KTVA: Are you going to believe us or your lying ears?

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KTVA has now confirmed that the voice mail recording left on a Joe Miller campaign phone did indeed come from one of their reporters and did include part of a conversation strategizing their coverage, but station management incredibly denies that the CBS affiliate's reporters wanted to slant their coverage of the race for the US Senate in Alaska. Calling the allegations "untrue" and "absurd," KTVA general manager Jerry Bever says that they were merely "preparing for any eventuality." The full KTVA statement is here.

At Hot Air, Ed Morrissey comments:

KTVA’s explanation is absurd. What possible context can they put around the suggestion that they start looking for child molesters at a political rally in order to exploit that for their television coverage? That’s a “potential what-if scenario”? Is this a suggestion that came up in strategy sessions when discussing a McAdams campaign rally?

The only absolution KTVA could have possibly had was showing that this conversation didn’t take place among their staff, but was left on the voicemail by some other people or organization. Even if KTVA approached coverage of every political event in this manner, it would be an embarrassment. In this case, it shows a strong bias against Miller and gives a window into the editorial direction at KTVA.

Basically, KTVA management is asking, "Are you going to believe us or your lying ears?" Wait a minute... didn't CBS already use the "fake but accurate" excuse?

- JP