FOX41 CENSORING ITS NEWS?

As many of you know I posted a story on Steve Henry and Jim King December 22 and alluded to the possibility that FOX41 General Manager Bill Lamb may be censoring access to the Jim King news. You can view it here: Louisville News and Politics: STEVE HENRY AND JIM KING: HAVE WE HAD ENOUGH YET?

In my opinion it seems this may be coming to fruition. Why you may ask would I believe that?

Every online TV news site puts the video of their top story on the website and always has. FOX41 has been no exception to this rule until now. FOX's Bill Alexander did a story on special prosecutor Hart Megibben's decision to ask for a Kentucky State Police investigation into the charges against Jim King.

This is only done when there is clear evidence of criminal wrongdoing. If there were no evidence to support this it would not have been requested as it would be a complete waste of OUR tax money.

Bill Alexander's story was reported as "First on FOX" the top story on their 10 PM newscast of December 21, 2009. The video story appeared on the FOX41 website, www.fox41.com, at approximately 11 pm the same night which is normal. You can view the poor quality edition I posted here: Louisville News and Politics: STEVE HENRY AND JIM KING: HAVE WE HAD ENOUGH YET?

Why such poor quality? The next morning, December 22, the video was mysteriously removed from the website. Interestingly enough a 35 second clip of Karen Sypher walking into the courthouse was not. Can we say huh? This is an unusual occurrence and according to sources the order to remove it was sent from upper management. And the name thrown about as the one who made the order?

General Manager Bill Lamb.

While it is no secret that Lamb is friends with Jim King why would he allow that friendship to jeopardize his integrity and duty to the viewers to report the news and not hide it? If this was Lamb's decision does this mean that FOX41 will now censor anything that is news to manipulate the thoughts of their viewers? Integrity questions regarding Bill Lamb and FOX41 news itself now abound in my mind and dozens of others I have received mail from.

I have no answers to that question only FOX41 General Manager Bill Lamb does.

My first true dealing with Lamb at any level was after he did one of his notorious FOX41 Point of View segments back in 2006 while I was a candidate for Mayor. You can read it here: Election Coverage - A Stacked Deck? (09/26/06) - FOX41.com Louisville News Kentucky Indiana News Weather Sports

I reached out to Lamb to thank him for his fairness and accuracy in this POV. Not because I just happened to be the candidate at the time not getting any exposure but because it brought to light the problems of ANY candidate who didn't come from money or was outside the mainstream who deserved to be accounted for. I even did a POV segment myself.

Since then I have been a fan of FOX41's POV and paid attention to Bill Lamb's segments. While I do not agree with all his stances admittedly in most cases he has shown integrity and presented a reason to discuss the issues.

I decided yesterday to see if perhaps I was being biased, considering it is the King case and I have never claimed to be an unbiased reporter but part of the case itself, and went to post a comment on the FOX41 website about this as well. Of course it too was censored and not shown. It told me my comment was awaiting moderator approval and then disappeared while others who posted after me were online. Lamb cannot now say that they just had not updated the site yet.

To censor the news based on a personal relationship with someone who happens to be the subject of the news is an insult to all viewers. While the naysayers will say I am only writing this because it involves King I disagree. The issue of censorship has been dealt with on this website in regards to other avenues as well. The issue of censorship goes beyond one person and to the heart of integrity itself. Once you choose to go down the path of censorship it denigrates everything we expect from a free press.

The credibility of FOX41 itself is now tainted. If one story is censored because of personal bias then what happens to the next story be that will be censored. It takes FOX41 down a path that destroys credibility of the station and whoever made the decision themselves. Once credibility is gone the ad revenues that pay the bills to stay in business start falling too.

Don't believe it? Check out the mainstream news own Courier Journal's plight.

After being labeled a rag by many people, a name that has stuck because of obvious biased journalism over the years, they now have a bottom line in jeopardy forcing layoffs and lost revenues. When the only product you sell is your reputation and you denigrate that rep then the path to self destruction has begun. If indeed the message is that FOX41 now censors through the acts of management, whether Lamb or someone else, then that rep is damaged.

Bloggers like myself began doing the hard work, and taking the hits associated with it, because mainstream has handcuffed the real reporting we used to expect. We do it because of situations like this that have damaged the reputation in mainstream news. We continue doing it for practically no pay because it is the right thing to do.

We long for the days of a Walter Cronkite or an Edward Murrow who laid out the facts intelligently allowing we the people to dissect the information and react accordingly.

Mainstream news directors, and/or General Managers, have become the problem and that is why the news we depend on daily has started becoming so irrelevant. The likelihood of having a news agency with the likes of a Walter Cronkite or Edward F. Murrow in today's age of self righteous, self promoting people like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck are gone.

Thanks to the apparent decision that FOX41's General Manager Bill Lamb, or one of his employees made, we can expect an even further decline in honest, "fair and balanced" reporting.

By the way, I'm Ed Springston and that's MY point of view.

What is yours.........