CALLS FOR NBC NEWS PRESIDENT TO RESIGN FOR BLOCKING CLINTON RAPE STORY
The WALL STREET JOURNAL went. Then the WASHINGTON POST went. Next, NBC News President Andy Lack may be going, going, gone.
President Lack may become Juanita Broaddrick's first victim as media outlets worldwide blared rape allegations against President Clinton -- allegations that Lack suppressed when he refused to allow NBC hot shot Lisa Myers' 30-minute interview with the once Jane Doe to clear air.
NBC News President Lack was being hit with all of the blame for the Broaddrick debacle late Friday night.
"Andy Lack should resign. Resign now. We have to save our face," declared one insider Friday night as word spread throughout elite media circles that the WASHINGTON POST had frontpaged a chilling story of sexual assault and coverup.
Myers fought to get it on the air. Washington Bureau Chief Russert fought to get it on the air. Thousands of phone calls jammed NBC's phone lines after the DRUDGE REPORT revealed that NBC News put Broaddrick on ice for the second time.
"I feel so betrayed by NBC," Broaddrick told the WASHINGTON POST.
[The race is now on to secure a new Broaddrick television interview. Lewinsky hot Barbara Walters is a possible front-runner. Lewinsky hot Larry King would offer a less glamorous venue, and earned no points during Friday's Paula Jones interview when he completely failed to mention the Broaddrick story that had consumed the capital.]
It was Lack who personally blocked the interview, and continued to thwart NBC's Washington bureau going into the last week of network sweeps. Behind the scenes on Friday night, calls for Lack's resignation accelerated. And there are new signs that Lack knowingly stood by as the White House manipulated NBC owner GENERAL ELECTRIC.
"The White House pressure to prevent the Broaddrick interview from reaching air worked its way to the highest levels of the parent company GE," says a senior executive at another network.
After all, it was Lack himself who allowed Myers' original NBC NIGHTLY NEWS story on Broaddrick's rape charge to run last March. Working with nothing but court records and second-hand corroboration, Lack and NBC News aired Broaddrick's story on the eve of the Paula Jones case dismissal. Now with Broaddrick herself confirming Myers' original report on camera and on the record, Lack has put on the brakes.
WASHINGTON POST media savant Howard Kurtz reported on Saturday:
"Several NBC sources said Myers and her Washington bureau chief, Tim Russert, were frustrated by their inability to get the story on the air. They and other advocates believe that each time they came up with further corroboration, NBC management raises the evidentiary bar a little higher."
It is not clear if White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart has been in personal contact with NBC News President Lack, or to what lengths Lockhart has gone to keep the story bottled up. One thing became clear Friday night. The cork had popped and had shot around the world.
The rape charges hit front pages of the world's newspapers Saturday after the WALL STREET JOURNAL's Dorothy Rabinowitz secured Broaddrick's first on-the-record comments on NBC's interview coverup. Lockhart, operating on autopilot, tried to smear the JOURNAL. "They lost me when they accused the president of being a drug smuggler and a murderer," Lockhart sneered during his Friday briefing.
But Pete Yost at the ASSOCIATED PRESS quickly picked up the JOURNAL's cue hours later, getting his very own Broaddrick exclusive. Lockhart was forced off cruise control by the Yost.
And then word hit just as the president and first lady were reportedly again cleaning out closets. The WASHINGTON POST had prepared a front-page, in-depth, on-the-record, deeply sourced expose on Broaddrick. The impeachment threat had just ended and the next scandal had already broken. "We only had three calm days," sighed one administration insider.
The WASHINGTON POST surprised scandal watchers late week with its Broaddrick bombshell. The paper had been floundering as the NEW YORK TIMES produced exclusive after exclusive on the Clinton scandal front. The TIMES was silent on Saturday, likely preparing a catch-up story for Sunday. As the race to an unseen finish line drew a step closer.
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