CBS, Kerry Campaign Hit With FEC Complaint

CBS, Kerry Campaign Hit With FEC Complaint
By Jeff Gannon
Talon News
September 27, 2004

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- The Center for Individual
Freedom, a Virginia-based, constitutional advocacy
group filed a complaint last week with the Federal
Election Commission charging that CBS and
Kerry-Edwards 2004, Inc. illegally coordinated
election communications. The complaint charges that
CBS and the Kerry campaign violated federal campaign
finance laws when they colluded to attack President
George W. Bush based on claims and documents now
believed to be fake.

Jeffrey Mazzella, the Center's Executive Director,
said in a press release, "It's obvious that CBS and
the Kerry campaign acted improperly. That much is
clear to anyone with a pulse."

Mazzella added, "But what's been lost is that CBS and
its executives blatantly violated federal election
laws when they overtly ignored basic journalistic
ethical standards and coordinated with the Kerry
campaign in order to run an attack story in an effort
to affect the outcome of the November presidential
election. Our complaint makes this very clear."

The complaint focuses on a September 8 segment on the
CBS program "60 Minutes II." In the segment, CBS
correspondent Dan Rather suggested that President Bush
received preferential treatment to gain acceptance
into the Texas Air National Guard and failed to
fulfill his service obligation. CBS's charges relied
on a number of documents that it later admitted were
not reliable.

CBS's source, Bill Burkett, required that CBS arrange
for a conversation between him and a senior advisor of
the Kerry campaign as a condition for handing over the
documents. On September 4, just four days before the
segment aired, CBS producer Mary Mapes spoke with Joe
Lockhart, a former Clinton press secretary and Kerry
advisor.

Lockhart admitted that during the conversation he and
Mapes discussed the upcoming segment attacking
President Bush. Lockhart also admits that he later
spoke with Burkett at CBS's urging.

Mazzella explained, "If there had been no
coordination, there would have been no attack story.
CBS would not have been able to use the documents it
so desperately needed for its assault on President
Bush if one of its producers hadn't coordinated with
the Kerry campaign."

He continued, "Mr. Lockhart's conversations with CBS
and Mr. Burkett raise additional questions that must
also be answered."

Two days after CBS aired the segment attacking
President Bush, the Democratic National Committee
released a video entitled "Fortunate Son" which makes
many of the same arguments as the CBS story, and even
uses footage from the segment.

Under the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, media
organizations are exempt from provisions barring
corporations from engaging in "electioneering
communications" within 60 days of a general election.
But the Center argued that CBS forfeited its exemption
by illegally coordinating a partisan attack on the
president only 55 days before an election.

Mazzella said, "Under normal circumstances, the media
exemption is in place because it presumes that the
press is impartial, and that the public relies on
impartial reporting of the ideas and actions of the
candidates."

The CFIF director pointed out, "However, this is no
normal circumstance. CBS threw its impartiality out
the door, ignored basic journalistic standards and
coordinated with the Kerry campaign, all in an effort
to run a bogus story in an attempt to affect the
outcome of a federal election."

He concluded, "Our complaint argues that CBS forfeited
its exemption when it chose to become an arm of the
Kerry campaign."

Talon News was first to report that on Wednesday,
Anthony Bongiorno, counsel for the beleaguered network
ordered a legal hold on all tapes and material
relating to the report. A source reported that the
hold was in anticipation of various lawsuits and
investigations. On the same day, CBS announced an
independent commission comprised of Dick Thornburgh,
former governor of Pennsylvania and Attorney General
under Presidents Reagan and Bush 41 and also Louis D.
Boccardi, retired president and chief executive
officer of the Associated Press.

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