Lack, Waxman review `baseless rumor'
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) on Thursday gave NBC President/COO Andrew Lack a
Sept. 4 deadline to come up with internal videotapes of NBC's election night
operations.
'I am seeking these tapes so that I can definitely verify or refute
allegations others have made that John Welch, the Chairman and CEO of General
Electric, interfered with NBC's 2000 election results,' Waxman wrote.
He also told Lack that if he doesn't get the tapes by that date, 'I will be
required to seek other means of compelling [their] production.'
Waxman was responding to a July 31 letter from Lack, in which Lack for the
third time told Waxman that Welch did not force NBC News executives to call the
presidential election for then-Texas Governor George W. Bush.
Lack so far has refused to offer Waxman any evidence at all of Welch's
involvement, saying it is an 'unfounded rumor.'
Lack also says 'there is simply no basis for a news organization to turn over
its internal materials, especially when the grounds for the request is a
baseless `rumor' that is dead wrong.'
