Letter to CBS/"60 Minutes"

From: Eddie Curran

133 Silverwood

Mobile, AL, 36607

E-mail: eddcurran@aol.com

Cell: 251-454-1911

Attn: Kevin Tedesco, CBS News Communications

E-mail: kev@cbsnews.com

Phone: (212) 975-2329

CC: Scott Pelley, David Gelber, Jeff Fager, and Joel Bach

Subject: “60 Minutes” reporting on the prosecution of Don Siegelman.

Dear Kevin,

I’m a reporter from Mobile, Ala., soon to complete a book about former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, about whom I reported on extensively when he was governor. (See link to that reporting at bottom.)

I am self-publishing the book and hope to have it for sale by late November or early December.

The book was to end with the trial and sentencing of Gov. Siegelman and his co-defendant, former HealthSouth Corp. chairman Richard Scrushy. However, I have added a final section to address allegations by a north Alabama woman, Dana Jill Simpson; and, more specifically, the coverage of the Siegelman case by certain national media since Ms. Simpson’s May 2007 affidavit. Primarily, I’m addressing the coverage by the New York Times, Time magazine, Harper’s, and, the reason for this letter, “60 Minutes.”

I am sending this to you as well as e-mail addresses that may or may not be correct for the others. However, I trust that you will ensure that all of the above receive a copy.

I have many of questions I would like answered. I am presenting the main ones here. In the event that “60 Minutes,” and/or CBS or the individuals named above (they being, it’s my understanding, the team that put together the piece on Siegelman) show a willingness to respond to these questions, I will ask additional questions.

Here are those questions:

1. Scott Horton, who writes an Internet column for Harper’s, has publicly stated that he was interviewed several times by, “60 Minutes,” and was a consultant of sorts for the Siegelman piece.

Is this true?

2. You aired an interview with Jill Simpson in which she claimed that Karl Rove hired and/or assigned her to follow then governor Siegelman in an attempt to catch/take pictures of him having extramarital sex.

After Simpson delivered these very serious, entirely uncorroborated and never-before aired accusations, did, “60 Minutes” ask Simpson where she followed Siegelman, as in what cities and on what dates? Did the show’s producers seek or find any evidence whatsoever in support of her story?

It is my understanding that Simpson and/or her lawyer has publicly stated that records substantiating the Rove assignment were provided to “60 Minutes.” Why didn’t “60 Minutes” present these records to viewers as evidence to substantiate her alarming accusation?

Do such records exist and, if so, what do they show?

3. Simpson told your audience that this was not the first “intelligence” assignment given her by Rove. Certainly “60 Minutes” asked her to reveal the other assignments. Why didn’t the producers reveal her other assignments from Rove, given that this would obviously be both interesting and relevant.

4. Can “60 Minutes” identify a single person who has ever seen Karl Rove and Jill Simpson together or provide a single record proving they knew each other, much less worked together on clandestine political espionage assignments?

5. Scott Pelley told viewers that the Siegelman prosecution was “handled by the office of U.S. Attorney Leura Canary, whose husband had run the campaign of Siegelman’s opponent, Gov. Riley.”

What was your source for the declaration that Bill Canary ran Bob Riley’s campaign? Do you stand by that statement?

6. Nine days after Siegelman’s release, “60 Minutes,” ran a brief portion of what one assumes was a longer interview with the former governor. Scott Pelley told viewers that a federal court “has released former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman from prison six weeks after our story.” CBS transcripts called the second report, “The Prosecution of Don Siegelman; Don Siegelman released from prison after ‘60 Minutes’ airs story.”

Is it an incorrect reading of the above to suggest in my book that “60 Minutes” appears to be taking credit, for lack of a better phrase, for the decision by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to release Siegelman pending his appeal?

Do the people at CBS and “60 Minutes” believe that to be the case?

6. Does CBS News and “60 Minutes,” stand by the Siegelman piece, including the decision to present such damning claims by Jill Simpson about Karl Rove as well as others? Another way of putting it: Does CBS News and “60 Minutes” regret airing the piece.

I look forward to your response, and hope it is that you will answer these questions and perhaps others.

Sincerely,

Eddie Curran

Link to stories on Siegelman while he was governor