Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr11/jfk123.zip/CHAP9

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                               Chapter 9
                          Control of the Media

As mentioned in Chapter 1, one of the two clever strategies used by  the
Power Control Group in the taking of America has been the control of the
news media.

For  those American citizens who steadfastly refuse to believe that  all
of the American establishment news media could be controlled by the  CIA
and its friends in the White House, the continuing support of the Warren
Commission's lone assassin conclusion by virtually all of the major news
media  organizations  in November, 1975, twelve years after  the  event,
must  have been very puzzling indeed.  Since 78% of the  public  believe
that  there  was  a conspiracy in the case, there must be  a  series  of
questions  in  the minds of the most intelligent of the  78%  about  the
media's position on the subject.[1]

This Chapter is intended to enlighten readers and to remind them of  the
control exercised by the intelligence community and the White House over
the 15 organizations from whom the public gets the vast majority of  its
news and opinions.

Let's  begin with 1968-1969.  By 1973 the American public had  begun  to
develop  a skepticism toward information they received on television  or
radio.   Various  news  stories appearing in  our  national  news  media
through those years had brought about this attitude.  Some examples are:
the Songmy-Mylai incident, the Pueblo story, the murder of Black Panther
Fred  Hampton,  the  Pentagon  Papers, the  Clifford  Irving  hoax,  the
Bangladesh tragedy and the India-Pakistan war, Hoover & FBI antics,  the
Jack Anderson papers, and IT&T and the Republican National Convention.

The  general  reaction was bound to be, "Don't  believe  everything  you
read, see or hear, especially the first time around, and more especially
if  the  story  comes from Washington."  In the  case  of  the  Pentagon
Papers,  things  we  all  had taken as gospel  for  nearly  two  decades
suddenly seemed to crumble.

To what extent can the national news media be held responsible for  this
situation?   What  has  happened  to  the  inquiring  reporter  and  the
crusading editor who are both searching for and printing the truth?   If
a government or a president lies or keeps secrets, can the American news
media  really find out about it?  And if they do, what  moral,  ethical,
political  or other criteria should they use in uncovering the lies  and
presenting them to the public?

Vice  President Agnew would have said, "The press is already  going  too
far."  Members of the press would have said, "We must remain independent
and  maintain the freedom of speech."  Just how independent is the  news
media?  Is it controlled to some extent by Washington?

The  answer to some of these questions can be found by taking an  inside
look at the major national news media organizations during 1968 and 1969
and how they treated the most controversial news subject since World War
II.   The assassination of John F. Kennedy and its aftermath is an  all-
pervading,  endless  topic.  It has yet to reach  the  Pentagon  Papers,
Anderston papers, or Mylai stage of revelation.  Precisely because it is
still  such a controversial subject, verboten for discussion  among  all
major news media (unless the discussant supports the Warren Commission),
it serves as an excellent case study.

A  categorical  statement  can be made  that  management  and  editorial
policy, measured by what is printed and broadcast in all major  American
news   media  organizations,  supports  the  findings  of   the   Warren
Commission.  This has been true since 1969, but it was not true  between
1964 and 1969.

Of significance in this analysis and what it implies about the  American
public's  knowledge  about  the assassination and  its  aftermath  is  a
definition  of  "major  American  national  news  media."   It  can   be
demonstrated that an overwhelming mass of news information reaching  the
eyes and ears of Americans comes from about fifteen organizations.  They
are,  in general order of significance:  NBC-TV & Radio CBS-TV &  Radio,
ABC-TV  &  Radio, Associated Press,  United  Press,  "Time-Life-Fortune-
Sports  Illustrated,"  McGraw Hill "Business  Week,"  "Newsweek,"  "U.S.
News  & World Report," "New York Times" News Service, "Washington  Post"
News Service, Metromedia News Network, Westinghouse Radio News  Network,
Capital  City Broadcasting Radio Network, the North  American  Newspaper
Alliance, and the "Saturday Evening Post" (the "Post" is, of course, now
defunct.)

There are some subtle reasons for this, not generally appreciated by the
average  citizen.  Television has, of course, become the primary  source
of  information.   For  any  nationally  circulated  news  story,  local
stations  rely  heavily on film, videotape and written  script  material
prepared  and edited by the three networks.  Once in a while  Metromedia
may  also  send out TV material.  In effect, this means  that  editorial
content  for  a  vast majority of the  television  information  seen  by
American  citizens  everywhere originates not only with  three  or  four
organizations  but also with a very small number of  producers,  editors
and commentators in those networks.

A large majority of any national news items printed by local  newspapers
originates in a small number of press-wire services.  AP and UP dominate
this area, with selected chains of papers subscribing to a lesser extent
to  new  services  of the "New York  Times,"  "Washington  Post,"  North
American  Newspaper  Alliance,  and a very  small  percentage  receiving
information from papers in Los Angeles, Chicago and St. Louis.

In a national news story of major significance such as the assassination
of  John  Kennedy, the smaller local papers rely almost  exclusively  on
their   affiliated  news  services.   Economic  reasons   dictate   this
situation.   The small paper can't afford to have reporters  everywhere.
The major newspapers might send a man to Dallas for a few days to  cover
the assassination, or they might send a man to New Orleans to cover  the
Clay Shaw trial.  But even the major papers can't afford to cover  every
part of a continuing story anywhere around the world.  So they too  rely
on  UP and AP for much of their material.  They also rely on AP, UP  and
Black Star[2] for most of their photographic material.

In the case of news magazines, the holding corporations become important
in  forming  editorial  policy in a situation as  controversial  as  the
assassination  of  JFK.   Time  Inc.  and  "Life,"  "Newsweek"  and  the
"Washington  Post," "U.S. News," and McGraw Hill managements all  became
involved.

