TV Station Responds to 'Phonegate' Controversy

KTVA Channel 11 (Anchorage, Alaska) issued a statement Sunday in response to a controversy swirling around a message left on Senate candidate Joe Miller's spokesman's phone Thursday. The Alaska news station claims Miller's charges of journalistic impropriety are bogus, though the garbled message makes it hard to determine what exactly happened, reports Amanda Coyne at alaskadispatch.com.

The KTVA journalist who made the call, believed to be assignment editor Nick McDermott, thought he'd hung up the phone after leaving a voice mail on Miller flack Randy DeSoto's phone. But the phone continued to record the conversation that was apparently taking place during a story meeting in preparation for a Miller rally Thursday in Anchorage, featuring former Gov. Sarah Palin.

Coyne writes a transcript of the reporter's conversation, along with the audio, was released by the Miller campaign on Saturday night. Much of the conversation is inaudible, but at one point, one of the reporters seemed to be talking about finding a "molester" among Miller's "people" or "campaign workers."

"We know that out of all the people showing up tonight, at least one of them will be a registered sex offender," one of KTVA's staff members is heard saying.

They then discussed tweeting if a "Rand Paul" moment happened at the rally.

On Fox News Sunday, Palin called the tape evidence that the station's journalists are "corrupt bastards" conspiring to fabricate news about Miller.

In a statement Sunday morning, KTVA General Manager Jerry Bever said: "It's unfortunate that this recording has happened." Although he does not dispute the veracity of the conversation, he said Miller's "allegations are untrue" and to allege that KTVA was intending to fabricate stories was "absurd."

Read more here.

Also read here:

Breitbart sounds off on Miller tape critics (The Daily Caller)