A DIRTY JOB, AND PHIL DONAHUE WAS JUST THE MAN TO DO IT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403550002-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 26, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: October 23, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/26: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403550002-6
ARTICLE AP?EA i~D
ON PAQE
WASHINGTON TIMES
23 October 1985
A dirty job, and Phil Donahue
was just the man to do it
MEDIA
ANALYSIS/
Don Kowet
It was a dirty job, but someone
had to do it.
Daniel Ortega, the president of
Nicaragua, had the poor taste to time
his suspension of all civil liberties at
home shortly before he was due in
New York to celebrate the 40th anni-
versary of the United Nations.
Liberals who had bestowed on the
Sandinistas their blessings were
bleeding.
New York Times columnist Thin
Wicker wrote that Mr. Ortega's act
was "a heavy burden to bear;" calling
the Sandinistas "their own worst
enemy."
The Washington Post's Mary
McGrory was about to award the
Sandinista an "Oscar for bad tim-
ing" She wrote: "Whoever he was
aiming at, Ortega, once again, seems
to have shot himself."
Someone had to face the fallen
idol on national television.
Phil Donahue, that incurable
hemophiliac, rolled up his sleeves,
tightened his tourniquets and
braced himself for the blood-letting.
In a program last March, Mr.
Donahue had flaunted his Sandinista
sympathies, joining a nun and a con-
gressman in their assault on Rep.
Robert Doman, California Republi-
can, a defender of aid to the Nicara-
guan resistance.
But yesterday morning, with
President Ortega and his wife,
Rosario Maria Murillo, seated
beside him at the conference table,
Phil seemed uncharacteristically
subdued. Glum. A power-outage
dimmed his usual high-energy per-
formance. Phil was taking Mr.
Ortega's indiscretion personally.
Mr. Ortega had forgone his famed
battle fatigues for a solemn gray
suit; his wife, the pretty Rosario,
was wearing a blue dress with a
puritanically high collar. The sce-
nario was familiar to any parent who
ever was called to school to see the
principal because little Janey or'
Johnny had cut a class or tossed a
spitball in science lab.
Phil was disappointed in his pupils
and had to reprimand them. But he
was not prepared to admit that they
had fulfilled the dire promise of the
White House probation officer who
had predicted all along they'd end up
in reform school.
It didn't take long before the audi-
ence realized that, as far as Phil was
concerned, suspending all civil
rights in Nicaragua was only a mis-
demeanor.
"How could you impose such radi-
cal measures on your own people at
a time when you claim to be on the
edge of victory?" Phil said. "You
really have apparently scored, with-
out meaning to, a tremendous public
relations victory for the Reagan
administration."
Phil was so upset.
Mr. Ortega replied that "when
you're at the point of reaching a vic-
tory, but you have an opponent who
has many resources, then you have
to make a maximum effort to assure
your victory, and thus bring nearer
the possibilities for peace:'
The answer made no sense at all.
Suspending civil liberties, as most
idiots know, is a sign of weakness,
not of strength. But not this idiot.
Phil had a list of questions, and kept
on reading them.
"But ... this is the worst kind of
repression;" said Phil. He was wor-
ried about the appearance of dictato-
rial arbitrariness. "This looks like
the work - I'm not saying it is, Mr.
President - it looks like the work of
a fascist government."
The lovely Mrs. Ortega wanted to
interrupt.
"May I?" she said.
"You may, of course you may;' Phil
gushed.
"We don't like these measures, we
regret them. But what else can we do
if we are at war?" asked the first
lady, her voice dripping with pathos
and wounded sincerity. There was
she said, "a manual b% tge- CIA on
how to assassinate our lea ers.
Phil: "Yes, there was.
"We have to defend ourselves"
Phil: "Yes, you do:'
After Mrs. Ortega's passionate
plea, it was time for Phil to unload
the first of his vaunted Value Judg-
ments. Would he deliver an indict-
ment of Sandista repression?
"I don't speak for all Americans."
said Phil with a rare modesty, "but I
do seackforaconsiderable
w en say _thhat ... millions were
embarrassed by that [CIA] manual.
And millions today," Phil added
emphatically, "are upset at this
administration for the private war
that they accuse it of engaging in
against your country."
Having rendered this public apol-
ogy on our behalf, Phil returned to
the root of his irritation: Mr. Ortega's
clumsiness at public relations.
"You have 60,000 armed people in
Nicaragua;' Phil roared. "It looks
like you're afraid of your own peo-
ple!"
Phil was bothered. It wasn't that
Mr. Ortega had confiscated a church
newspaper, but that he had done it
when the world was watching.
"You've snatched defeat from the
jaws of victory! You've got the whole
Catholic Church angry with you....
You cannot confiscate a church
newspaper and expect the world tot
give you a standing ovation," he said.
"It's a political newspaper," replied
Mrs. Ortega.
"So what;' said Phil, assuming the
role of media consultant. "Let them
speak. Your revolution;' he said, "is
popular"
This might have been a relief to
the president and his first lady. Oth-
ers might wrongly conclude from
Mr. Ortega's suspension of civil
liberties that he feared that his fully
armed populace might be discon-
tented enough to start pointing their
pistols in his direction. But Phil had
taken his own poll, and found that Mr.
Ortega had the full support of the
people!
A photo flashed on the screen
showing Mr. Ortega in his role of
doting father, surrounded by his
seven sons.
"Seven boys!" cried Phil. "Wow!
Your daughter has the sympathy of
most of the women in this audience:'
The audience laughed. Now the
Ortegas were just mom 'n' pop.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/26: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403550002-6
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/26: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403550002-6
2
Phil was nearing the end of the
show. A caller complained that he
had been apologizing "for America
to a Communist dictator." "Well," said
Phil scathingly, "aren't you a little
ashamed that we gotta privately
fund [the resistance]? What a ter-
rible thing for a powerful nation, a
democratic nation, to do"
In a rush of commercials -
nobody gets interrupted by commer-
cials in Nicaragua, the Ortegas
bragged - the program was over.
It had been a dirty job, but some-
one had to do it.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/26: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403550002-6