So, did John McCain meet with the head of Paxson Communications as part of an attempt to intervene with the Federal Communications Commission on behalf of the company or not? Paxson’s head, Lowell “Bud” Paxson, said Friday he DID meet with Schmuck Talk Express™:
Paxson said he talked with McCain in his Washington office several weeks before the Arizona Republican wrote the letters in 1999 to the FCC urging a rapid decision on Paxson's quest to acquire a Pittsburgh television station.
And, another Paxson top brass may also have been there:
Paxson saw no particular significance in the meeting with McCain before his penning the FCC letters. “Vicki Iseman, probably between myself and [Paxson Communications President] Dean Goodman at that time, took us in to see a thousand senators and congressmen,” Paxson said.
But Saturday, Goodman says, that wasn’t me there:
“I never met with or discussed this with Senator McCain,” Goodman said. “I don’t recall Bud meeting with McCain. It would be extremely rare that there would be a meeting that I didn't attend, and I can tell you that I didn’t have a meeting with McCain on this issue.”
“Whether Bud discussed it with him or not, via some other mechanism, I can’t rule it out,” Goodman added. But, he said, “I don’t think there was a meeting.”
Well, somebody, at least one somebody if not more, is lying.
