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From the November-December, 1995 issue (Vol. 3 No. 1) |
Media Watch | |
One of the more depressing aspects of the recent wave of mega-mergers has been the increasing conglomeration of more and more media outlets under less and less company headings. ABC-Cap Cities has been a suspect company since the 80's when Bill Casey guided his friend, and Cap Cities CEO, Tom Murphy into purchasing the network after it did a tough expose of CIA activities in Hawaii (see Andy Boehm's fine piece in the L. A. Weekly of 2/20/87). Now that combined company is being taken over by Disney and multi-millionaire cum billionaire Michael Eisner. Under the safe, secure aegis of Disney, don't expect ABC to revert back to any CIA scoops. We should also note here, the presently ongoing attempt to merge TNT with Time-Warner and the Westinghouse proposed buyout of CBS.
This merger mania has also been reflected in the new giant bookstores that have recently opened up in many metropolitan areas from Minneapolis to Los Angeles. It used to be that a Walden Books or a Crown was considered a big bookstore. With the appearance of the new behemoth Barnes & Noble's and Borders, the days of Walden's and Crown seem almost quaint. Sadly, independent bookstores, usually the best source of more controversial material, are being squeezed out of the market. When they're gone, don't expect the big guys to offer books like Mary, Ferrie & the Moneky Virus, by Ed Haslam, much less older classics like Secret Agenda, by Jim Hougan.
All of this is apropos of two recent and relevant media events which our readers should have more than a working knowledge of. In last issue's "Notebook" section of Probe , we noted that John Kennedy Jr. had recently launched a new, seemingly politically-oriented magazine. We also noted that, in our opinion, the publication was a thunderous disappointment, with its 170 pages of color ads, its catering to Hollywood celebrities like Madonna and Julia Roberts, and its shallow, CNN style reporting. Well, due to an article in the October 2, 1995 issue of In These Times, we now have more information on why JFK Jr.'s magazine was so undistinguished. It turns out that Kennedy got most of his seed money-twenty million-from the biggest magazine publisher in the world, Hachette Filipacchi. Hachette is part of the French weapons conglomerate the Lagadare Group. With this kind of backing George had an opening press run of 500,000 issues. As writer Rick Perlstein states, you don't get 170 ad pages, by exposing the ugly underbelly of American politics. You get it by making the reader feel "that there are no longer any big fights worth fighting." Perlstein concluded that "George may well be creating the blueprint for all future attempts by baronies such as Murdoch, Times-Mirror or Disney to create magazines designed to make people think they are thinking about politics, when really they are doing no such thing." |
But every once in awhile something good manages to slip through. The Blockbuster video rental chain is another example of a behemoth targeting and then wiping out the corner merchant. Wayne Huzienga now has the biggest video chain in the country. He now sponsors college football bowl games and owns the Miami Dolphins. But at some of his stores, you can actually rent the best film ever made about the CIA. This splendid documentary is called On Company Business, and from its opening scenes with Senator Frank Church confronting Bill Colby with a flechette pistol designed for assassination, one knows that this will be an unflinching look at what the Company's business has wreaked. We won't detail the many jewels of this program. Trust us and run, don't walk, to get it. We would like to describe some of the travails of the film's director, Allan Francovich, and how he encountered two of the research community's more familiar characters. When Francovich completed On Company Business in 1980, he had a predictably tough time getting it shown in America. Finally, it got shown on WNET in New York. The CIA insisted on debating the merits of the program afterwards since they realized the show would create a public sensation, which it did. The man chosen to debate Allan was David Phillips. Since "On Company Business" candidly deals with the Agency's use of assassination as a tool, the moderator asked Phillips how he could condone such acts. Phillips reportedly replied "Murder is such a harsh word. Can't you use something else?" Francovich has recently done another documentary, this one on the downing of Pan Am 103 over Scotland in 1988. The CIA originally stated that Syria and the Iranians were responsible. Later, they changed the official story to blame the Libyans. Why? Because Syria became an ally against Hussein in the Gulf War. The Francovich film blames the original perpetrators. So when it was scheduled to be shown in London, again a debate had to take place. Who spoke for the official U.S. "Libya did it" line? Oliver "Buck" Revell, FBI point man on, among other things, the Kennedy assassination. When Francovich's film then showed in Australia, who showed up to debate him via satellite? Again, it was Revell. The same man, who, as revealed in last month's Probe, insists there was no relation between Oswald and the FBI. It should be noted that, while in the Navy, Revell became their liaison to the Warren Commission. It is here where he became acquainted with the FBI. He liked the organization and decided to join up when he got out. To this day, he defends the official Warren Report line he helped formulate.
We describe these seemingly disparate episodes to show two things that CTKA firmly believes and wishes to instill in its subscribers. First, the media is not, and has never been, "objective" on any issue dealing with "national security." Secondly, the Kennedy assassination does not exist in a vacuum. It is locked in a long series of high crimes and cover ups that run like rivulets through contemporary history. The appearance of David Phillips 15 odd years ago with Francovich, and then, in his stead, Revell, forms a straight line through the mire of that history. That Francovich has to share the microphone with them, while not having his films shown nationally in this country, shows how wildly skewed the media's playing field has become when it comes to matters of "national security" i.e. historical truth. ± Anyone interested in purchasing "On Company Business" can write to: MPI Home Video, Dept. 1500, 15825 Robroy Drive, Oak Forest IL 60452. |
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