CBS Alaska Affiliate Anchors Caught On Tape Trying To Sabotage AK Sen Candidate Joe Miller

KTVA-CBS 11's reporters and anchors were caught on tape last night attempted to potentially sabotage Alaska Senatorial Campaign of Joe Miller.  Dan Riehl notes that

Now, note the irony captured below in KTVA's local coverage of yesterday's so called Restoring Sanity rally. Above they are exposed for conspiring to generate yet another negative headline grabbing story in an effort to damage Miller's Senate campaign. Now, in their rally coverage, they quote an activist criticizing both Sarah Palin and Joe Miller for allegedly generating so much of that very kind of news.

In essence, CBS' KTVA is exposed above for generating negative coverage, and now we see them doubling back to highlight an activist's negative reaction to such news - in this case, presumably to also damage Miller's campaign. At this point, CBS affiliate KTVA appears to be engaged in political activism, not journalism. Finally, they hit the talking points they wanted, yet couldn't make their copy coherent. Their editors must have their prioities, I suppose.  [emphasis is mine, ed.]

If Fox News had done something like this it would be national news...But since it's in support of a liberal cause...

UPDATE:  Here's a transcript of the recording left on the Miller campaign staffer's phone: 

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.

The CBS affiliated station (yes, the news network that attempted to smear George Bush with fake memoes in the 2004 presidential campaign.) has released a statement on this where it says that it's being taken out of context...yeah, right.  CBS news taken out of context.  Here's their statement, all emphasis is mine: 

A press release issued Saturday October 30, 2010, by the Joe Miller campaign claims that KTVA personnel, "openly discuss creating, if not fabricating, two stories about Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, Joe Miller." KTVA General Manager Jerry Bever says, "It's unfortunate that this recording has happened. It's unfortunate because it does not accurately reflect the journalistic standards of our newsroom and the garbled context will no doubt leave more questions than answers. The Miller campaign's analysis of the recording is incorrect in many material ways ranging from personnel involved in the conversation, the interpretation of conversation snippets and the reported transcript of the perceived garbled conversation."

"While the recording is real, the allegations are untrue," said Bever. "The recording was the result of a cell phone not being hung up after a call was placed to Randy DeSoto, Joe Miller campaign spokesperson, Thursday afternoon to discuss Joe Miller's appearance on that evening's newscast. That phone call was placed near the end of a coverage planning meeting in our newsroom regarding that evening's Miller rally in downtown Anchorage. The group of KTVA news personnel was reviewing potential "what-if" scenarios, discussing the likelihood of events at the rally and how KTVA might logistically disseminate any breaking news."

Bever continues, "The perception that this garbled, out of context recording may leave is unfortunate, but to allege that our staff was discussing or planning to create or fabricate stories regarding candidate Miller is 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."

While Bever would not discuss any personnel issues linked with the recording, Bever says "Have we had internal discussions about the level of professionalism we need to bring to our conversations, internally and externally? Of course we have, this is a lesson to learn from."

Gee...that clears everything up.  Your staffers plot ways to fabricate stories, yet it's being taken out of context.  Perhaps  the Miller campaign can file a FEC complaint and have all your news stories classified as campaign donations to his opponents...that's what they are. 

H/T Powerlineblog.