ecopal
02-23-2008, 10:13 AM
McCain Disputed On 1999 Meeting
Broadcaster Recalls Urging FCC Contact
By James V. Grimaldi and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, February 23, 2008; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/22/AR2008022202634_pf.htmlwashingtonpost.com
excerpts:
“Broadcaster Lowell "Bud" Paxson yesterday contradicted statements from Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign that the senator did not meet with Paxson or his lobbyist before sending two controversial letters to the Federal Communications Commission on Paxson's behalf.
Paxson said he talked with McCain in his Washington office several weeks before the Arizona Republican wrote the letters in 1999 to the FCC urging a rapid decision on Paxson's quest to acquire a Pittsburgh television station.
Paxson also recalled that his lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, likely attended the meeting in McCain's office and that Iseman helped arrange the meeting...
The Paxson deal, coming as McCain made his first run for the presidency, has posed a persistent problem for the senator...
The two letters he wrote to the FCC in 1999 while he was chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee produced a rash of criticism and a written rebuke from the then-FCC chairman, who called McCain's intervention "highly unusual."
McCain had repeatedly used Paxson's corporate jet for his campaign and accepted campaign contributions from the broadcaster and his law firm.
...according to Paxson, the issue at hand when he met with McCain in his office in the fall of 1999 was the acquisition of a television station. Paxson had purchased 60 non-network broadcast television stations across the country, most of them UHF stations that were less desirable than the VHF stations typically favored by networks.
In 1998, Paxson launched PaxTV, ...Paxson had no presence in one top-20 market -- Pittsburgh.
...The proposed station swap was highly contentious in Pittsburgh and involved a multi-pronged lobbying effort by the parties to the deal. Local activists and some community leaders had objected to one of their public TV stations being turned over to a religious channel...
On Nov. 17, McCain sent a letter to FCC Chairman William E. Kennard saying, "I write today to express my concern about the Commission's continuing failure to act" on the three-station deal involving Paxson.
McCain had flown on Paxson's corporate jet four times to appear at campaign events and had received $28,000 in campaign donations from Paxson and its law firm.
The second letter came on Dec. 10, a day after the company's jet ferried McCain to a Florida fundraiser aboard a yacht in West Palm Beach, Fla. ...
The second letter was sent to other members of the FCC after McCain had not received a reply from Kennard.
On Dec. 14, Kennard wrote back, warning McCain that he had breached FCC policy.
"Your letter," Kennard wrote, "comes at a sensitive time in the deliberative process as the individual commissioners finalize their views and their votes on this matter. I must respectfully note that it is highly unusual for the commissioners to be asked to publicly announce their voting status on a matter that is still pending."
Another commissioner, Gloria Tristani, who now practices law in Washington, said McCain's interference was offensive. She noted that, in the Paxson matter, the commission was serving as a quasi-judicial body.
"It was just not proper," Tristani said. "It is like going to a court and saying, 'Tell us before it is final how you voted.' "
...Five days after McCain's second letter, the FCC voted 3 to 2 to approve the deal. ...
Research editor Alice Crites contributed to this report.
Broadcaster Recalls Urging FCC Contact
By James V. Grimaldi and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, February 23, 2008; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/22/AR2008022202634_pf.htmlwashingtonpost.com
excerpts:
“Broadcaster Lowell "Bud" Paxson yesterday contradicted statements from Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign that the senator did not meet with Paxson or his lobbyist before sending two controversial letters to the Federal Communications Commission on Paxson's behalf.
Paxson said he talked with McCain in his Washington office several weeks before the Arizona Republican wrote the letters in 1999 to the FCC urging a rapid decision on Paxson's quest to acquire a Pittsburgh television station.
Paxson also recalled that his lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, likely attended the meeting in McCain's office and that Iseman helped arrange the meeting...
The Paxson deal, coming as McCain made his first run for the presidency, has posed a persistent problem for the senator...
The two letters he wrote to the FCC in 1999 while he was chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee produced a rash of criticism and a written rebuke from the then-FCC chairman, who called McCain's intervention "highly unusual."
McCain had repeatedly used Paxson's corporate jet for his campaign and accepted campaign contributions from the broadcaster and his law firm.
...according to Paxson, the issue at hand when he met with McCain in his office in the fall of 1999 was the acquisition of a television station. Paxson had purchased 60 non-network broadcast television stations across the country, most of them UHF stations that were less desirable than the VHF stations typically favored by networks.
In 1998, Paxson launched PaxTV, ...Paxson had no presence in one top-20 market -- Pittsburgh.
...The proposed station swap was highly contentious in Pittsburgh and involved a multi-pronged lobbying effort by the parties to the deal. Local activists and some community leaders had objected to one of their public TV stations being turned over to a religious channel...
On Nov. 17, McCain sent a letter to FCC Chairman William E. Kennard saying, "I write today to express my concern about the Commission's continuing failure to act" on the three-station deal involving Paxson.
McCain had flown on Paxson's corporate jet four times to appear at campaign events and had received $28,000 in campaign donations from Paxson and its law firm.
The second letter came on Dec. 10, a day after the company's jet ferried McCain to a Florida fundraiser aboard a yacht in West Palm Beach, Fla. ...
The second letter was sent to other members of the FCC after McCain had not received a reply from Kennard.
On Dec. 14, Kennard wrote back, warning McCain that he had breached FCC policy.
"Your letter," Kennard wrote, "comes at a sensitive time in the deliberative process as the individual commissioners finalize their views and their votes on this matter. I must respectfully note that it is highly unusual for the commissioners to be asked to publicly announce their voting status on a matter that is still pending."
Another commissioner, Gloria Tristani, who now practices law in Washington, said McCain's interference was offensive. She noted that, in the Paxson matter, the commission was serving as a quasi-judicial body.
"It was just not proper," Tristani said. "It is like going to a court and saying, 'Tell us before it is final how you voted.' "
...Five days after McCain's second letter, the FCC voted 3 to 2 to approve the deal. ...
Research editor Alice Crites contributed to this report.