CBS, Kerry Campaign Hit With FEC Complaint

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.