Fifteen organizations is a surprisingly small number, and one is led  to
conjecture about how easy or difficult it might be to control or dictate
editorial  policy for all of them or some appreciable majority of  them.
An  article  in "Computers and Automation"[3] reprinted a  statement  by
John  R.  Rarick,  Louisiana  Congressman  and  an  entry  made  in  the
"Congressional  Record"  bearing on this subject.  In the  reprint,  the
"Government  Employees Exchange" publication is quoted as  stating  that
the  CIA New Team used secret cooperating and liaison groups  after  the
Bay  of  Pigs in the large foundations, banks and newspapers  to  change
U.S.  domestic and foreign relations through the infiltration  of  these
organizations.  The coordinating role at "The New York Times" was in the
custody of Harding Bancroft, Executive Vice President.

A  useful analysis consists of examining what happened  organizationally
and  editorially  inside  each of the fifteen  companies  following  the
assassination  of  President  Kennedy.   My  personal  knowledge,   plus
information  available from a few sources connected with the major  news
media,  permits such an analysis to be made for eleven of  the  fifteen.
They  are:  NBC, CBS, ABC, Time-Life, "The New York Times,"  "Newsweek,"
Associated  Press, United Press, "Saturday Evening Post,"  Capital  City
Broadcasting,  and North American Newspaper Alliance.  In addition,  the
performance  of nine local newspapers and TV stations directly  involved
in  the  events  in  Dallas and New Orleans  will  be  analyzed.   These
include: "Dallas Times Herald," "Dallas Morning News," Fort Worth  "Star
Telegram," Dallas CBS-Affiliate WBAP, "New Orleans Times Picayune," "New
Orleans Times Herald," and New Orleans NBC-Affiliate WDSU-TV.

Most of these organizations had reporters and photographers in Dallas at
the time of the assassination or within a few hours thereafter.  Most of
them  had  direct coverage available when Jim  Garrison's  investigation
broke  into  the news in 1967 and during the trial of Clay Shaw  in  New
Orleans  in  1969.  For many of them the Shaw trial became  the  running
point in the changing of editorial policy toward the assassination.  For
a few, the Garrison investigation and the Shaw trial took on the  aspect
of waving a red flag in front of a bull.  They became directly  involved
in  a negative way and thus not only reported the news, but also  biased
it.

Immediately  following  the  assassination  the  media  reported  nearly
everything that had obviously happened.  All was confused for the  first
few  days.   The killing of Oswald by Ruby on live  television  produced
even greater confusion.

For  one  year  the  major  media  reported  everything,  from  probable
Communist  conspiracies to the lone assassin theory.  The  media  waited
for the Warren Report, and when it was issued in October of 1964 many of
the  major media fell into line and editorially backed the  Commission's
findings.   Some questioned the findings and continued to question  them
until 1968 or 1969.  "The New York Times" and "Life" magazine fell  into
this  category.   But by the time the Shaw trial ended  in  March  1969,
every one of the fifteen major news media organizations was backing  the
Warren  Commission  and they have continued to maintain  this  editorial
position since.

The  situation would perhaps not be so surprising had not  the  internal
assassination   research  teams  in  several  of   these   organizations
discovered  the truth about the Kennedy killing between 1964  and  1968.
These  teams examined the evidence and thoroughly analyzed it.   No  one
who  has ever taken the trouble to objectively do just that has  reached
any conclusion other than conspiracy.

In each and every case the internal findings were overruled, suppressed,
locked  up,  edited  and  otherwise  altered  to  back  up  the   Warren
Commission.   Management  at the highest editorial and  corporate  level
took  the  action  in  every  instance.   Before  drawing  any   further
generalization  about the performance of the media in the JFK  case,  it
will  be  revealing to examine what happened and specifically  who  took
what  actions in the case of the eleven national organizations  and  the
nine local ones listed earlier.

                               Time-Life

The  Time Inc. organization let "Life Magazine" establish its  editorial
policy while "Time" published more or less standard "Time-Life" stories.
"Life" became directly involved in the assassination action and evidence
suppression from the very beginning, on November 22, 1963.

"Life" purchased the famous Zapruder movie from Abraham Zapruder on  the
afternoon  of the assassination for about $500,000.  The first  negative
action  took place when "Life" and Zapruder began telling the  lie  that
the price was $25,000 (which Zapruder donated to the fund raised for the
widow of Dallas policeman, J. D. Tippit, who had also been murdered that
day).   Apparently,  both  "Life"  and Zapruder  were  ashamed  that  he
profited  by the event.  He lived in fear that the true price  would  be
revealed until the day he died.

As  many readers know, the Zapruder film (viewed in slow motion)  proves
there was a conspiracy because of the backward motion of the President's
head immediately following the fatal shot.  It proves the shot came from
the  grassy  knoll  to the right and in front  of  the  president  while
Oswald's  purported position was very nearly directly behind  him.   The
film  also helps establish that five, and not three shots,  were  fired,
and  that one of them could not have been fired from  Oswald's  supposed
sniper's nest because of the large oak tree blocking his view.

"Life"  magazine never permitted the Zapruder film to be  seen  publicly
and  locked  it  up in November 1968 so that no one  inside  or  outside
"Life"  could  have access to it, automatically becoming  an  "accessory
after the fact".  "Life" helped protect the real assassins and committed
a worse crime than the Warren Commission.

