If David Westin, the president of ABC News, were to ask the magic
mirror on the wall who was fairest of them all, the answer would
disappoint him just as it did the wicked queen. Westin, a lawyer with no
journalistic experience who took over the news division less than six
months ago, already has badly tarnished what conservatives used to
regard as the fairest of the TV network-news operations.
He is proving that there is some merit to the claims of leftists who maintain that the capitalists who control news-media companies can and do shape the way the news is covered. The leftists' claims were rooted in their ideology, not based on any concrete evidence of management's meddling in the news-rooms. Marxists, knowing how they would dictate to editors and reporters if they were in control, assume that capitalists must do the same thing.
I found out how wrong they were during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The head of the Committee for a Free Afghanistan, knowing that I was on friendly terms with Leonard Goldenson, the chairman of ABC, asked me to inform Goldenson that a story ABC News was planning to air could jeopardize an important channel of aid to the Afghan freedom fighters. I discussed this with Goldenson. He agreed that would be an undesirable outcome. He said he would see what he could do about it, but it turned out that he could do nothing. He agreed with those who told him that it would be improper, even in this case, to violate the rule that management should not try to influence news coverage.
Tom Murphy, Leonard Goldenson's successor, took a similar hands-off approach, even resisting persistent efforts by Accuracy in Media to get him to direct ABC News to correct a serious error. But now Michael Eisner, the chairman of the Walt Disney Co., is the ultimate boss of ABC News. He has shown that he wants David Westin and the ABC newsroom to respect his wishes. One of his wishes is that ABC News refrain from airing stories that are damaging to Disney. He made this clear on Sep. 29, when Eisner said on Fresh Air, a National Public Radio program: "I would prefer ABC not to cover Disney ... ABC News knows that I would prefer them not to cover [Disney]." Only days later, a story that was to air on 20/20 exposing Disney's lax attitude toward employing pedophiles at its theme parks was killed by David Westin.
The December-January issue of Brill's Content has a detailed
report by Elizabeth Stevens on this story and why it was killed.
Inspired by a book titled Disney: The Mouse Betrayed, by Peter and
Rochelle Schweizer, the story was the work of ABC's veteran
investigative reporter Brian Ross. It had been approved by high-level
news executives and ABC's lawyers. Stevens says it was "well-sourced"
and that it "met the standards of fairness and reportorial backup
commonly found in investigative television-news magazine pieces."
According to Stevens, the four-month investigation by Ross and his
producer, Rhonda Schwartz, turned up new evidence showing that Disney
had a worse pedophile problem than the other theme parks that were
examined. Disney also had a bad reputation among Florida law-enforcement
officials, who were critical of Disney's failure to run
criminal-background checks of new employees and not always assisting
their investigations of crimes on Disney property.
Ross's story told of a 7-year-old British girl who recently was molested by Jeffrey Bise, a puppet vendor at Disney World. The girl's uncle, a British police officer, confronted Bise and reported the incident to Disney security, who filled out a report and gave the family a few cheap souvenirs. They tried to dissuade the uncle from calling the police. He called them. They came, questioned Bise and got his confession. He is now in prison, no thanks to Disney.
Stevens says Douglas Rehman, a retired officer who specialized in sex crimes involving children, complains that Disney has done less than other theme parks to combat problems with pedophiles. He said Disney was the only theme park that did not agree to work with the Central Florida Child Exploitation Task Force when it was established in 1995.
Stevens does a good job of exposing the contrast between what Westin and other ABC News officials have said in the past about their determination not to allow Disney to influence their news coverage and what they are saying and doing now. She quotes Vice President Richard Wald as having said a year ago that if "selective coverage" of Disney were to occur, "nobody who works at ABC News would stay there." Selective coverage has occurred but Wald, who plans to retire in December, did not advance his departure date in protest. Brill's Content asked 21 ABC News employees if they would feel comfortable working at ABC if Ross' story was killed because of the Disney connection. Two-thirds of them, including Peter Jennings, Barbara Walters, Ted Koppel, Diane Sawyer and Sam Donaldson, refused to comment. None of ABC's wealthy journalists has resigned. That would require something priceless -- character.
He is proving that there is some merit to the claims of leftists who maintain that the capitalists who control news-media companies can and do shape the way the news is covered. The leftists' claims were rooted in their ideology, not based on any concrete evidence of management's meddling in the news-rooms. Marxists, knowing how they would dictate to editors and reporters if they were in control, assume that capitalists must do the same thing.
I found out how wrong they were during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The head of the Committee for a Free Afghanistan, knowing that I was on friendly terms with Leonard Goldenson, the chairman of ABC, asked me to inform Goldenson that a story ABC News was planning to air could jeopardize an important channel of aid to the Afghan freedom fighters. I discussed this with Goldenson. He agreed that would be an undesirable outcome. He said he would see what he could do about it, but it turned out that he could do nothing. He agreed with those who told him that it would be improper, even in this case, to violate the rule that management should not try to influence news coverage.
Tom Murphy, Leonard Goldenson's successor, took a similar hands-off approach, even resisting persistent efforts by Accuracy in Media to get him to direct ABC News to correct a serious error. But now Michael Eisner, the chairman of the Walt Disney Co., is the ultimate boss of ABC News. He has shown that he wants David Westin and the ABC newsroom to respect his wishes. One of his wishes is that ABC News refrain from airing stories that are damaging to Disney. He made this clear on Sep. 29, when Eisner said on Fresh Air, a National Public Radio program: "I would prefer ABC not to cover Disney ... ABC News knows that I would prefer them not to cover [Disney]." Only days later, a story that was to air on 20/20 exposing Disney's lax attitude toward employing pedophiles at its theme parks was killed by David Westin.
Ross's story told of a 7-year-old British girl who recently was molested by Jeffrey Bise, a puppet vendor at Disney World. The girl's uncle, a British police officer, confronted Bise and reported the incident to Disney security, who filled out a report and gave the family a few cheap souvenirs. They tried to dissuade the uncle from calling the police. He called them. They came, questioned Bise and got his confession. He is now in prison, no thanks to Disney.
Stevens says Douglas Rehman, a retired officer who specialized in sex crimes involving children, complains that Disney has done less than other theme parks to combat problems with pedophiles. He said Disney was the only theme park that did not agree to work with the Central Florida Child Exploitation Task Force when it was established in 1995.
Stevens does a good job of exposing the contrast between what Westin and other ABC News officials have said in the past about their determination not to allow Disney to influence their news coverage and what they are saying and doing now. She quotes Vice President Richard Wald as having said a year ago that if "selective coverage" of Disney were to occur, "nobody who works at ABC News would stay there." Selective coverage has occurred but Wald, who plans to retire in December, did not advance his departure date in protest. Brill's Content asked 21 ABC News employees if they would feel comfortable working at ABC if Ross' story was killed because of the Disney connection. Two-thirds of them, including Peter Jennings, Barbara Walters, Ted Koppel, Diane Sawyer and Sam Donaldson, refused to comment. None of ABC's wealthy journalists has resigned. That would require something priceless -- character.
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