{"id":15344,"date":"2023-03-30T15:52:56","date_gmt":"2023-03-30T22:52:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/?p=15344"},"modified":"2024-06-17T14:25:28","modified_gmt":"2024-06-17T21:25:28","slug":"from-the-mother-jones-archives-a-1985-cover-story-on-how-abc-news-killed-multiple-investigative-stories-critical-of-reagan-associates-two-of-them-were-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/?p=15344","title":{"rendered":"MOTHER JONE&#8217;S 1985 cover story on how ABC News killed multiple stories critical of Reagan associates. Two of them were mine."},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"MOTHER%20JONE%27S%201985%20cover%20story%20on%20how%20ABC%20News%20killed%20multiple%20stories%20critical%20of%20Reagan%20associates.%20Two%20of%20them%20were%20mine.\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>By Peter Lance April 30th, 2023<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Lately I&#8217;ve been going through what Bob Dylan, early on, called &#8220;My Back Pages.&#8221; Recently, among multiple crates of research and investigative pieces from my days as a correspondent for ABC News (1981-87) I came across this remarkable cover story from the Nov\/Dec 1985 edition of <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/MOTHER_JONES_NOV_DEC_1985_ABC_SPIKES_THE_NEWS.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MOTHER JONES. <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Written by the fearless investigative reporter<a href=\"https:\/\/mesarefuge.org\/people\/mark-dowie\/#:~:text=Mark%20is%20a%20founding%20member,syndicate%20based%20in%20New%20York.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong> Mark Dowie<\/strong><\/a>, MJ&#8217;s former editor and publisher, the piece, featuring legendary ABC News anchor Peter Jennings on the cover, was a painstaking examination of multiple investigative pieces reported, produced and ready to air on ABC News in 1984 that ended up getting spiked. <img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright wp-image-15349\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/MJ-cover-full-796x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"275\" height=\"354\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/MJ-cover-full-796x1024.jpg 796w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/MJ-cover-full-233x300.jpg 233w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/MJ-cover-full-768x988.jpg 768w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/MJ-cover-full-1194x1536.jpg 1194w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/MJ-cover-full-800x1029.jpg 800w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/MJ-cover-full.jpg 1320w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 275px) 100vw, 275px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>One of the stories that I reported, was produced by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/06\/23\/business\/media\/marion-goldin-dead-60-minutes-producer.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Marion Goldin<\/strong>,<\/a> a four time Emmy winner who, for years, had been Mike Wallace&#8217;s alter ego, producing more than 50 pieces with him for 60 Minutes. By 1984 she was working with me in an investigative unit on ABC&#8217;s flagship broadcast<strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/ABC_World_News_Tonight\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">World News Tonight.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That story ripped the lid off serious abuses in a string of nursing homes owned or controlled by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2008\/07\/24\/us\/24wick.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Charles Z. Wick,<\/strong><\/a> who was then head of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/United_States_Information_Agency\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>The U.S. Information Agency,<\/strong><\/a> America&#8217;s public relations face to the world.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-15353\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Screen-Shot-2022-07-18-at-3.44.25-PM.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"209\" \/>We&#8217;d unearthed grisly evidence on the mistreatment of residents at one of Wick&#8217;s homes that caused Sen. Charles Percy (R-IL) then Chair of The Foreign Relations Committee, to assert that if he&#8217;d known the full extent of Wick&#8217;s controversial nursing home interests <em>prior<\/em> to his unchallenged confirmation, the President&#8217;s close Hollywood confidante, who had produced<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Snow_White_and_the_Three_Stooges\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> <b>&#8220;Snow White And The Three Stooges,&#8221;<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u00a0<\/span> <\/b><\/a>might have faced a far more challenging approval process to head the Agency that projects American values onto the global stage. By any reasonable standard, that was &#8220;news.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The other story that got the axe was an expos\u00e9 of the then Nevada GOP <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/archives\/la-xpm-1987-07-12-mn-3697-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Senator Paul Laxalt<\/strong> <\/a>(grandfather of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Adam_Laxalt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>the current Senate candidate<\/strong><\/a>) and his alleged ties to organized crime. That piece, produced by <a href=\"https:\/\/mitpress.mit.edu\/contributors\/bill-lichtenstein\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Bill Lichtenstein<\/strong><\/a> based on my interviews with FBI agent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reviewjournal.com\/local\/local-las-vegas\/joseph-yablonsky-former-las-vegas-fbi-chief-dies-at-90-1670551\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Joseph Yablonsky<\/strong><\/a> in Las Vegas, had been entirely vetted, but as we approached airtime on a Friday, with a competing piece (reported by Mike Wallace and produced by <a href=\"https:\/\/journalism.berkeley.edu\/person\/bergman\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Lowell Bergman)<\/strong><\/a> to air on the CBS news magazine that Sunday, our story was pulled, as was their&#8217;s.