IS TV NEWS REVEALING TOO MANY GOVERNMENT SECRETS?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000100710099-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 16, 2011
• Sequence Number: 99
• Publication Date: February 25, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/03/16 :CIA-RDP91-005878000100710099-7
AR?1CLE EPPEA~
ON PAGE.--~-'"
Network correspondents on the
intelligence beat walk a fine line
between informing the public
and jeopardizing national security
By John Weisman
February /9e.1: The U. S. secretly de-
ployed four AWACS early-warning aircraft
to Egypt and made other clandestine
moves in order to monitor a Libyan mili-
tary buildup on the Sudanese border. ABC
national-security correspondent John
McWethy learned about the U. S. moves.
But at the request of high-ranking Pen-
tagon officials, who told him that if he
broadcast it, American intelligence
sources and methods would be compro-
mised, McWethy sat on the story for 24
hours. "The assessment," says former State
Department spokesman Alan Romberg,
"is that [McWethy] perhaps helped save
somebody's I~fe."
May tfi>a3: CBS correspondent David
Martin, citing "Administration aocuces,"
reported that U. S. intelligence inlar~cept-
ed aseries of cables sent from Tehran b
Damascus: cables that implicated the
government of Ayatollah KhomeMl iA the
April 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy
in Beirut in which 17 Americans died. CIA
spokesman George Lauder says Martin's
ropoR "caused us b lose the manner in
which the intercept was made wiMin 10
days after the story ran."
"If that's true," says Martin, "I cost CIA
a source. Not a human source, a source
which I'm sure they haw replaced ay
now. But it probably coat them some mon-
ey to do it. If, in fact, that is true, then
obviously that is a sbry I shouldn't haw
done."
TV GUIDE
25-21 February 1986
During the hijacking of TWA Flight 847
last June, all three networks reported on
the movement of Delta Force, the U.S.'s
elite Counterterror strike force, to the Med-
iterranean. Even though CBS, ABC and
NBC's reporting was nonspecific, Sec-
retary of State George Shultz and other
Administration officials accused the
press of jeopardizing the hostages.
NBC correspondent Fred Fran-
cis says that before airing his
report he called "a ranking officer in the
Army" for confirmation about Oelta's
movements. The officer, says Francis, "told
me flatly ... 'we'd rather you didn't (re-
port) it, but frankly [Delta) isn't going
anywhere near that plane'." Francis claims
U.S. intelligence knew TWA Flight 847
was going back to Beirut before Delta
could stage a rescue operation at Algiers,
and the press disclosures jeopardized
nothing.
According to ahigh-ranking intelli-
gence official, at one point during the
seajacking of the Achille Lauro by PLO
terrorists, CBS's David Martin gathered
information for a report about "'SIO~NT'
[signals intelligence) information on the
methods we were using" to learn what
was taking place aboard the ship. Ac-
cording to the official, CIA director Wil-
liam Casey placed a personal call to
then-CBS News president? Edward Joyce
and convinced Joyce (who declined to
be interviewed for this article) not to tel-
evise Martin's exclusive. (Martin says he
decided independently not to broadcast
the spot.)
There is a constant battle over sensitive
information going on these days. In one
camp are the networks, whose news op-
eretiona want to inform viewero about de-
velopments within the intelligence and
national-security areas. In the othe- are
officials at the CIA, the White House, the
State Department and the Pentagon.
"Th
Geors
a righ
of ga
know
feat
to knr
cider
comes b reporting national-securrry aria
intelligence-bawd abries? A good per-
centage of those charged with keeping the
Nation's secrets will tell you that often it
is not responsible at all. "There is a lot of
reporting of classified inbnnatlort that is
damaging b ua, which wr don't know about
until we see it on the air," says chief Pen-
tagon spokesman Flobert Sims.
-
But tftoae who cover tfte bed say the
the Govemmsnt tends b owmsact when
it cornea to intelligence rsportlnp, cryirq
wotl too often b protect, not ratkxal s?
curity, but incompetence and embarrssa-
ing intelligence failures. ABCs John Scab.
who has covered the rmtionaF~sacxrrity and
intelligence bed for moro than 40 years.
says, "News organizations haves re-
sponsibility bhelp maintain the Nation's
vital secrets in a world where nuclear
weapons can incinsrde a hemisphere.
But this doesn't mean we have b stand
mute and salute every time somebody
demands a sbrY bs killed."
"I don't know how strorp I can txtt on
this,,. says NBC's' Frod Francis. "They
classify too much. They scrosim too much
about what they read in the papers or see
on television, when in fact moat Of what
they see or rid has already been pul}
fished beforo, or reported in testimony
before some Senate committee.'.
As evidence, Francis cites atwo-part re-
port he did in January 1985 on the Pen-
tagon's special-operations forces. He and
his producer, Bob Windrem, came across
an article in the periodical Naval Pro-
ceedings that reported about two nuclear
submarines, the John Marshall and the
Sam Houston, which wero being corn
verted by the Navy for specialoperotiona
commando use.-
Francis says when he went b the Navy
ro ask eboutthe program. which had also
been discussed on Capitol Hill, ha was
told it was classified. "I said, 'Nah, guys,
it's not classified. l.~oolc at May 1984 Navel
Proceedings.' But they refused b talk
about it. Well, the day they refused. Mre
wero fyirp over the lvw submarines on
the West Coast. filmirq them."
Marft Brander. a fomtsr Naval otfioer who
is the Washington national-security es-
signmsnt editor br ABC News. cites an-
other example. "I'm dealing with the USS
Samuel Rayburn, which. urtdar the SALT
agreement, is now dismantled-its hatch-
es aro lyirq open and the missiles aro out.
The sub is sitting at the Cfterteslon. South
Carolina, Naval Shipyard right now-iit-
ting in the water akxrgside a pier, no tent
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/03/16 :CIA-RDP91-005878000100710099-7
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