggested that President Bush received preferential treatment to gain acceptance into the Texas Air National Guard and failed to fulfill his service obligation. CBS's charges relied on a number of documents that it later admitted were not reliable.
CBS's source, Bill Burkett, required that CBS arrange for a conversation between him and a senior advisor of the Kerry campaign as a condition for handing over the documents. On September 4, just four days before the segment aired, CBS producer Mary Mapes spoke with Joe Lockhart, a former Clinton press secretary and Kerry advisor.
Lockhart admitted that during the conversation he and Mapes discussed the upcoming segment attacking President Bush. Lockhart also admits that he later spoke with Burkett at CBS's urging.....
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1228692/posts?page=2
Does this mean that someone could go to jail in the DNC and at CBS?