CIA AND THE TELEVISION INDUSTRY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100140094-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 2, 2010
• Sequence Number: 94
• Publication Date: July 22, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/08: CIA-RDP90-00
Rs;,/\D10 s;,/~Ifl IV REPORTS, INC..
4701 WiLLARD AVENUE, CHEW CHASE, MARYLAND 20015 656-4068
PROGRAM Good Morning America STATION WJLA TV
ABC Network
July 22, 1980 7:39 AM CITY Washington, DC
CIA and the Television Industry
DAVID HARTMAN: The CIA working with the television
industry? Quit a story.
RONA BARRETT: ...The Central Intelligence Agency,
which has always maintained a closed-mouth policy concerning
how its operatives work, is changing that attitude, at least
in part. We've learned that The Company's offshoot, the Asso-
ciation of Former Intelligence Officers, known as the AFIO,
has given full technical and interpretive assistance to Thompson
Penney Wagner (?) Productions, Twentieth Century Fox TV, and
CBS for a new weekly dramatic series to be titled "The CIA."
The series, using declassified information, will have
as Its heroes a CIA case officer and his team of operatives.
Oscar-winning writer Edward Anhalt has been signed to script
the initial episode, and will then serve as the series' story
consultant.
STAT
This is the closest the CIA has ever come to endorsing
a work of fiction, and falls just short of the full enthusiasm
J. Eqgar Hoover gave to the long-running FBI series. Sources
.say the CIA hopes this series will bolster its credibility, which,
was severely tarnished after the Vietnam War and the Agency's
Intervention in the internal affairs of Chile
OFFICES IN: WASHINGTON D.C. ? NEW YORK ? LOS ANGELES ? CHICAGO ? DETROIT ? AND OTHER PRINCIPAL CITIES.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/08: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100140094-2