McCain, the lobbyist, and "Stolen Honor"

Blogland is filled with talk about the alleged affair between John McCain and lobbyist Vicki Iseman. Fewer people are talking about the favors McCain supposedly did for Iseman's clients.

Let's take a look.

In 1999, McCain chaired the Senate commerce committee at a time when the Florida-based Paxson Communications (an Iseman client) tried to acquire a television station in Pittsburgh. The sale was contentious, and FCC approval took much longer than usual.

McCain wrote to the FCC urging them to make a decision. Although he specified in his letter that he was not asking the commission to approve the deal, everyone knew that he favored Paxson.

Some feel that the Arizona senator took an unseemly interest in the Florida company -- which had donated $20,000 to his campaign, and which had allowed McCain use of its corporate jet.

Marcy Wheeler has discovered an interesting aspect of this tale: In 2004, just before the election, Paxson stations broadcast and heavily pushed the notorious anti-Kerry propaganda film Stolen Honor.

You may recall the controversy surrounding that hit piece, hosted by Carlton Sherwood, the flack for Reverend Moon. If you need a refresher, check out this earlier post. One particular line from the film's slime-filled narration sticks in the memory -- and in the craw:

Wait a second, I asked myself, did I hear that right? Was I or my fellow marines being accused of the same atrocities John Kerry had committed?

Kerry, of course, had committed no atrocities whatsoever. (Reactionaries don't mind hurling the "baby killer" epithet at a Vietnam vet, as long as the vet is a Democrat.) Neither did he make any accusations -- although he did hear and discuss accusations made by others at the well-known "Winter Soldier" conference.

The rest of the show continued in that filthy vein. While publicizing the show on Fox, Sherwood falsely accused Kerry of labeling all American POWs as "war criminals."

Advertisers eventually convinced Sinclair broadcasting not to display the entire lie-fest, although Sinclair showed an edited version. Paxson ran Stolen Honor unexpurgated ten times before the election.

Vicki Iseman represented both Sinclair and Paxson.

John McCain refused to condemn the running of this partisan "documentary," even though it clearly violated campaign finance laws.

In a saner era, an outrage of this sort might have led to the loss of a broadcast license. Not only did the "straight talking" McCain refuse to complain to the FCC, he turned a blind eye to Sinclair's attempts to circumvent the law.

You see, a telecommunications company cannot own more than two broadcast stations in the same market. Sinclair used a front company called Glenncairn to skirt this regulation.

Marcy Wheeler takes it from here:

...the better part of the lobbying done in this period was done by Iseman and her colleagues (listed as $80,000 a year)--and done primarily through Congress, without contacting the FCC directly.

And at least according to what other lobbyists have to say about Iseman, her big asset in her lobbying portfolio was her access to John McCain.

Three telecom lobbyists and a former McCain aide, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that Iseman spoke up regularly at meetings of telecom lobbyists in Washington, extolling her connections to McCain and his office. She would regularly volunteer at those meetings to be the point person for the telecom industry in dealing with McCain's office.

It sure makes you wonder how much that access contributed to Sinclair getting off so lightly for using a shell corporation to evade restrictions on media ownership, doesn't it?