MediaWatch: May 1997
Table of Contents:
Frontline Finally Arrives
More than four years in, the PBS documentary series Frontlinefinally aired its first program investigating a Clinton administration scandal. In the April 15 program "The Fixers," correspondent Peter Boyer plowed new ground on the Asian fundraising connection of Eugene and Nora Lum of Hawaii.
Boyer explained how the Lums were major Democratic fundraisers among Asian Americans during the 1992 campaign, and came to know party chairman Ron Brown. Meanwhile, in Oklahoma, utility regulators with the state Corporation Commission were uncovering a regular pattern of bribery and corruption in the awarding of natural gas contracts, including bribery by Arkla Gas led by Mack McLarty, soon to become White House Chief of Staff.
One gas supplier sued to bring the corruption into the open. In came the Lums, offering to buy the supplier if they'd drop the suit. Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner Bob Anthony told PBS the Lums had "no experience, no reserves, and they end up getting a contract to sell enormous volumes of natural gas over a 10-year period of time, and their biggest claim to fame seems to be their political connections....Mack McLarty had a motive and an interest in seeing that these lawsuits and the discovery and the public disclosure go away."
This story was compelling enough to provoke (at least in part) the expired independent counsel probe of Ron Brown, whose son was enriched by the Lums. Boyer is the first TV correspondent to shed any light on these forgotten scandals. Will the other networks care to follow?
