WHNT's '60 Minutes' Blackout Raises Questions

By Michael Malone
( Broadcasting & Cable )
published

WHNT Huntsville’s 12-minute blank screen during a segment of 60 Minutes reporting on possible political dirty tricks involving a former Alabama governor has raised some questions, reports the NY Times. 

But station chief executive Stan Pylant insists the blackout was merely an ill-timed signal receiver breakdown. "We know what our license means to us," Pylant told Bill Carter of the Times. "There was no political motives in this." 

The station has made the 60 Minutes segment, about possible skulduggery involving Karl Rove in the conviction of a former Democratic governor, available on its Website and in its local newscasts. 

WHNT is a former New York Times Company station that Oak Hill Capital purchased and Local TV manages.

Michael Malone
Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.