In answer to those defenders of "Life" who will say, "But `Life'  turned
over  a  copy of the Zapruder film to the Warren Commission, and  it  is
available  in the National Archives," let's look at the  facts.   "Life"
did  not supply the copy of the film now resting in the Archives.   That
copy  came from Zapruder's original to the Secret Service to the  Warren
Commission  to  the Archives.  It is available for viewing  by  the  few
people fortunate enough to visit the Archives.  It can not be duplicated
by  anyone,  and copies can not be taken out of the Archives  or  viewed
publicly in any way.  The Archive management responsible for the Kennedy
assassination  records state that the "Life" magazine ownership  of  the
Zapruder film is what prevents copies from being made available  outside
the Archives.

The Warren Commission did not see the film in slow motion.  Nor does the
average  Archives' visitor get to see it in slow motion or  stop-action.
Yet the most casual analysis of the film in slow motion convinces anyone
to conclude there was a conspiracy.

Thus  "Life"  magazine is an important part of the efforts  to  suppress
evidence of conspiracy.

"Life"  was  involved in several other ways as an  accessory  after  the
fact.   The organization began its efforts to discover the  truth  about
the assassination in 1964 when it assigned Ed Kern, an associate editor,
to investigate.  By the fall of 1966, Kern had become convinced that the
basic  evidence  pointed  to conspiracy.   "Life"  management  was  also
apparently  convinced;   they published articles in  November  1965  and
November 1966 questioning the Warren Commission's conclusions.

In the fall of 1966 "Life" transferred Richard Billings from their Miami
office to headquarters in New York.  His assignment was to take over the
investigation  of  the  Kennedy assassination, and to  head  a  team  of
several  people  working  full  time  on  it.   One  of  Dick  Billings'
objectives  was  to  search  for and acquire  as  much  of  the  missing
photographic evidence as possible.

This  author  initiated  a  similar  search,  independent  from   "Life"
magazine,  in  September  1966.  As often happens,  people  with  common
objectives decided to work together.  Billings and the author arrived at
a tacit understanding that any JFK assassination photographs,  including
TV  films  or private movies, found by either would be  brought  to  the
other's  attention.   In exchange for access  to  "Life"'s  photographic
collection  (including the Zapruder film and slides), the author  agreed
to give "Life" the results of any analyses of the photographic evidence.
In cases where the author could not afford to acquire some new piece  of
evidence,  "Life" would offer to purchase the materials from the  owners
and supply copies to the author.

In this manner the author discovered and helped "Life" magazine  acquire
the   largest   collection   of  photographic  evidence   of   the   JFK
assassination,  outside  of  the author's personal  collection  and  the
collection  now  located  at  the  headquarters  of  the  Committee   to
Investigate  Assassinations  in  Washington,  D.C.   Among  the   photos
discovered were:

The Dorman movie                  Private
The Wilma Bond photos             Private
The Robert Hughes movie           Private
The David Weigman TV footage      NBC
The Malcolm Couch TV footage      ABC
The Jack Beers photos             "Dallas Morning News"
The William Allen photos          "Dallas Times Herald"
The George Smith photos           Ft. Worth "Star Telegram"
The John Martin movie             Private
Hugh Betzen's photo               Private

(See "Computers and Automation," May 1970)

Many  of  these  were important in proving conspiracy  and  some  showed
pictures of the real assassins.

The  "Life" team headed by Billings was in the process of discovering  a
great  deal  about the conspiracy during the  1966-1968  period.   While
editorially not taking a strong position favoring conspiracy, "Life" did
take  a  position that favored a new investigation  by  the  government.
This  was  editorially  summed up in a lead cover story  on  the  fourth
anniversary  of  Kennedy's death in November 1967 with  the  title,   "A
Matter of Reasonable Doubt".  In that issue, John Connally and his  wife
were  shown examining the Zapruder film's frames and concluding that  he
had been hit much later in the film than the Warren Commission  claimed.
This meant that two bullets struck the two men and, by the  Commission's
own admission, pointed automatically to the conspiracy.

The  government naturally did not respond to "Life"'s suggestion  for  a
new  investigation,  so  nothing ever came  of  that  editorial  policy.
Billings, however, continued his team's efforts and in October 1968  was
preparing  a comprehensive article for the November  anniversary  issue.
The  author continued to work with him and continued being given  access
to the photos right up to October 1968.

It was at that point in time that a drastic change in management  policy
occurred at "Life" magazine.  Dick Billings was told to stop all work on
the  assassination;  his entire team was stopped.  All of  the  research
files,  including  the Zapruder film and slides and thousands  of  other
film frames and photographs, were locked up.  No one at the magazine was
permitted  access to these materials and no one (including  the  author)
was ever allowed to see them again.

Simultaneously, editorial and management policy toward the assassination
changed  to  complete silence.  Billings and crew were  not  allowed  to
discuss  the subject at "Life," let alone work on it.  In November  1968
the  article Billings had been working on was turned into a  non-entity.
A  few  of  the  hundreds of photographs collected  by  the  author  and
purchased  by  "Life"  were  published in the  article,  along  with  an
innocuous commentary.  Credit for discovering the photos was given to  a
number  of people at "Life" magazine in New York and Dallas, not to  the
individuals who actually found them.

That article, published nearly nine years ago, was the last word  "Life"
has ever uttered about their extensive research probe and their feelings
about  a conspiracy.  Dick Billings moved to Washington, D.C. to  become
editor  of the Congressional Quarterly and is a member on the  board  of
directors of the Committee to Investigate Assassinations (CTIA).

Who  made the policy change decision at "Life" and why?   Various  high-
level   conspiracy   enthusiasts  claim  that  the  cabal   behind   the
assassination of the President brought extreme pressure to bear upon the
owners  and  management of Time Inc. to silence all  opposition  to  the
Warren Commission findings.  Others conclude it had something to do with
the CIA's control of "Life"'s editorial policy from inside.  This author
takes  no position on why.  Dick Billings knows only that  the  decision
was made at high levels and passed downward and that it was irrevocable.

