GOP Congressman Threatens Local News Station for Covering Debate

[eridani]

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/13825-gop-congressman-threatens-local-news-station-for-covering-debate

US Congressman Richard Hanna (R-NY) was seemingly displeased when he learned that a local television station in his district (the NY 22nd) was planning to air a debate he had refused to attend by allowing his challenger, Democrat Dan Lamb, to debate an empty chair.

So what did Hanna do to rectify the situation? He called up Steve Merren, the vice president and general manager of Nextstar Broadcasting and parent the local affiliate WUTR, and threatened to pull all his campaign's ad dollars from the station.

"He indicated to me that we would not be considered for his ad dollars and our level of cooperation in the future could be affected," wrote Merren an email to other station staff. Inadvertently, however, Merren also sent the email to members of Dan Lamb's campaign.

The email stated: "We are going to have to back out of this taping on Friday and deal with our relationship with Congressman Hanna on our own... However I do not want to offer Dan Lamb a forum to bash Hanna and call him out for an ‘empty chair.’"

It goes on to indicate that the station's decision to pull the debate was made following Merren's discussion with Tim Busch, the Chief Operating Officer of WUTR’s parent company Nexstar Broadcasting Group. Nexstar broadcasting conglomerate based in Irving, Texas and consists of 55 broadcast televisions stations throughout the US.

[iemitsu]

1. i love it when assholes out themselves.

and the republicans are revealing their true nature as they never have before.

[Jim Lane]

2. Thanks! I've added this revealing incident to Hanna's Wikipedia bio.

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