DARTS AND LAURELS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100330009-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 21, 2011
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: January 1, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/21 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000100330009-9
pRTtCLE APPEARED
ON PRR` I
COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW
January-February 1985
Darts and laurels
Laurel: to The Wesrsider, a Manhattan weekly, and re-
porters Jan Ba.rtelli and Jeff Kisseloff, for an October I1
story that reached out and touched a telephone polling op-
eration in which callers, sounding out prospective voters
with Jewish-sounding surnames, identified themselves as
representing the National Jewish Coalition, without reveal-
ing that the coalition was in fact an arm of the Republican
National Committee. The reporters got the coalition's num-
ber when Bartelli took a S4-an-hour undercover job as a
polltaker along with twenty-five other part-time workers,
many of whom were black or Hispanic and all of whom -
including those with decidedly Caribbean accents - were
instructed to introduce themselves to respondents as Uetty
or Harr,, Goodman.
Dart: to Alan Bock, editorial page editor of the Santa
Ana Register, for going beyond the accepted limits of ed-
itorial support by making available to a Republican congres-
sional candidate a printout of a favorable editorial that found
its way into a campaign flyer three days before it was pub-
lished in the paper,
Dart: to the Chicago Sun-Times. for foul play of a photo
in its special twenty-page souvenir sports section celebrating
the first-game victory of the Chicago Cubs baseball team in
the National League playoffs with the San Diego Padres.
Pitched as a MOMENT OF TRUTH - AND GLORY across a
two-page spread, the dramatic, sixteen-by-ten-inch picture
was captioned "Two fans raise their pennants [emblazoned
with the words NL EASTERN DIVISION CHAMPIONS] in the
upper deck of Wrigley Field as the first game of the National
League playoffs kicked off with a 13-0 victory for the Cubs
"; alert fans, however', catching clues from the score-
board, the stadium clock, and the color of the visiting team's
uniforms, quickly figured out the score: the photo, of a game
with the Pittsburgh Pirates, had actually been shot a couple
of weeks before.
Dart: to C. Peter Jorgensen, publisher of Century News-
papers in Massachusetts, for his comic interpretation of the
role of interfering publisher. In an October 11 memo, Jor-
gensen (who also functioned as chairman of New England
Newspaper Friends for Reagan/Bush), advised all members
of the editorial staffs of his three Boston-area weeklies that
he did "not intend to pay for paper and ink, or staff time I
and effort, to print news or opinion pieces which in any
way might be construed to lend support, comfort. assistance
or aid to political candidates who are opposed by Republican
candidates in the November election. . . . You are specif-
ically instructed." the memo went on. ''to submit any and
all political stories which mention any candidate in any race
and any photographs, letters, editorials, cutlines. or any
other kind of written material whatsoever relative to the
election or elected officials and their record. to the publisher
prior to publication. . .. If this is unclear in any way,
resolve ever, question in your mind with a decision NOT
to print."
Laurel: to the Associated Press and correspondent Robert
Parry, for a June 299 story documenting the existence of a
comic-book-style manual on methods of sabotage produced
for Nicaraguan rebels by the CI.A. Laurel: to Pacific News
Service and free-lance reporter Brian Barger, for further
revelations (July 26) of a second manual this one on' "Psv-
chological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare,'' that had also
been furnished to the rebels by the CIA. (According to PNS.
the story had originally been offered to The Washington
Post, for which Barger was working at the time, and to
NBC, but both news organizations had turned it down. )
Significantly, it was not until the appearance of Parr-'s
I Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/21 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000100330009-9
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/21 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000100330009-9
a-
independently confirmed report on the psychological-op-
e duns manual (October 14} and The Ne>7 York Times's
own pate-one account three days later. that the dirty-tricks
ston? entered public consciousness and became an issue in
tl~e 1984 presidential campaign
Dart: to Time, for Living with one hand and taking away
with the other. The newsweeklv's October 8 issue carried
a special advertising section on "Strategies for Healthier,
Happier. and Longer Life" that featured editorial material
supplied by the American Academy of Family Physicians.
but deleted from the AAFP narrative all references to the
hazards of smoking cigarettes. (Also featured in the issue
were seven full-page, four-color tobacco ads.) Laurel: to
The Boston Globe and reporter Charles Kenney. for a front-
page series (September 30. October 1 and 2) on scientific.
legal. and political developments in the intensifying wtr on
smoking - including that rarity of rarities. a discussion of
the impact of advertising on the outcome of that war.
Dart: to the Yakima, Washington. Herald-Republic, for
a remarkable innovation in journalistic enterprise - a "paid
letters to the editor" feature in which readers might register
their views on candidates and issues by paying the paper
ten cents a word.
Dart: to The Cincinnati Enquirer, for a shameless feature
story (October 12) about one of the first women in the region
to benefit from a new government program providing hous-
ing subsidies to minority female heads of household. Al-.
though the article identified the mother of five as a clerk
employed by the Enquirer, it neglected to mention that she
had been encouraged to apply for the aid by her boss at the
high)), profitable Gannett-owned paper after he had rejected
the latest of her several requests for a "survival" raise.
Laurel: to the Casper, Wyoming. Star-Tribune and city
editor Daniel Gearino. for a refreshingly candid confession
(September 16) that the paper had been "irresponsible, eli-
tist, pompous, and absurd" when it decided to wait for guilt
to be established before revealing in its news accounts that
an unnamed "prominent city official" charged with sexual
assault was in fact the city's mayor.
Dart: to Michael Simmons, publisher of the Marengo
Pioneer-Republican, The North English Record, and the
Williamsburg Journal-Tribune, the only general circulation
papers published in Iowa County, Iowa, for cutting off his
professional nose to spite his unprofessional -face. Perceiv-
ing a snub to the president of the papers' parent company
by Representative Janet Carl at a Democratic fund-raiser
last spring, Simmons delivered an ultimatum: either an apol-
ogy from Carl (which was not forthcoming) or a blackout
on coverage of her reelection campaign, including letters to
the editor on her behalf. In a November 9 editorial. Simmons
apologized to readers (though not to Carl) for having "ig-
nored our obligation to cover the news. ... In making
public our mistakes." Simmons could not resist adding,
"we also hope that Representative Carl realizes hers." Carl
won reelection, incidentally, by twenty-four votes.
Dart: to the Akron Beacon Journal, for turning its Sunday
magazine into an amateurish yearbook. Its September 30
cover story on the Salvation Army's 100 years in Akron
was flanked by twenrv-two ads from local merchants giving
the organization a lucrative (for the paper) salute.
Dart: to the Orange Coast Daily Pilot in Costa Mesa,
California, for the looking-glass logic of its October 24
editorial urging voters to return the district's Republican
representative to Congress despite the fact that his record,
as outlined in the editorial, was so appalling that "we can't
bring ourselves to endorse the candidate by name." ^
Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/21 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000100330009-9