Repeated  attempts  by the CTIA and  several  independent  assassination
researchers  to break loose the basic evidence in  "Life"'s  possession,
such as the Zapruder film, the Hughes film, and the Mark Bell Film,  met
with  total  opposition and a stone wall.  Attempts to break  loose  the
Archives'  copy  of  the  Zapruder film or slides  met  the  same  stiff
opposition.   In  1971 "Life" representatives indicated  they  might  be
interested  in  selling  rights to the Zapruder film for a  sum  in  the
neighborhood of a million dollars.

                                  CBS

The  American  public is aware of the editorial policy  adopted  by  the
Columbia Broadcasting System toward the Kennedy assassination because of
a  special four-part series with Walter Cronkite which was broadcast  on
network  TV in prime time in the summer of 1967.[4]  That series,  while
taking  issue  with  some  of the work of  the  Warren  Commission  *and
criticizing  the  Dallas  police*,  the  FBI  and  the  Secret  Service,
nevertheless backed all of the basic Warren Commission conclusions.

Anyone  watching the Cronkite series might have wondered why  the  basic
evidence  presented  by CBS in an itemized format for  each  of  several
areas  in  the  case, did not always seem to  point  to  the  conclusion
reached  at the end of each section.  The conclusion always agreed  with
the  Warren Commission's comparable conclusion.  Some viewers  may  even
have  noticed  Cronkite's double-take after reading  through  the  basic
evidence  and  then  reading the phrase, "and the  conclusion  is!"   It
seemed  as  though he didn't believe the conclusion and hadn't  seen  it
until he came to it in the script.

Actually,  that  is exactly what happened.  CBS  management  caused  the
entire  script to be changed from one concluding conspiracy to a  script
supporting the Warren Commission in the last week before the first  part
of the series went on the air.  Cronkite had not seen the entire  script
until  the program went on.  Time had not permitted changing all of  the
points  of evidence, so in most cases they were unchanged and  only  the
conclusion was changed.

How  did this come about?  Who decided to change the script at the  last
moment  and  why?   Again there are control  theories  extant,  but  the
author's  personal  relationships  to CBS people might help  to  shed  a
little light on the subject.

The discussion with all of the CBS people always centered on evidence of
conspiracy and the CBS-TV film footage taken at the assassination  site.
Bob Richter was the most knowledgeable of all the aforementioned  people
on  the  basic  evidence  and  he  was  firmly  convinced  there  was  a
conspiracy.  Bernie Birnbaum was convinced that a new investigation  was
desirable  and his wife was convinced there had been a conspiracy.   Dan
Rather believed there was a conspiracy and so did Wes Wise.

CBS  photographers  Sandy Sanderson, Tom Craven, and Jim  Underwood  had
taken  movie-TV  footages  showing  evidence  of  conspiracy.   Craven's
footage,  for example, showed the assassin's get-away car  driving  away
from the parking lot area behind the grassy knoll about one minute after
the  shots  were  fired.  Sanderson filmed one of  the  assassins  being
arrested in front of the Depository building about 30 minutes after  the
shots.   Most  of this footage was either lost or locked up in  the  CBS
archives vaults in New Jersey.

Wes  Wise  so strongly maintained his opinion about conspiracy  that  he
broadcast  appeals for new photographic evidence over the KRLD local  TV
shows.   This was done against the orders of Eddie Barker.   Wes  became
Mayor  of  Dallas, elected in 1971 and defeated  the  Dallas-established
oligarchy.   He actually received a new piece of  photographic  evidence
based on his TV appeal from a Dallas citizen named Bothun, who had taken
a picture of the grassy knoll a few moments after the shots.

The  script  for  the Cronkite series was being  edited  and  was  going
through its final preparation stages in May and early June.  The  author
was in constant touch with Wise, Birnbaum and Richter during this period
and was informed about the basic thrust of the script toward  conspiracy
and recommendations for a new investigation.

On May 8 a dinner meeting took place at the author's New York club  with
Mr.  and  Mrs. Birnbaum.  There, Mrs. Birnbaum and the author  tried  to
convince  Bernie  that  he  should take a stronger  position  on  a  new
investigation.

On  May 18, Bob Richter and one of Jim Garrison's investigators  met  in
the  National  Archives  with the author and reviewed  the  evidence  of
conspiracy.   On  June 2, 3 and 4 in Dallas, the  author  showed  Bernie
Birnbaum and Wes Wise a film taken by Johnny Martin that showed three of
the  assassins and their cohorts on the grassy knoll running toward  the
parking  lot  a few seconds after firing two shots.  Wise  and  Birnbaum
tried to interest Barker and others in taking a look at the film.

On  June 14 Bob Richter invited the author to meet Midgely,  Lister  and
Wallace  at CBS in New York where an interview was being taped with  Jim
Garrison for use in the series.  At that time Garrison, Richter and  the
author  spent some time with the producer and his  assistant  discussing
the evidence of conspiracy.

Finally, on June 20, just five days before the program was to go on  the
air, the author met with Richter and Dan Rather in the Washington,  D.C.
CBS  studios.   The  script was reviewed by Richter and  Rather  in  the
author's  presence.   The gist of the conversation was that  Rather  and
Richter  agreed that the conclusions stating conspiracy had to  be  made
even stronger than they were at that time.

The  day  before the program was aired, Bob Richter assured  the  author
that the theme would point to conspiracy and demand a new investigation.
The author telephoned Richter immediately after the first broadcast  and
asked  what  had  happened.   Richter  was  devastated.   He  could  not
understand  what  had  happened.   From that  time  forward  his  course
paralleled  that of Dick Billings.  He resigned from CBS in disgust  and
formed  his  own  company, Richter-McBride, in New  York.   It  was  his
original intent to make a film about the JFK assassination based on  his
own  research  and  the films he could  obtain.   However,  the  massive
suppression  of  the assassination, especially the  suppression  of  the
Zapruder film by Time-Life films, cancelled Richter's plans for a film.

