A May 21 CNSNews.com article by Fred Lucas states:
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) says it has “no records” of any communication either “to or from” its chairman that mentions Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Glenn Beck, Laura Ingraham or Michael Savage.
The FCC made the declaration in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by CNSNews.com that sought all its records reflecting communications from FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski mentioning the popular radio hosts. “No records of correspondence responsive to your request were located as a result of a search of records of the Chairman’s office,” said the FCC in a May 6 letter to CNSNews.com.
Despite this assertion, a letter about “hate speech in the media” specifically citing “radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh” was in fact sent to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski by a coalition of liberal groups last fall.
This seems to be an attempt by CNS to use its FOIA request play “gotcha” with the Obama administration to portray it as lying and hiding — even though later in the article, Lucas concedes the possibility that the “gotcha” letter CNS cited may have been misfiled or thrown out.
Lucas also uncritically quotes right-wing activist and voting suppression expert Hans von Spakovsky baselessly suggesting that because the FCC wouldn’t release internal discussions about ” local ownership rules” as CNS sought in its FOIA request, that FCC officials are trying to “avoid a document trail.” Lucas offers no evidence that refusing to release internal discussions about a policy that has not been — and may never be — introduced is in any way out of the ordinary.