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.
Mazzella explained, "If there had been no coordination, there would have been no attack story. CBS would not have been able to use the documents it so desperately needed for its assault on President Bush if one of its producers hadn't coordinated with the Kerry campaign."
He continued, "Mr. Lockhart's conversations with CBS and Mr. Burkett raise additional questions that must also be answered."
Two days after CBS aired the segment attacking President Bush, the Democratic National Committee released a video entitled "Fortunate Son" which makes many of the same arguments as the CBS story, and even uses footage from the segment.
Under the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, media organizations are exempt from provisions barring corporations from engaging in "electioneering communications" within 60 days of a general election. But the Center argued that CBS forfeited its exemption by illegally coordinating a partisan attack on the president only 55 days before an election.
Mazzella said, "Under normal circumstances, the media exemption is in place because it presumes that the press is impartial, and that the public relies on impartial reporting of the ideas and actions of the candidates."
The CFIF director pointed out, "However, this is no normal circumstance. CBS threw its impartiality out the door, ignored basic journalistic standards and coordinated with the Kerry campaign, all in an effort to run a bogus story in an attempt to affect the outcome of a federal election."
He concluded, "Our complaint argues that CBS forfeited its exemption when it chose to become an arm of the Kerry campaign."
Talon News was first to report that on Wednesday, Anthony Bongiorno, counsel for the beleaguered network ordered a legal hold on all tapes and material relating to the report. A source reported that the hold was in anticipation of various lawsuits and investigations. On the same day, CBS announced an independent commission comprised of Dick Thornburgh, former governor of Pennsylvania and Attorney General under Presidents Reagan and Bush 41 and also Louis D. Boccardi, retired president and chief executive officer of the Associated Press.
Deserves a Bump!
g
and another BUMP!!!!
bump bump
I wished this actually would work. Lord only knows its true and I feel helpless about it.
What a breath of fresh air to see that in official print.
I'm puzzled by the disappearing Sandburglar, too. Maybe this dog will bite.
Hold your cards ladies and gentlemen, we have a bingo.
Don't worry -- the Sandy Burglar story will return.
It seems like this story is fading from the news. Even Rush and Sean don't talk about it much any more.
And I pray they throw the book at him. HARD!
When you think about it, a couple of unimportant ex-CIA guys loosely connected to some of Nixon's campaign advisers broke in to an office and stole some information about McGovern's campaign at a point when Nixon's victory was already assured. And what happened, it was on the cover of the Washington Post every single day until Nixon resigned two years later. And what was Nixon's offense, he found out after the fact that some members of his staff knew this was going to happen and he chose to keep it a secret, nothing else, that's Watergate in a nutshell.
Compare that to a former National Security Advisor stealing highly classified material from the National Archives! And what happens, it's in the news for a few days and then it goes away.
Woo hoo. Now if they remove Blather as moderator of the debate because he is not "beyond reproach."
Just imagine how different this would have all played out.
But now we're seeing the Bush DOJ do nothing but sit on their hands? Just what about TOP SECRET and illegal do they not understand at the DOJ?
It's high time to crash the democrats party and go in for the kill.
I was looking through my local newspaper's weekly TV schedule and noticed that CBS is not broadcasting the debate on Thursday night. This could be a misprint, but I have to wonder. My local talk radio station just removed CBS as their national news source after over 30 years and replaced them with ABC.
Bump!
The FEC will act on this about eight months from now, if ever.
My local talk radio station just removed CBS as their national news source after over 30 years and replaced them with ABC.
May this be the beginning of a domino effect...
It's obvious Rather was using CBS to promote his political beliefs and to hurt GWB.
The Kerry campaign should have to pay for time on the evening news--much of it is better for Kerry than their ads.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.