Correspondence with Cronkite and others determined that the decision  to
change  the script, distort and hide CBS's own findings and back up  the
Warren  Commission to the hilt came from Midgely and Lister.   How  much
higher  did  the decision go?  Richard Salant was head of the  CBS  News
Division  then  and,  of course, William C. Paley  was  (and  still  is)
chairman of the board.

By  an odd coincidence, in a sequel to the above CBS story,  the  author
had  an opportunity to learn a little more about Mr. Paley's  knowledge.
Jeff  Paley,  William Paley's son, returned to the  United  States  from
Paris in the winter of 1967-1968, where he had been writing news stories
and  a news column for "L'Express" and for the North American  Newspaper
Alliance,  a group serving small papers in the United States.  Jeff  had
become  convinced  there was a conspiracy in the JFK case  and  came  to
interview  Garrison  and  others and to do a story  for  French  papers.
(European  papers and magazines always believed and still do believe  in
the  JFK assassination conspiracy.)  He met at length with  Richter  and
the  author  and  became  quite disturbed at  what  CBS  had  done.   He
approached  his  father  with the idea that CBS had been  wrong  in  the
Cronkite  series  and  that  something should be  done  to  rectify  the
situation.

Bill  Paley told his son that he knew nothing about the details  of  the
programs or the work lying behind the conclusions.  He said Midgely  had
been  responsible  for the entire production.  He told Jeff that  if  he
could show proof that the CBS conclusions were wrong and there had  been
a  conspiracy, that he would fire Midgely and all the rest of  the  team
and do the whole thing all over again under new management.

Needless  to  say, this did not happen and the mystery about  where  the
decision  to  suppress the truth came from within CBS is as deep  as  it
ever was.

Since  June 1967, CBS has remained editorially silent on the subject  of
the JFK assassination.  The photographic evidence of conspiracy in their
possession remains locked up and suppressed.  The Craven  sequence--film
footage by the CBS photographer (who had been in the parade's camera car
# 1) of a car driving out of the Elm Street extension (left-to right  in
front  of  the Texas School Book Depository) within 20  seconds  of  the
assassination--was seen by the author and Jones Harris in New York,  but
was  cut out of the film where it appeared prior to the time the  author
and  Richter began searching for it.  There is little question that  CBS
is an accessory after the fact.

CBS edited out one other important piece of TV film.  In November  1969,
Walter Cronkite conducted a three-part interview with Lyndon B.  Johnson
at  his ranch in Texas.  The series was broadcast in the spring of  1970
and  on the first program an announcement was made that portions of  the
taped  interview  had  been deleted at Lyndon  Johnson's  request,  "for
reasons of national security."

What actually happened and what Johnson had said six months earlier  was
made public due to a leak at CBS.  The story appeared in newspapers  all
over the U.S. several days before the broadcast.

Johnson  told  Cronkite  that  there  had  been  a  conspiracy  in   the
assassination  of President Kennedy, that Oswald was not a  lone  madman
assassin,  and  that  he,  Johnson, had known  it  all  along.   Johnson
reviewed the tapes a week or so before the program was to go on the  air
and  then  called  up the CBS management, asking  that  his  remarks  be
deleted.

Someone  at  CBS who was very disturbed by this called a member  of  the
Committee  to  Investigate  Assassinations and told him  what  had  been
deleted.  This led to the story being printed in the newspapers.

                          "The New York Times"

The record of the "Times" through the 1969-1971 period follows the  same
pattern as CBS and "Life" magazine editorial policies.

The   early  editorials  following  the  Warren  Report  supported   the
Commission.  The "Times" cooperated by publishing much of the report  in
advance.   In 1965, however, editorials began to appear that  questioned
the  Commission's findings and suggested a new investigation.   In  1964
the  "Times"  formed  a research team headed by  Harrison  Salisbury  to
investigate the assassination.  The team of six included Peter Khiss and
Gene  Roberts.  Their conclusions were never made public by the  "Times"
but indications point to their finding evidence of conspiracy.

Khiss,  in particular, through the 1966-1968 period in several  meetings
and  discussions  with  the author, expressed doubts  about  the  Warren
Report and questioned the lone madman assassin theme.  When the Garrison
investigation  made  the news, the "Times" began a regular  campaign  to
undermine Garrison's case, to support the Warren Commission, and finally
(during  the  Clay Shaw trial) to completely distort the  news  and  the
testimony  presented.   Martin Waldron was the reporter sending  in  the
stories  from  the Shaw trial, but someone in New York  edited  them  to
completely  change their content.  The author saw the story  written  by
Waldron on the first day of the trial and the final version appearing in
the "Times."  The two were completely different, with Waldon's  original
following the actual trial proceedings very closely.

The author, writing under the pen name of Samuel B. Thurston, postulated
the  possibility  that  "The  New York  Times,"  on  selected  subjects,
including the JFK assassination, was controlled by the CIA through their
representative among top management, Mr. Harding Bancroft.[5]

In  the  summer of 1968, the author discovered a  remarkable  similarity
between the sketch of the assassin of Dr. Martin Luther King and one  of
the three tramps arrested in Dealey Plaza following the assassination of
President  Kennedy.   Peter Khiss wrote a story about this  and  it  was
published  by the "Times" in June, 1968.  Apparently that was the  final
straw for the "Times" management as far as Khiss was concerned.  He  was
not allowed to do any more research on assassinations or to discuss  the
subject  at  the  "Times."  As he told the author in  1969,  he  doesn't
attend  any  press conferences about assassinations because  he  doesn't
like  it  when people in "Times" management say, "Here comes  crazy  old
Pete Khiss again with his conspiracy talk."

