This story out of Alaska needs to be disseminated far and wide. The CBS affiliate KTVA in Anchorage Alaska is actually in the tank for, probably, Lisa Murkowski (since everyone is pretty well secure in the knowledge that Democrat Scott MacAdams doesn't really have a realistic chance of victory) in her Senate race against Republican candidate and Tea-Party favorite Joe Miller. In the following video, some reporters are actually caught on voice-mail discussing ways in which they can help defeat Miller's campaign by manipulating news events, if not outright manufacturing them.
One thing they discuss is what they feel is the certain prospect of finding at least one person at an up-coming Miller rally who is a registered sex offender. They just need to find that one guy. Another thing they talk about is how, if something happens similar to what happened at the Rand Paul-Jack Conway debate in Louisville, they can use that against Miller.
One of them, a female reporter, cautions against releasing any negative news too fast, in order to keep it from looking as though they knew something was going to happen ahead of time. From this, it seemed to me as though they have or had some knowledge of something somebody might be planning to do at the rally-perhaps another Republicorps type fiasco. Only in this case, it sounds like they are planning to actually involve Miller in an actual physical altercation, or are hoping he can be maneuvered into such an episode.
They also discuss getting the story out through Twitter and other social networking means. Here's a recording of the call posted on YouTube-
I think the female reporter might have misspoke. I think she might have meant to suggest that Joe Miller might be manipulated into punching a protester, not that he would himself be "punched", as it seems to me the latter might tend to lend him sympathy.
Whatever she meant, its clear from hearing the audio and reading the transcript, these reporters certainly weren't trying to help Joe Miller, they were hoping to damage him.
Yet, these are reporters, for a CBS affiliate station, people who are supposed to strive for fairness and accuracy in their reportage, for balance, whatever their private personal preferences. They weren't planning an opinion piece for an editorial. They were actually trying to manipulate the news, if not outright planning to create news out of whole cloth.
These are public airwaves we are talking about, and there needs to be an investigation. If this turns out to be a systemic problem with KTVA, and I have no doubt that it is, they need to have their license revoked, and possibly even face the prospect of heavy fines.
Does anybody seriously wonder why conservatives hate the main stream media?
