X DRUDGE REPORT X FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1999 23:58:42 ET X
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 television 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.
Filed by Matt Drudge
Reports are moved when circumstances warrant
http://www.drudgereport.com for steaks and breaks
(c)DRUDGE REPORT 1999
Not for reproduction without permission of the author