The apex of "The New York Times" actions and editorial positions on  the
JFK  assassination came in November and December 1971.   They  published
three  items  supporting  the Warren Commission eight  years  after  the
assassination,  at  a time when it seemed on the surface to  be  a  dead
issue.

The  first was a story about Dallas eight years later by an author  from
Texas  who wrote his entire story as though it were an established  fact
that  Oswald  was the lone madman assassin firing three shots  from  the
sixth  floor window of the Depository building and later killing  police
officer Tippit.

The  second was an Op-Ed page guest editorial by none other  than  David
Belin,  a  Warren  Commission lawyer.  He defended  the  Commission  and
attacked  the researchers.  The third was a story by Fred  Graham  about
the  findings  of  Dr.  Lattimer, who was allowed  to  see  the  autopsy
photographs  and x-rays of John Kennedy.  Graham actually wrote most  of
his  story,  which  solidly  backed up  the  Warren  Commission  due  to
Lattimer's  claims  that  the autopsy materials  proved  no  conspiracy,
before Lattimer ever entered the Archives.

In  other words, it appears that Graham knew what Lattimer was going  to
find  and  say in advance.  Either that or someone in  Washington,  D.C.
gave  someone at the "Times" orders in advance to prepare the story  for
the first page, upper left-hand corner, of the paper.  It really  didn't
make  any  difference  whether  Dr. Lattimer ever  saw  the  x-rays  and
photographs.

The concerted campaign on the part of the "Times" management could  have
been  timed to prevent a discovery of new evidence of conspiracy in  the
autopsy  materials.  The reason for this possibility developing  in  the
November  1971  period is that the five-year restriction placed  on  the
autopsy evidence by Burke Marshall, a Kennedy family lawyer, expired  in
November  of  1971.   Four  well-known  and  highly  reputable  forensic
pathologists,  Dr.  Cyril Wecht of Pittsburgh, Dr. John Nichols  of  the
University  of Kansas, Dr. Milton Helpern of New York City and Dr.  John
Chapman  of Detroit had already asked permission to examine  the  x-rays
and  photos upon the expiration of the five-year period.  All four  were
known to question the Warren Commission's findings.  What better way  to
freeze  them  out of the Archives than to select a doctor who  could  be
trusted  to  back  up the Commission  (Lattimer  had  published  several
articles  doing just that), commission him to go into the Archives,  and
then persuade "The New York Times" to publish a front page story in  its
Sunday  issue demonstrating that no one else need look at the  materials
because they supported the Warren Commission's findings.

All  attempts  by researchers to convince "Times"  management  that  the
other  side  of the story should be told have been  completely  ignored.
Lattimer's findings, if correct, actually prove conspiracy.  The "Times"
has  been informed of this but they have shut off all discussion of  the
subject.   The complete story of the complicity of the "New York  Times"
in  the crimes to which they have become an accessory would take  up  an
entire volume.[6]

The  National Broadcasting Company became an active participant  in  the
government's efforts to protect Clay Shaw and to ruin Jim Garrison.

Two  of  NBC's high-level management people, Richard  Townley  of  NBC's
affiliate in New Orleans, WDSU, and Walter Sheridan, executive producer,
became  personally and directly involved in the Shaw trial.   They  were
indicted  by  a  grand  jury  in  New  Orleans  for  bribing  witnesses,
suppressing  evidence and interfering with trial proceedings.  NBC  top-
level management backed Sheridan and Townley.

NBC  produced  a highly biased, provably  dishonest  program  personally
attacking Garrison and defending Shaw prior to the trial.  Frank  McGee,
who acted as moderator, later had to publicly apologize for lies told on
the program by two "witnesses" whom NBC paid to give statements  against
Garrison.   The  FCC  ruled that NBC had to  give  Garrison  equal  time
because the program was not a news program but a vendetta by NBC against
Garrison.  NBC did give Garrison 30 minutes (compared to their  one-hour
attack)  to respond at a later date.  Sheridan was the producer  of  the
one-hour show.

With Sheridan and Townley so deeply involved, and with such an extremely
strong  editorial position favoring the Justice Department,  the  Warren
Commission,  and the lone assassin stance, suspicions were raised  about
NBC's and RCA's independence.[7]  At one point in 1967 the president  of
NBC,  according  to Walter Sheridan, helped in the  bribery  efforts  by
calling  Mr.  Gherlock, head of Equitable Life Insurance  Company's  New
York  office, and asked for assurance that Perry Russo, who  worked  for
Equitable, would cooperate with NBC.

NBC  is  also  the owner of several  important  pieces  of  photographic
evidence.   A  TV  film  taken by NBC  photographer  David  Weigman  was
suppressed  by NBC and not made available to researchers.  It shows  the
grassy  knoll  in the background just a fraction of a minute  after  the
shots.  Some of the assassination participants can be seen on the knoll.

Fortunately  for  researchers, NBC sold the Weigman film  to  the  other
networks and to the news film agencies before realizing its  importance.
The author was able to purchase a copy from Hearst Metrotone News.

NBC's  affiliate,  WBAP  in  Fort  Worth,  has  several  important  film
sequences.  James Darnell took several sequences on the grassy knoll and
in  the parking lot which should contain important evidence.  Dan  Owens
took  TV movies in and around the Depository building which should  show
how  the  snipers'  nest was faked on the sixth floor, and  one  of  the
assassins in front of the building.

