Busted. Via Big Government:

“The following voice mail message was inadvertently left on the cell phone of Joe Miller campaign spokesperson Randy DeSoto.

The voices are believed to be those of the news director for CBS Anchorage affiliate KTVA, along with assignment editor Nick McDermott, and other reporters, openly discussing creating, if not fabricating, two stories about Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, Joe Miller.

The following is a transcript of a call recorded after CBS Alaska affiliate KTVA called Joe Miller’s Senate campaign spokesperson.

The call failed to disconnect properly. It was later authenticated by McDermott, who sent a text to Randy DeSoto stating, “Damn iPhone… I left you a long message. I thought I hung up. Sorry.”

The Alaska attorney general should be asked to look into KTVA for election tampering at the least. There is no doubt that the law was broken, and should call into question every story KTVA has published about Miller, Palin or any other conservative candidate.

Contact the News Department:

1007 West 32nd Avenue
Anchorage, Alaska 99503
Phone: 907-273-3186
Fax: 907-273-3188
E-mail: [email protected]

Vice President & General Manager: Jerry Bever, email [email protected]

Additionally Nick McDermott is the assignment editor, so the question to ask is will he be asked to step down or be fired as clearly this is a violation of journalistic standards.

When you call ask to speak with News Director: Staci Feger. Her email is [email protected]

UPDATE: Greg Sargeant, the WAPO’s chief muckracker tries a defense with a deceptive headline, “Alaska station says Breitbart Web site audio attack is bogus”. Which isn’t what they said.

“It’s unfortunate that this recording has happened. It’s unfortunate because it does not accurately reflect the journalistic standards of our newsroom and the garbled context will no doubt leave more questions than answers. The Miller campaign’s analysis of the recording is incorrect in many material ways ranging from personnel involved in the conversation, the interpretation of conversation snippets and the reported transcript of the perceived garbled conversation.

“While the recording is real, the allegations are untrue. The recording was the result of a cell phone not being hung up after a call was placed to Randy DeSoto, Joe Miller campaign spokesperson, Thursday afternoon to discuss Joe Miller’s appearance on that evening’s newscast. That phone call was placed near the end of a coverage planning meeting in our newsroom regarding that evening’s Miller rally in downtown Anchorage. The group of KTVA news personnel was reviewing potential “what-if” scenarios, discussing the likelihood of events at the rally and how KTVA might logistically disseminate any breaking news.

“The perception that this garbled, out of context recording may leave is unfortunate, but to allege that our staff was discussing or planning to create or fabricate stories regarding candidate Miller is absurd. The complete conversation was about what others might be able to do to cause disruption within the Miller campaign, not what KTVA could do.”

Sargent should have left this alone, but it’s typical of his usual idiocy. It’s pretty clear by the audio what was meant, we don’t need KTVA ( a C-BS affiliate no less) trying to explain it away.

UPDATE: Check out the comments on KTVA’s explanation. To sum up, nobody’s buying it. I’ve contacted CBS News to get their take on this to see if they will take action or try to explain it away. Given the flap they got over Rathergate you would think they would do better than to make excuses and denials. I’ll let you know when they respond.

By the way I’m working on getting the female reporter on the tape identified.

UPDATE: Obama mouthpiece, Ben Smith at the Obama Apologetic (aka The Politico), plays the same game as Sergeant and invokes *snort* Media Matters. Dude are you seriously defending this?

Big Government provides the appropriate smack down of the lame excuses.

UPDATE: Via an anonymous tipster who works at KTVA, by email.

“Just want you to know that not all of us here have forgot our journalist creed. The female reporter on the recording is Natalie Travis.”

So meet the female reporter in question.

Joe Miller Sarah Palin KTVA