<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-15352 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Screen-Shot-2022-07-18-at-3.44.12-PM.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"173\" height=\"232\" \/><\/p>\n<p>If you scroll through Dowie&#8217;s account you&#8217;ll learn how, during that same election year, with Reagan up for a second term vs. Sen. Walter Mondale and VP candidate <a href=\"https:\/\/history.house.gov\/People\/Detail\/13081\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Geraldine Ferraro<\/strong><\/a>, ABC News created what was known in-house as a &#8220;Ferraro SWAT Team,&#8221; to dig into the holdings of the Queens congresswoman&#8217;s husband <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/John_Zaccaro\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>John Zaccaro<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Within months ABC also pulled the plug on another probe of controversial Reagan Labor Secretary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/06\/05\/us\/raymond-j-donovan-dead.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Raymond Donovan,<\/strong><\/a> who, as Dowie noted, had been indicted a month before the election &#8220;on one count of Grand Larceny and 136 counts of falsifying business records.&#8221; The fraud charges later prompted his resignation.<\/p>\n<p>Having lived through the killing of two of the three pieces, I can confirm that Dowie&#8217;s account of the heated meetings we had with various ABC News VP&#8217;s in the 4th floor conference room at 7 West 66th Street was dead on. But he left out one killer line.<\/p>\n<p>At one point on the Wick story, as Marion and I sat across from former NBC News President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/05\/13\/business\/media\/richard-c-wald-dead.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Dick Wald,<\/strong><\/a> suggesting that strings might have been pulled at 1330 Avenue of The America&#8217;s (ABC&#8217;s Corporate Headquarters) Wald shot back through gritted teeth, while looking at me and ignoring Mrs. Goldin, &#8220;If you or <em>that woman<\/em> are suggesting that the News Division would <em>ever<\/em> knuckle under to Corporate, you can <em>leave<\/em> this building now and never return again!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>To their credit ABC News President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/archives\/la-xpm-2002-dec-14-et-counterpunch14-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Roone Arledge,<\/strong> \u00a0<\/a>Peter Jennings and World News Tonight Executive Producer William Lord, who brought me over to WNT from, NIGHTLINE, never told me to pull any punches and I continued reporting hard hitting investigative stories for the next three years. But there was little doubt that in 1984 we felt a chill.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>A FINAL CODA<\/strong><\/span> on why ABC&#8217;s great news division, might have been influenced by &#8220;the suits&#8221; at 1330.<\/p>\n<p>During the presidential campaign that year, Ronald Reagan had vowed that if he was elected to a second term, the FCC would change the 7-7-7 Rule, prohibiting companies from owning more than seven TV, AM and FM stations to 12-12-12. That rule change which happened in 1985, allowed Capital Cities Communications (a company 1\/4 ABC&#8217;s size) to gobble it up in a takeover that earned ABC founder and Chairman Leonard Goldenson, multiple-millions of dollars in <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/archive\/politics\/1985\/03\/19\/capital-cities-communications-to-buy-abc-for-35-billion\/7e2d4fa9-144b-4704-8d2e-498bc5496057\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a $3.5 billion dollar deal \u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>At the time, it was the biggest media acquisition in history. Then, 10 years later, those less restrictive FCC ownership rules led to <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/cb452149b6aef0235a0ed9696ec8278d\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Disney&#8217;s $19 billion dollar merger<\/strong> <\/a>with &#8220;The Alphabet Network,&#8221; making countless more millions for those holding large chunks of ABC stock.<\/p>\n<p>So was there a quid pro quo in that Orwellian year of 1984? Read <a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/MOTHER_JONES_NOV_DEC_1985_ABC_SPIKES_THE_NEWS.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Mark&#8217;s important story,<\/strong><\/a> rescued from a dusty storage space, and you decide.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"MOTHER%20JONE%27S%201985%20cover%20story%20on%20how%20ABC%20News%20killed%20multiple%20stories%20critical%20of%20Reagan%20associates.%20Two%20of%20them%20were%20mine.\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p>By Peter Lance April 30th, 2023 Lately I&#8217;ve been going through what Bob Dylan, early on, called &#8220;My Back Pages.&#8221; Recently, among multiple crates of research and investigative pieces from my days as a correspondent for ABC News (1981-87) I came across this remarkable cover story from the Nov\/Dec 1985 edition of MOTHER JONES. Written [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15344"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15344"}],"version-history":[{"count":55,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17070,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15344\/revisions\/17070"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}