                                  ABC

Of the three major television networks, ABC has remained more  objective
and appears to be less under the thumb of the government than the  other
two.  For example, when NBC was busy defending the Warren Commission and
Clay  Shaw  and attacking Jim Garrison, ABC was giving Garrison  a  free
chance  to  express  his  views without  interruption  on  their  Sunday
program,  "Issues  and  Answers."  They have never  taken  an  editorial
position  one  way  or another on conspiracy.  However,  in  the  Robert
Kennedy  assassination  case, the investigation was suppressed  at  ABC.
The man heading the brief investigation was stopped and sent to Vietnam.
The man at ABC who called the shots in stopping the investigation and in
suppressing  evidence  in  ABC's possession was  a  lawyer  named  Lewis
Powell.

The evidence owned by ABC is a video tape of the crowd in the Ambassador
Hotel  ballroom  before, during and after the shots were  fired  in  the
kitchen.  The ballroom microphones, including ABC's, picked up the sound
of  only  three shots above the crowd noise.  Since Sirhan  fired  eight
shots, or certainly more than three, and since Los Angeles police  tests
proved  that  Sirhan's  gun could not be heard in the  position  of  the
microphones  in the ballroom, the ABC film and soundtrack  is  important
evidence of three other shots.

The sequence was originally included in the TV film of Robert  Kennedy's
1968 campaign and assassination entitled, "The Last Journey."  Following
a  meeting at ABC when the management learned what the film showed,  the
next  TV  broadcast of "The Last Journey" (scheduled for  the  following
week) was cancelled without any logical explanation.  The next time  the
film  appeared on ABC (late 1971), the three-shot ballroom sequence  had
been cut.

                       United Press International

Of  all  the fifteen major news organizations included herein,  UPI  has
come  closest to really pursuing the truth about the JFK  assassination.
Yet  they,  too, have suppressed evidence, have not had the  courage  of
their  convictions in analyzing conspiratorial evidence, and by  default
have become accessories after the fact.

Two  different  departments at UPI became involved in  the  photographic
evidence  of  the  JFK assassination.  The regular  photo  news  service
department,  which receives wire photos and negatives from many  sources
all  over  the world, accumulated a large collection of  basic  evidence
both  from UPI photographers and by purchasing wire service photos  from
newspapers, Black Star, AP and other sources.  This department has  made
all  of its photographs available to anyone at reasonable prices  ($1.50
to $3.00 per print).

UPI  photographer  Frank  Cancellare was in the  motorcade  and  snapped
several  important photographs.  In addition, five other photographs  at
UPI,  taken  by three unknown photographers, are  significant.   All  of
these were purchased by the author from UPI.

The  other  department  has not been as cooperative.   Within  the  news
department  at  UPI, Burt Reinhardt and Rees Schonfeld  have  varied  in
their  attitude  and  performance.  UPI news  purchased  the  commercial
rights  to  two very important films shortly  after  the  assassination.
These were color movies taken by Orville Nix and Marie Muchmore (private
citizens).   Both show the fatal shot striking the President,  and  both
show  evidence  of conspiracy.  In the Nix film,  certain  frames  (when
enlarged)  show one of the assassins on the grassy knoll with  a  rifle.
Both  movies  show a puff of smoke generated by another one of  the  men
involved in the assassination.

UPI, under the direction of Burt Reinhardt, did several things with  the
Nix  and Muchmore films.  They produced a book, "Four  Days,"  including
several  color frames from the movies.  They made a composite  movie  in
35mm from the original 8mm movies.  The composite used the technique  of
repeating a frame several times to give the appearance of slow motion or
stop action during key sections of the films.  Reinhardt, Schonfeld  and
Mr. Fox, a UPI writer, made the composite movie available to researchers
at their projection studio in New York in 1964 and 1965.

Fox and Schonfeld wrote an article for "Esquire" in 1965 which portrayed
the  Nix film as proving the conspiracy theories about assassins on  the
grassy  knoll to be false.  This was deemed necessary by UPI  management
because  a New York researcher and a photographic expert,  after  seeing
the Nix film at UPI, claimed it showed an assassin with a rifle standing
on the hood of a car parked behind the knoll.

The  research  team  had  used  a few frames  from  the  film  in  color
transparencies and enlarged them in black and white to show the gunman.

In  1964,  UPI  gave the Warren Commission copies of both  the  Nix  and
Muchmore  films for analysis.  The films were later turned over  to  the
National  Archives  under  a  special  agreement  between  UPI  and  the
Archives.   This  agreement reminds one of the  agreements  between  the
Archives  and  the  Kennedy family on the  autopsy  materials,  and  the
obscure one between "Life" magazine, the Commission, the Secret  Service
and the Archives on the Zapruder film.

The  UPI agreement prevents anyone from obtaining copies of the Nix  and
Muchmore  films  or slides of individual frames for  any  purpose.   The
agreement  is just as illegal as the other two, yet it has been just  as
effective in suppressing the basic evidence of conspiracy.

In  1967, UPI, apparently still not sure they would not be  attacked  by
researchers on what the Nix film revealed, employed Itek Corporation  to
analyze the film.  (At least it would appear on the surface that UPI did
the  hiring.)   Itek  Corporation, a major defense  contractor,  did  an
excellent  job  of  obscuring  the  truth.   In  an  apparently   highly
scientific   analysis  using  computer-based  image  enhancement,   they
"proved"  that  not only was there no gunman on the  grassy  knoll,  but
there was no person on the knoll at all during the shooting.

The final Itek report was made public and highly publicized by UPI.   It
looked  as  though  the  UPI  earlier  claim  of  no  gunman  had   been
scientifically  substantiated.   As a by-product, Itek  got  some  great
publicity   for  their  commercially  available   photo-computer   image
enhancement system.

