MediaWatch: May 1992
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: May 1992
- Favoring "Abortion Rights"
- NewsBites: No Homeless Hype
- Revolving Door: Brown Bombast
- Looting a Rational Response to a Decade of Greed
- Blackmail and Intimidation of Sources: OK with PBS
- Actually Backed Thomas
- ABC and PBS Act as Co-Conspirators
- A Half Million Here?
- Janet Cooke Award: PBS on the October Surprise: Oops
Blackmail and Intimidation of Sources: OK with PBS
ROBOHM WRONGED. Frontline's journalistic standards also became an issue when Associate Producer David Marks and reporter Robert Parry called on Peggy Robohm. Only after combing through thousands of documents while helping Brenneke write a book did Robohm, an October Surprise enthusiast, discover the credit card receipts that proved Brenneke wasn't in Paris. Robohm told MediaWatch that Marks originally contacted her by misrepresenting himself as a Senate staffer, and when she asked to talk to his Senate higher-ups, Marks threatened her, telling her he had other ways of getting her information. He also didn't say he was involved in an "October Surprise" movie deal.
When Parry came to interview Robohm, he failed to tell her that Marks worked for Frontline or that Marks had a movie deal. Parry told MediaWatch: "You'd have to talk to Marks about that, but I asked him and he said he didn't. The thing is, he talked to her before he was working for us." But Frontline hired him anyway, although he was demoted in the credits from Associate Producer to "additional reporting." Parry told Frank Snepp, who debunked Brenneke with Robohm's help in the Village Voice, that he saw no problem with having a Frontline producer financially linked to the story under investigation. Parry denied the charge of misrepresentation: "She knew who we were...I don't think her comments have merit."
Frontline didn't take Robohm's criticisms lightly. She had been asked to join another Frontline team just beginning a project on JFK. But Robohm says Frontline reporter Scott Malone called and told her that to start work, the "issue" would have to be "resolved," meaning allowing the use of her documents and recanting her criticism of Parry. Robohm wrote Frontline on March 29: "What is the difference between this and extortion?....There is only one way for the 'issue' between us to be resolved: Fire Bob Parry and repudiate David Marks. Robohm added: "Unless I hear otherwise from you, I will assume that you are prepared to keep the series aligned with individuals who see nothing wrong with making movie deals with subjects they are covering, who use false pretenses to try and get information, who see no difference between advocacy and journalism, and who are ready, finally, to use the moral equivalent of bribery to get what they want."
