More blowback on the "60 Minutes" Rove story

I dropped by Romenesko to see if he had weighed in on the recent issues such as the New York Times' McCain story. Turned out he had news on the "60 Minutes" story about Rove's covert operations team.

A Press-Register editorial blasts the CBS show's "clumsy attempt to portray former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman as the victim of a Karl Rove-led conspiracy" and says "it was perversely fitting that '60 Minutes' fired a wild shot at Mr. Rove just a few days after The New York Times tried to out-tabloid the tabloids with a story suggesting a romantic link between Republican presidential candidate John McCain and an attractive blonde lobbyist."
(Romenesko)

Here's the conclusion of the editorial. Click the link at the end to read the whole thing.

Mr. Siegelman will not be exonerated by a politicized campaign in the press to convict Karl Rove of pulling the strings of dozens of puppets, including career prosecutors and other court officials. This sort of conspiracy-mongering hurts the reputation of journalists much more than it hurts Mr. Rove or helps former Gov. Siegelman.
(Mobile Press-Register)

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Karl Rove in the news

I've been slow to take interest in the "60 Minutes" story suggesting that Karl Rove performed some sort of sting operation on the former Demcratic governor of Alabama. It seemed as though it would take quite a bit for me to get up to speed on the issue.

Thanks to Power Line, however, I'm now aware of some distinct controversies about the television segment courtesy of an Alambama news reporter.

Eddie Curran works for the Mobile Press Register and has a book on Gov. Siegelman in the works. Curran wrote an (apparently open) letter to "60 Minutes."

Subject: Substantial factual errors regarding the “vivid story” and virtually every other major assertion made in Sunday’s piece on Don Siegelman, as well as questions regarding journalistic integrity and work ethic by 60 Minutes staff in the preparation and presentation of the piece.

From: Eddie Curran

Attn: Jeff Fager, Joel Bach, David Gelber, Scott Pelley, Rich Kaplan
Producers, host, management, of 60 Minutes

Dear Sirs,

I am, as at least David knows, a reporter with the Mobile Press Register. I did the stories that prompted an investigation of former Gov. Don Siegelman and his administration. I am on sabbatical from the paper, working on a book about the administration, the trial, and the aftermath, including the 60 Minutes show, and am no longer covering the matter for the paper.

I will be writing about the program, both in my book and, likely, in articles that I hope to publish prior to publication. I also intend to disseminate this letter because, frankly, I doubt it will ever reach you otherwise. I would like here to ask some questions, and point out some errors. I will begin with statements by Doug Jones.
(Read the rest at Flashpoint)

Given the disparity between Curran's observations and the allegations in the "60 Minutes" program, this story should keep simmer along quite nicely for a good while.

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