New CBS News VP tied to Jack Abramoff scheme

[RamboLiberal]

When it was announced last week that CBS News had hired Jeff Ballabon as a senior vice president for communications, with responsibility for "all media relations and public affairs," there were scattered complaints about Ballabon's extreme conservatism and apparent bias against Democrats.

One blogger at Huffington Post, Ira Forman, recalled that when he debated Ballabon a decade ago, "Ballabon claimed that, after his most recent job in Washington, he became convinced that Democrats are inherently bad people and Republicans are fundamentally good people."

However, what has not been widely noted is that Ballabon formerly had a close relationship with lobbyist and convicted felon Jack Abramoff, first as a client and then seemingly as a friend.

Ballabon was an executive vice president with Channel One in 1998 when it came under fire from Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL). Channel One had developed a comfortable niche providing free educational programming to public schools in exchange for running commercials during the programs, many of them for soda, candy, and other junk food. Responding to complaints from conservative constituents, Shelby expressed concern and called for Congressional hearings.

Channel One quickly hired the lobbying firm of Preston, Gates to head off this threat to its profits, ultimately paying them over a million dollars. Preston, Gates assigned the still-obscure lobbyist Jack Abramoff to the account.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/New_CBS_News_VP_was_client_0225.html

[Ichingcarpenter]

1. Rot at the Top

Raw Story finds some good stuff. Now if this can become viral.

[Dover]

2. I no longer receive CBS locally due to their rush to high def, DTV. Haven't missed it yet.

and come June they will all fade to black. Buhbye msm! Not worth my time.

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. Look at CBS board of Directors and notice their ties to other companies

INSIDERS ON BOARD OF DIRECTORS AT CBS CORPORATION (CBS)
Name (Connections) Board Relationships Title Age


Sumner Redstone 28 Relationships Founder and Executive Chairman of the Board 84
Leslie Moonves 113 Relationships Chief Executive Officer, President and Director 58


OTHER BOARD MEMBERS ON BOARD OF DIRECTORS*
Name (Connections) Board Relationships Primary Company Age
Shari Redstone 25 Relationships OOO Rising Star Media 54
Joseph Califano Jr. 48 Relationships CBS Corporation 75
Charles Gifford 161 Relationships FleetBoston Financial Corp. 66
Gary Countryman 100 Relationships Lm Insurance Corporation 68
David Andelman 13 Relationships CBS Corporation 68
Bruce Gordon 73 Relationships Tyco International Ltd. 61
William Cohen 152 Relationships Asia Global Crossing Ltd. 67
Leonard Goldberg 25 Relationships CBS Corporation 74
Arnold Kopelson 13 Relationships CBS Corporation 73
Linda Griego 90 Relationships Southwest Water Co. 59
Douglas Morris 66 Relationships Vivendi 69
Frederic Salerno 101 Relationships Gabelli Entertainment & Telecommunications Acquisition Corp. 64


If you go to this site you will see that they are on the board of directors
of some major corporations that caused this meltdown.

No wonder they hired him.


Link

http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/people/board.asp?symbol=CBS