Rep. Waxman Knows Better

There will always be important public policy questions about the 2000 presidential election. What Jack Welch, chairman of General Electric, which owns NBC, was doing on that evening is not among them.

That hasn’t stopped Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), who is on a fishing expedition in trying to find whether Welch, who was in the NBC studio that evening, attempted to get the election coverage steered toward George W. Bush.

Waxman, who knows better, is demanding that NBC hand over internal videotapes to prove, or disprove, the rumor. Waxman and his aides insist that because NBC President Andrew Lack promised under oath in February to provide a tape if it existed, he is now obliged to do so.

But NBC, like any news organization, is protected by the 1st Amendment. Lack’s statement may have been incautious, but it does not follow that NBC surrendered its constitutional rights. If Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft were to request such a tape from a network, Waxman would scream bloody murder.

The notion that Welch could have had much effect on the election defies credibility. All of the networks were in a state of meltdown. Whether Welch might have urged NBC anchors to call it for Bush hardly merits a full-blown congressional investigation.

Waxman’s grab for the tape is likely to have the perverse effect of making executives from the media and entertainment even more reluctant to appear before Congress for fear of jeopardizing their 1st Amendment rights. He should call off the chase.