60 Minutes got it wrong, again
By Staff
Jerry Fancher
After Dan Rather's botched reporting on President Bush's Air Guard duty, you would expect CBS's 60 Minutes to thoroughly investigate the facts before they air a report. They dropped the ball again when they aired an interview with Dana Jill Simpson this past Sunday. The segment implied that the Republican Party was out to get Don Siegelman at any cost.
Reporter Scott Pelley made several incorrect statements in his online preview piece and on the segment. Following are some of the statements he made with the facts following.
Reporter Pelley stated that William Canary was the "Campaign Manager" for Bob Riley in the 2002 Governor's race and on the segment said that he "ran" the campaign. The 2002 Riley Campaign Director was Mr. Toby Roth.
Reporter Pelley said that Dana Jill Simpson "worked for" the Republican Party and during the segment he called her an "operative." Alabama Republican Chairman Mike Hubbard said, "We can find not one instance of Dana Jill Simpson volunteering or working on behalf of the Alabama Republican Party…"
Reporter Pelley offered no evidence to support his statement that Carl Rove enlisted the services of Dana Jill Simpson to gather "intelligence" as part of a "five year secret campaign to ruin the Governor" (Siegelman). Dana Jill Simpson did not offer any of these claims about Karl rove when she testified before the House Judiciary Committee Staff under sworn testimony. The name "Rove" or "Karl Rove" or "Karl" came up over 30 times during her testimony, but she failed to mention that she had met with Rove or worked for him in the past.
Reporter Pelley states that Don Siegelman was convicted only for the Scrushy "bribery" related parts of his indictments. Don Siegelman was also convicted for his acceptance of bribes in the form of a motorcycle from convicted felon, Larry Young.
When will CBS learn that reporting the truth could possibly bring back some of their lost viewers?
Jerry Fancher is Chairman of the Franklin County Republican Executive Committee. He can be reached via email at fancherjd@yahoo.com
