And How Are You, Mr. Wilson?

Jesse Walker | July 26, 2007

In 1997, TV reporters Steve Wilson and Jane Akre were famously fired from a Florida Fox affiliate while they worked on a story about the alleged dangers of a Monsanto-manufactured milk additive. They claimed they were the victims of censorship. Last year, the left-libertarian journalist John Sugg reported in Reason that they weren't the martyrs they made themselves out to be -- and that they were pursuing action at the FCC that really would be censorship:

Wilson's nine-year battle with the Murdoch-owned WTVT/Channel 13 in Tampa, Florida, made him a cause célèbre in media activist circles. It is now awaiting a final decision by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). If he gets his way, WTVT will lose its license because of decisions it made about content, an outcome with dire implications for freedom of the press.

The FCC handed down its decision this week. It sided against Wilson and Akre. Sugg has the details in Creative Loafing.

Comments

|7.26.07 @ 2:20PM|#

Creative Loafing just bought the Chicago Reader.

No I don't have anything relevant to say about this post, sorry

Abdul|7.26.07 @ 2:53PM|#

They're winners in the sense that they took on Rupert Murdoch and lived to tell about it.

Mike Laursen|7.26.07 @ 2:53PM|#

Last year, the left-libertarian journalist John Sugg reported in Reason...

Impossible. We established the other day that Reason doesn't acknowledge left-libertarians.

Republican Anarchist|7.26.07 @ 3:01PM|#

Impossible. We established the other day that Reason doesn't acknowledge left-libertarians


Damn straight!

I could see a journalist fitting the description a whole lot easier than any actual-or hypothetical-politician.

|7.26.07 @ 6:04PM|#

They're winners in the sense that they took on Rupert Murdoch and lived to tell about it.

How did they keep from ending up in the lime pit in his cellar?