From World Net Daily and The Patiot Update:
CBS affiliate fires 2 over Alaska Phonegate
Producers joked about reporting on appearance of sex offenders at GOP rally
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Posted: November 02, 2010
11:02 pm Eastern
By Aaron Klein
© 2010 WorldNetDaily
Joe Miller
The CBS affiliate in Anchorage, Alaska, today said it fired two producers over a voicemail left by mistake at the campaign of the state's Republican nominee for Senate, Joe Miller, in which the station's employees can be heard plotting to "find" a "child molester" among the politician's supporters.
The CBS employees are also overheard hoping for violence against Miller so they can "send out a tweet" and Facebook alert that "Miller got punched" at a rally he held four days ago.
Jerry Bever, general manager for CBS Anchorage affiliate KTVA, would not name the two producers fired over the incident.
He claimed in a statement: "As we worked through this fact-finding process we noted that actual story assignments for that day had already been decided before the recorded conversation took place. At no time did any of the elements associated with the recorded comments become part of any coverage or broadcast. The recorded conversation in question specifically involved how that evening's Miller rally might be promoted and the ensuing dialogue went down hill from there. These particular comments were not in line with KTVA standards."
The apparent accidental voicemail message was left on the cell phone of Miller's spokesperson, Randy DeSoto.
The Miller campaign had identified assignment editor Nick McDermott, along with other reporters, as leaving the message in which CBS employees were heard openly discussing concocting the two stories about Miller.
Bever, however, said McDermott was not the one heard in the recordings. The affiliate said two other producers were heard in the tape and were subsequently fired.
Bever's statement of today was more apologetic than a statement he put out on behalf of his affiliate right after the scandal broke this past Sunday.
At the time, Bever said Miller's "allegations are untrue" and to allege that KTVA was intending to fabricate stories was "absurd."
"The complete conversation was about what others might be able to do to cause disruption within the Miller campaign, not what KTVA could do," Bever said on Sunday.
Miller's spokesman, DeSoto, had said the voicemail message was later authenticated by McDermott himself, who sent a text to the Miller spokesman stating, "D--- iPhone … I left you a long message. I thought I hung up. Sorry."
"Frankly, when I first heard this I was shocked," said DeSoto. "Though a bit garbled at times, there are disturbing comments in this conversation that never should have occurred."
In the first portion of the discussion, the CBS reporters are heard plotting to get a list of Miller campaign supporters in order to "find" a "child molester."
"You have to find that one person," says the male reporter, apparently McDermott, to laughter in the news room.
The KTVA employeers then discuss creating a "Rand Paul incident" at a Miller rally last Thursday, hoping for violence so that they can "send out a tweet" and "Facebook" that "Miller got punched" at the rally.
Miller's fellow Alaskan Sarah Palin weighed in on the issue in a discussion with Chris Wallace on Fox News:
"We have the tape, Chris, and I can't wait until it busts out all over the nation, that shows what it is that we … kinda what I put up with for two years now from the media … but what Joe Miller is faced with," the former Alaska governor and vice-presidential candidate said.
"I am saying that we have on tape the CBS reporters in the affiliate up there in Alaska saying, 'Let's find a child molester in the crowd as a supporter of Joe Miller. Let's blast that,"' she continued. "'Let's concoct a Rand Paul moment there. Let's find any kind of chaos so we can tweet, 'Ooh, there's chaos. Joe Miller got punched.' That's sick. Those are corrupt bastards, Chris."
A full transcript of the recorded conversation:
FEMALE REPORTER: That's up to you because you're the expert, but that's what I would do. ... I'd wait until you see who showed up because that indicates we already know something. ...
[Laughter]
[Inaudible]
FEMALE REPORTER: Child molesters ...
MALE REPORTER: Oh yeah ... can you repeat Joe Miller's ... uh ... list of people, campaign workers, which one's the molester?
[Inaudible]
FEMALE VOICE: We know that out of all the people that will show up tonight, at least one of them will be a registered sex offender.
[Laughter]
MALE REPORTER: You have to find that one person ...
[Inaudible]
FEMALE REPORTER: And the one thing we can do is ... we won't know ... we won't know but if there is any sort of chaos whatsoever we can put out a Twitter/Facebook alert saying what the ... 'Hey Joe Miller punched at rally.'
FEMALE REPORTER: Kinda like Rand Paul ... I like that.
[Laughter]
FEMALE REPORTER: That's a good one.
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