XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1999 23:58:42 ET XXXXX
BROADDRICK EXPLOSION: CALLS FOR NBC NEWS PRESIDENT TO RESIGN; LOCKHART LOSES CONTROL!
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."
drudgereport.com |
