FCC Member Wants Probe of Ala. TV Station

'60 Minutes' went black as piece linking Rove to ex-gov's case began

By Matt Cantor

Posted Mar 4, 2008 4:10 PM CST

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FCC Member Wants Probe of Ala. TV Station — Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Kevin J. Martin, left, looks on as commissioner Michael J. Copps, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington in this Feb. 1, 2007 file photo. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File) (Associated Press)

An FCC commissioner wants to know why an Alabama TV station went off the air just as a "60 Minutes" segment critical of Karl Rove started, Broadcasting & Cable reports. WHNT blamed a “technical difficulty," but Michael Copps said today he wants to find out whether Sunday's blackout of most of a segment about the imprisonment of ex-governor Don Siegelman was a political move.

Copps, a Democrat, asked the commission chairman to open a formal inquiry into Sunday's outage; Kevin Martin, a Republican, says he'll investigate. The station president said, “There was no intent whatsoever to keep anyone from seeing the broadcast,” which aired again several times, the New York Times noted in an editorial that inspired Copps.

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