The revolution will not be televised: Alabama station blacks out 60 Minutes

We Americans like to think of ourselves as a progressive lot. We pat ourselves on the back for free speech, even though 20% of high school students do not believe it’s a big deal, and like to think of ourselves as the land of the free.

We who live in the so-called Blue States also like to believe ourselves superior to those hicks from the sticks in the Bible Belt, those inbred Red State types. They ignore all evidence, we say, and just run with their eagerly embraced ignorance.

Wrong on both counts, lads.

A controversy has been brewing on the Web since a “60 Minutes” segment failed to appear on a CBS affiliated TV station in Alabama last night. The report covered a bitter flashpoint between Democrats and the Bush administration: the case of Don Siegelman, a former Democratic governor of Alabama who was jailed for corruption last June.

So hot was the anticipation of the segment in left-leaning circles that one political site published an article, “Bama TIVOs at the ready for ‘60 Minutes’.” But many Alabamans did not see initial broadcast of the report, which included new allegations that Karl Rove, President Bush’s former top adviser, waged a campaign against Mr. Siegelman.

Instead, just before the segment was to start, people in the northern part of the state who were tuned in to WHNT-TV, Channel 19 in Huntsville, found this on their screen instead:

We apologize that you missed the first segment of 60 Minutes tonight featuring ‘The Prosecution of Don Siegelman.’ It was a technical problem with CBS out of New York.

LINK: Media Blackout Update: Pakistan and Alabama?

Except, when reached for comment, CBS said there was no difficulty. It was a transmissions problem on Channel 19’s end, probably due to an editorial decision.

What?

“There is no delicate way to put this: the WHNT claim is not true. There were no transmission difficulties. The problems were peculiar to Channel 19, which had the signal and had functioning transmitters.” I was told that the decision to blacken screens across Northern Alabama “could only have been an editorial call.”

Of course, then Channel 19 back-peddled faster than the President trying to reverse a bicycle. It was the receiver in Alabama that caused the problem. It was absolutely, positively not an editorial decision.

But the assurance alone seemed unlikely to appease all of his viewers. According to Mr. Pylant, the problem was fixed quickly, resulting in only 12 minutes of down time. But that mostly covered the controversial segment, which lasted about 13 minutes. (”Strange coincidence,” one viewer called it.)

Afterward, the station took measures to counteract any appearance of censorship, while also presumably bringing in some nice ratings for its own local programming. The missed segment was broadcast on the local newscast later on Sunday evening, and posted on its Web site. (Hmm.)

I wonder how much else in Alabama and our neighboring Red States ends up down the Memory Hole? At least Pakistan, Iran, China, and other censorship-embracing countries are upfront about their tactical measures to keep bad press from the eyes and ears of the viewing public.

I can’t help but wonder if maybe election coverage in some areas isn’t dissimilar to the time Diamond Joe Quimby ran against Sideshow Bob on the Simpsons, complete with computer-added flames and devil horns over the Democratic candidate? Maybe news about such liberal concerns as the never-ending war in Iraq or extraordinary rendition is spun harder and faster than a certain President’s door on nickel-beer night (to steal a joke from SNL.) Perhaps they haven’t seen any news media but those of happy Iraqi children dancing on Saddam Hussein’s grave and refugees returning home since George Bush declared mission accomplished. Maybe all the news about Iraq not being tied to Al Qaeda and there being no WMDs in the country were not broadcast to the Bible Belt due to technical difficulties. Maybe extraordinary rendition is still a complement that Simon Cowell gives to American Dreamz Idol hopefuls and completely lacks any sinister connotations due to network problems.

Maybe the reason the Southern Democrats have disappeared is because the media has as well. Maybe they hate the liberal media so much because the liberal media too often is just a dark black screen of technical difficulties.

Maybe, in the South, the revolution will not be televised.