MediaWatch: October 1992
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: October 1992
- Watching the Ad Watchers
- NewsBites: Attacks off Limits?
- Revolving Door: Democratic Revolver Sees Bias
- Markle Foundation Funds Slanted Campaign Coverage
- Media Still Defend Aspiring First Lady
- Time, Corporate Tool
- Post's Deficit Solution
- Janet Cooke Award: NBC: Liberal Public Relations
Time, Corporate Tool
"PAN AM SCAM"
CNN investigative reporter Steven Emerson has uncovered the truth behind Time magazine's April 27, 1992 cover "The Untold Story of Pan Am 103." Time veteran reporter Roy Rowan blamed the U.S. intelligence community for the terrorist bombing that killed 270 people. Rowan's story described a "conspiracy involving U.S. agents of the CIA and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) who allegedly collaborated, wittingly and unwittingly, in a Byzantine plot in which terrorists and drug traffickers bombed Pan Am 103 on December 22, 1988." In short, Rowan charged that Syrian terrorists had bombed the plane in order to kill a U.S. military agent about to expose CIA involvement in drug trafficking.
In the September Washington Journalism Review, Emerson reported that Time was used as a tool of Pan Am defense lawyers fighting a multi-million dollar negligence lawsuit. Time's article relied heavily on two now discredited sources: Juval Aviv and Lester Coleman. Emerson found both men have lied extensively about their backgrounds and also had a personal financial interest in Time blaming the U.S. government for the bombing.
Emerson determined: "Time not only ignored evidence that contradicted key elements of its story, but also discounted information that disputed the credibility of its two main sources. The fact that both sources...were paid consultants for Pan Am attorneys fighting a multi-million dollar" lawsuit from the victim's families. "If Time's sources were correct in their contention that U.S. undercover agents could have prevented the bombing, Pan Am would not be found liable."
Emerson pointed out that Rowan never contacted witnesses with evidence damaging to their sources' credibility and didn't report that the FBI and Scotland Yard had dismissed many of the charges he repeated. Time also ran a picture of a man they identified as David Lovejoy, a former State Department security office turned U.S.-Iranian double agent accomplice to the bombing. Although Time reported he was still at large, Emerson identified the man as Michael Schafer, an Atlanta floor cleaning company owner and a former Christian Broadcasting Network cameraman in Lebanon in 1985. In fact, Emerson found no proof that David Lovejoy exists.
