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The
Washington
Post
Paxson Contradicts
McCain Campaign on Meetings
Broadcaster Says He
Met with Senator
Several Weeks Before
Letters to FCC Were Sent
By James V. Grimaldi
and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum, From the Web, February 22, 2008
Broadcaster Lowell "Bud" Paxson today
contradicted statements from Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign that the
senator did not meet with Paxson or his lobbyist before sending two
controversial letters to the Federal Communications Commission on Paxson's
behalf.
Paxson said he talked with McCain in his Washington office several weeks before
the Arizona Republican wrote the letters to the FCC urging a rapid decision on
Paxson's quest to acquire a Pittsburgh television station.
Paxson also recalled that his lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, attended the meeting in
McCain's office and that Iseman helped arrange the meeting. "Was Vicki
there? Probably," Paxson said in an interview with The Washington Post
today. "The woman was a professional. She was good. She could
get us meetings."
The recollection of the now-retired Paxson conflicted with the account provided
by McCain about two letters at the center of a controversy about the senator's
ties to Iseman, a partner at the lobbying firm of Alcalde & Fay.
A statement issued by the McCain campaign yesterday said that the senator had
not met with Paxson or Iseman on the matter. "No representative of Paxson
or Alcalde and Fay personally asked Senator McCain to send a letter to the FCC
regarding this proceeding," the statement said.
McCain attorney Robert Bennett played down the contradiction between the
campaign's written answer and Paxson's recollection.
"We understood that he [McCain] did not speak directly with him [Paxson].
Now it appears he did speak to him. What is the difference?" Bennett said.
"McCain has never denied that Paxson asked for assistance from his office.
It doesn't seem relevant whether the request got to him through Paxson or the
staff. His letters to the FCC concerning the matter urged the commission
to make up its mind. He did not ask the FCC to approve or deny the
application. It's not that big a deal."
Since McCain's first run for the presidency, his intervention in the Paxson deal
has been controversial. He wrote the two letters to the FCC in 1999 when
he was chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, a move the then-FCC chairman
called "highly unusual." At the time, McCain had repeatedly used Paxson's
corporate jet for his campaign.
McCain himself in a deposition in 2002 acknowledged talking to Paxson about the
Pittsburgh sale. Asked what Paxson said in the conversation, McCain said
that Paxson "had applied to purchase this station and that he wanted to purchase
it. And that there had been numerous year delay with the FCC reaching a
decision. And he wanted their approval very bad for purposes of his
business."
The deposition was taken in litigation over the McCain-Feingold campaign finance
law filed by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
"I said I would be glad to write a letter asking them to act," McCain testified,
recounting the conversation with Paxson. "But I cannot write a letter
asking them to approve or deny, because then that would be an interference in
their activities."
Iseman's connections to McCain have come into question after a longtime
associate of McCain's said that he had asked Iseman to distance herself from
McCain and his 2000 presidential campaign to protect McCain's reputation for
independence from special interests.
McCain acknowledged during a news conference yesterday that Iseman was a friend,
but he denied doing anything improper for her or her telecommunications clients.
Paxson defended Iseman as a complete professional and said she was at her best
when she worked on the Pittsburgh deal. He said they turned to McCain
often when they ran into interference at the FCC, but Paxson added that McCain
did not always agree with him. In three other major issues, Paxson said,
McCain took the opposing viewpoint.
Paxson saw no particular significance in the meeting with McCain prior to his
penning the FCC letters. "Vicki Iseman, probably between myself and [Paxson
Communications President] Dean Goodman at that time, took us in to see a
thousand senators and congressmen," Paxson said. "She was our lobbyist.
She was there and helped."
Statements from McCain's office said Iseman met only with staff and indicated
that a staff member was involved in drafting and sending the letter. The
Thursday statement went to lengths to say why McCain could not have met with
Paxson.
"Senator McCain was actively engaged in a presidential campaign in 1999-2000,
and according to his calendar, the last day he conducted business in the Senate
was November 8, 1999, and was frequently absent from the Senate prior to that
date," the statement said.
"He returned to the Senate the night of November 19, 1999, for one hour to
participate in a budget vote, and the Senate adjourned shortly thereafter on
November 22, 1999. Between November 22, 1999 and Christmas, the Senator
did not return to the Senate for any substantive meetings as he was involved in
a national book tour and a presidential campaign."
The issue at hand when Paxson met with McCain in his office in the fall of 1999
was the acquisition of a television station. Paxson had launched a venture
by purchasing 60 non-network broadcast television stations across the country,
most of them UHF stations that were less desirable than the VHF stations
typically favored by networks.
In 1998, Paxson launched a network he dubbed PaxTV, which featured reruns of
"Touched by an Angel" and other family-friendly fare. There was a small
hole he wanted to fill in his national network: Paxson had no presence in
one top-20 market -- Pittsburgh.
The transaction called for the Christian broadcaster Cornerstone TeleVision of
Wall to take over the noncommercial license of WQEX, the sister station to
public broadcaster WQED. Cornerstone would then sell its commercial
license to Paxson for $35 million. The money then would be split between
Cornerstone and WQED, which was operating in the red.
The proposed station swap was highly contentious in Pittsburgh and involved a
multipronged lobbying effort by the parties to the deal. The public
opposition caused a long delay at the FCC, and by late 1999, it had been 30
months since the deal was offered for FCC approval. "What you had was the
FCC normally taking a year to approve the transfer of stations, but they took
two years," Paxson said.
McCain's letters were considered an anomaly for a senator who has become an
advocate of ethical boundaries.
McCain wrote the letters in late 1999 urging a vote on the sale to Paxson of the
Pittsburgh station. On Nov. 17, McCain sent a letter to FCC Chairman
William Kennard saying, "I write today to express my concern about the
Commission's continuing failure to act" on the three-station deal involving
Paxson.
At the time, McCain had flown on Paxson's corporate jet four times to appear at
campaign events and had received $20,000 in campaign donations from Paxson
Communications and its law firm.
The second letter came on Dec. 10, a day after the company's jet ferried McCain
to a Florida fundraiser aboard a yacht in West Palm Beach. The fundraiser
was arranged by Hector Alcalde of Alcalde & Fay and was hosted by a cruise line
that Alcalde had represented, Paxson said. Paxson said he attended the
fundraiser.
The second letter was sent to other members of the FCC after McCain had not
received a reply from Kennard.
"The sole purpose of this request is to secure final action on a matter that has
now been pending over two years," McCain said. "I emphasize that my
purpose is not to suggest in any way how you should vote -- merely that you
vote."
This letter was crucial because the three-way contract among Paxson and the two
other parties was set to expire. Without action by mid-December, the deal
could be dead, Paxson said.
McCain wrote that he expected the commissioners "to advise me in writing no
later than close of business Tuesday, December 14, 1999."
Research Editor Alice Crites contributed to this report.
washingtonpost.com
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