FCC investigates '60 Minutes' blackout

FCC, duuuuuh, FCC! (That's an inside joke!)

When WHNT-TV in Huntsville, Alabama, showed a blank screen instead of the '60 Minutes' report on the political motivations behind the probe of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, one thing was perfectly clear: The blackout was intentional, as the station is owned by a Bush crony. The station came up with several different excuses for the loss of '60 Minutes', but CBS says these excuses are nothing but bunk gas.

Now the FCC is investigating WHNT for the incident.

However, one thing is almost as clear as the fact that the blackout was deliberate: The FCC probably isn't going to punish WHNT. Years ago, WHNT probably would have lost its license (in the same manner a Mississippi station did when it shut off network coverage of the civil rights movement). But not now. Today's FCC is the FCC that raids 1-watt pirate stations that don't hurt anyone, but lets Donald Wildmon clutter the dial with repeaters of his right-wing propaganda station (and knock other stations off the air in the process).

WHNT has 30 days to respond to the FCC's letter launching the probe of the station. The blackout created such bad publicity for the station that it wound up showing the segment at a later time. So that really backfired, didn't it?

(Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-fcc-60-minutes-blackout,0,7208242.story)