You be the judge:
A local television station took the extraordinary step of censoring a congressional debate because a candidate wrongly said Sovereign and Wachovia banks had folded.
WFMZ-TV, Channel 69, muted the sound and blurred the lips of Democrat Sam Bennett as she made the statements in her taped debate with Republican Charlie Dent. Both seek to represent the Lehigh Valley on Capitol Hill.
Station officials wrestled with what to do after Bennett flagged them on her error. They altered the videotape and added a disclaimer after consulting with Dent’s campaign, with their government overseers and with a national broadcasting organization.
”In the end,” WFMZ General Manager Barry Fisher said, ”we did not feel that broadcasting the names of the banks served the public in any way.”
