MediaWatch: November 1993

Vol. Seven No. 11

Local, NBC Reporters Involved

Braun Scandal Suppressed

NBC reporters knew in October 1992 that Senator Carol Moseley- Braun had intentionally defrauded Medicaid. But they decided to sit on the revelation, Ruth Shalit reported in a November 15 New Republic exposé. Reporter Paul Hogan of NBC-owned WMAQ-TV in Chicago and Douglas Longhini, his producer, obtained a "type-written letter purported to be from Moseley-Braun to her mother ....the letter suggests that Moseley-Braun deliberately tried to defraud the state Medicaid authorities." In an apparent reference to an effort to hide her mother's assets, the letter included this sentence: "In an effort to help you `launder' the timber proceeds..."

Since Hogan had earlier raised "the rudiments of the Medicaid story," Moseley-Braun refused to talk with him. So, he and Longhini "then persuaded NBC correspondent Bob Kur to ambush her with the ten-line fragment at the end of an interview." Moseley- Braun did not deny writing the letter. Campaign media adviser Gerald Austin told Shalit: "People were shocked. We said, (a) she's going to lose the election, (b) she's going to be disbarred and (c) she's going to be indicted."

But voters never heard about the admission. Austin "got Hogan on the phone. `I did something I've never done in twenty years,' he says. `I talked a reporter out of a story. I said...`Here's one where you'll destroy this woman, and more importantly, the cause. If you go with the story, she loses, and you're responsible for denying the first African American woman the chance to go to the U.S. Senate.'" Shalit added: "Several hours later, Hogan called back and said he had decided not to go with the story.... Longhini, now a producer with ABC's Prime Time Live, confirms Austin's version of events. `Paul was quite agonized. He was a really good guy. Real liberal. He said, `You son of a bitch, I'll call you back.' We never went with it.'"

No word on why Kur and NBC News suppressed the revelation.