from:alt.politics.org.cia As, always, Caveat Lector Om K ----- Click Here: <A HREF="aol://5863:126/alt.politics.org.cia:50877">The CIA's Richard Mellon Scaife</A> ----- Subject: The CIA's Richard Mellon Scaife From: Alex Constantine <A HREF="mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]">alexx12@mediaone. net</A> Date: Sun, May 14, 2000 2:20 PM Message-id: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> CJR July/August 1981 Citizen Scaife, part2 The small-bore publisher It was newspapers, however, not the world of finance, that eventually captured Richard Scaife's interest. In 1969, he made a successful offer of almost $5 million for the Greensburg, Pennsylvania, Tribune-Review (daily circulation: 41,500), which was part of an estate being handled by the Mellon Bank. Greensburg, a town of 20,000 people about thirty miles east of Pittsburgh, is the county seat of Westmoreland County, which is a curious mix of, on the one hand, working-class, mob-infiltrated towns, and, on the other, rolling hills where Mellons ride to hounds. Scaife apparently has not scrimped on costs at the paper, including salaries. He has lured at least two people from the Pittsburgh dailies, and his Harrisburg bureau chief, J. R. Freeman, says that it is his understanding that he can "go anywhere in the world and stay as long as I want." The paper, housed in an attractive, modern building on a Greensburg side street, routinely features staff reports on Pittsburgh politics as well as local affairs, depending on the wires for most national coverage. Despite his vast resources, Scaife has not moved into the big leagues of publishing. During the Nixon years, he was urged by at least one high official in the White House to bid for The Washington Star, but he never did. Pittsburgh acquaintances say that several years ago Scaife talked about buying The Philadelphia Inquirer; however, Sam McKeel, president of Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc., the Knight- Ridder group that owns the Inquirer, says Scaife never made any overtures. Last year, Scaife entered into negotiations to buy Harper's magazine, but nothing came of those talks. Instead Scaife has settled for a modest collection of holdings which include, in addition to the Tribune-Review the Lebanon (Pennsylvania) Daily News and Sunday Pennsylvanian: two Pennsylvania weeklies, The (Blairsville) Dispatch and the Elizabethtown Chronicle; until recently a city magazine, Pittsburgher, which folded early this year; and a new monthly business Sunday supplement called Pennsylvania Economy, which began publishing last October. Elsewhere, he owns half of two weeklies in California and half of The Sacramento Union, his largest (circulation: 106,000) and only nationally known acquisition. Scaife bought the half interest in late 1977 from John McGoff, a Michigan publisher who is under investigation by federal authorities in connection with alleged secret payments by the South African government to permit him to buy news properties. (See "The McGoff Grab," CJR, November/December 1979.) Various explanations are offered for Scaife's failure to acquire a major national publication. Some acquaintances speak of his dislike of publicity; others of his unwillingness, despite his wealth, to spend the sums required. Pat Minarcin, the former Pittsburgher editor, suggests another aspect of Scaife's personality that may be relevant. "Here is a man who is as rich or richer than any other man in the country, who has a hunger to be accepted as a journalist and a responsible member of society," says Minarcin. "Yet he has this fatal flaw - he keeps shooting himself in the foot." In the case of the Tribune-Review, the "shot" was Scaife's firing of a young reporter, Jude Dippold, in October 1973, two days after Dippold had remarked to the newsroom upon reading of Spiro Agnew's resignation as vice-president, "One down and one to go." Within hours of Dippold's firing, ten of the paper's twenty-four-person editorial staff resigned. They charged in a statement that Scaife (a $1-million contributor to Nixon's re-election campaign and a $47,500 contributor - according to Justice Department records to the illegal Watergate campaign fund known as the Townhouse Operation) had ''continually, in the opinion of the professional staff, interjected his political and personal bias into the handling of news stories." (See "Mutiny in Greensburg,'' CJR, January/February 1974.) Six years later, another chapter was added to the "Citizen Scaife" saga. This time it involved the firing of a young editorial cartoonist, Paul Duginski, at The Sacramento Union. According to Duginski, on December 3, 1979, he was called in by editor Don Hoenshell who has since died, and shown a letter from Scaife complaining about several unflattering cartoon Duginski had drawn of California's conservative lieutenant governor, Mike Curb. According to Duginski, the letter instructed Hoenshell to restrict Duginski to doing cartoons on local issues. Duginski accepted the restriction but told his story to feed/back, the San Francisco State journalism review. Shortly after feed/back published an article on the matter last spring, Duginski was told that he was being laid off for economic reasons. As in the case of Jude Dippold, Duginski's colleagues rallied to his defense. In addition to presenting him with a T-shirt that announced ''I've been Scaifed," twenty-seven of them signed a petition offering to donate part of their salaries so that Duginski could continue to be employed. Management declined the offer. Duginski still has not found another full-time cartooning job. Scaife's one foray into international publishing represents perhaps the most curious of his publishing enterprises. In 1973, he became the owner of Kern House Enterprises, a U.S.-registered company. Kern House ran Forum World Features, a London-based news agency that supplied feature material to a large number of papers around the world, including at one time about thirty in the U.S. Scaife abruptly closed down Forum in 1975, shortly before Time Out, a British weekly, published a purported 1968 CIA memorandum, addressed to then-director Richard Helms, which described Forum as a CIA-sponsored operation providing "a significant means to counter Communist propaganda." The Forum-CIA tie, which lasted into the seventies, has been confirmed by various British and American publications over the years, and it was confirmed independently by a source in connection with this article. Helms is a member of the same country club near Pittsburgh as Scaife. "Unfortunately," Helms says, ''I really don't know him.'' On the manner of Forum and a possible CIA link, he adds, "I don't know anything about it. And, if it were true, I wouldn't confirm it." Scaife's involvement with Forum began at a time when he seems to have begun to recognize that newspapering might not represent the most effective way to make his mark on the world. Perhaps it was frustration at his lack of clout as a publisher that led Scaife to cast around for other areas in which to play a public role. This search coincided with the birth of a powerful new movement, one that was to culminate in the election of Ronald Reagan - the New Right. next: Overlooked Maecenas to the New Right part 2: The small bore publisher part 3: Overlooked Maecenas to the New Right part 4: Drawing up the agenda part 5: A bead on the media part 6: Sidebars cjr | archive | resources | contact | search | subscribe ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, All My Relations. Omnia Bona Bonis, Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html <A HREF="http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