What  the public did not know was that UPI gave Itek only 35mm  enlarged
black and white copies of selected frames from the Nix film.  The  great
amount  of  detail  is lost in going from 8mm color to  35mm  black  and
white.  And UPI gave Itek carefully chosen frames from the Nix film that
did not show the gunman on the knoll.

UPI and Itek defined "the grassy knoll" in a very limited and  carefully
chosen  way so as to exclude five people (in addition to the  fatal-shot
gunman)  on  the knoll who appear in the Nix film as well  as  in  every
other photograph and movie taken of the knoll at the time the shots were
fired.[8]  In addition, man No. 2, who had ducked down behind the  stone
wall  during  the Nix film, could not be detected by Itek  because  they
only had the Nix film.

Three  men  standing on the steps of the knoll, and two men  behind  the
picket fence, were completely ignored or overlooked.

The  author  began  to contact Schonfeld and Reinhardt  in  early  1967,
viewed  the  two films both at UPI and in the  Archives,  and  requested
copies  of  the original 8mm color films or color copies  of  individual
frames.   The response to the requests were negative for more than  four
years.   During this time, however, the author, a New  York  researcher,
and a photographic specialist, enlarged in color the correct frames from
the Nix film.  The enlargements clearly show the gunman, not on top of a
car  but in front of a car, with his rifle poised.  He is standing on  a
pedestal protruding from the eight-sided cupola behind the stone wall on
the  knoll.   The  car is parked behind the cupola and can  be  seen  in
several other photographs and movies.

Unfortunately,  UPI's  agreement  with the  researcher  prevents  making
public  the  color enlargements.  UPI has consistently  suppressed  this
evidence.   In 1971, they offered to make the film available for a  very
large  sum of money, but they have never agreed that it shows anyone  on
the knoll and they will not make copies available for research.

The  UPI editorial position (in articles, the book "Four Days,"  letters
and  news  releases)  has supported the Warren  Commission  through  the
years.   The major difference between UPI and "Life" or CBS is  that  no
drastic reversal of management policy took place at UPI.

                                   AP

Associated Press became an accessory after the fact by taking an  action
unprecedented for a news wire service.  It published a three-part report
by   three  AP  writers  in  1967,  completely  supporting  the   Warren
Commission.   The report was transmitted by wire to all  AP  subscribers
over  a  three-day period and it occupied a total of nine  to  ten  full
pages  of the average newspaper.  It was not news, but editorial  policy
and  took a position supporting the Warren Commission and  the  official
government propaganda about the assassination of John Kennedy.

Most  small  newspapers rely on UP and AP for their news  stories.   The
three-part AP report ran in hundreds of papers across the United  States
without  opposition  commentary.  For many this was the  gospel  at  the
time.  What more could the conspirators and their government  protectors
have asked?

AP  photographers were on the scene in Dallas during the  assassination.
James Altgens, one of AP's men assigned to Dallas, took seven  important
photographs  in  Dealey Plaza.  Henry Burrows, an AP  photographer  from
Washington,  D.C., was in the motorcade and snapped two pictures.   Four
other  AP  photographers  took ten important  photographs.   AP's  photo
department  and  Wide  World Photos in New  York  purchased  many  other
photographs taken in Dealey Plaza.

Meyer Goldberg, manager of Wide World Photos, set a policy early in  the
1966-1967   period  which  placed  AP  in  the  position  of   partially
suppressing  basic photographic evidence.  The policy contained  several
parts.  First, Goldberg made it extremely difficult for anyone to obtain
access  to  the  photographic  evidence,  particularly  the   negatives.
Second, he set a high enough price on copies of photographs ($17.50  for
one  8x10  black and white print) to freeze out  all  but  commercially-
financed  interests.  Third, when an original negative  was  discovered,
the print order, when cleared by Wide World, was always cropped.   (Full
negative  prints  showing important details in the  Altgens  photographs
were  nearly impossible to purchase.)  Whenever any suggestion was  made
to  Wide  World  that  their photographs  contained  basic  evidence  of
conspiracy,  Goldberg  and  AP management turned  blue  with  anger  and
literally  refused  to discuss the subject or permit research  in  their
files.

Various  researchers, including Josiah Thompson, Raymond Marcus and  the
author  met  this  type  of stiff  opposition,  but  after  many  visits
discovered  ways  around it.  The staff at Wide World in charge  of  the
photographic  files was more cooperative, and at least one staff  member
was   completely   convinced  there  was  a  conspiracy   in   the   JFK
assassination.

Nevertheless,  the  broadly  announced editorial policy  and  stance  of
Associated  Press  between  1964 and 1972  fully  supported  the  Warren
Commission and the lone assassin fable.

                               "Newsweek"

"Newsweek"'s editorial policy and coverage of the assassination and  its
aftermath was largely the doing of one man, Hugh Aynesworth.  Aynesworth
was  the  Dallas-Houston  correspondent  for  "Newsweek"  following  the
assassination.   He was in Dealey Plaza when Kennedy was killed, and  he
turned  in several stories during the days and weeks following  November
22, 1963.  His point of view was always closely allied with that of  the
Dallas  police,  the district attorney and the FBI.   He  wholeheartedly
supported the Warren Report.

However,  in May of 1967, after Garrison's investigation hit  the  news,
Aynesworth  wrote a violent attack on Garrison's investigation,  and  it
was published in "Newsweek."  Aynesworth accused Lynn Loisel, a Garrison
staff member, of bribing Al Beaubolf to testify about a meeting to  plot
the  assassination.   Beaubolf later denied this accusation in  a  sworn
affidavit  and  proved Aynesworth and "Newsweek" to  be  fabricators  of
information.

                        "Saturday Evening Post"

The  position  of  the  "Saturday Evening  Post"  solidified  after  the
Garrison  probe  became  public.   It was based in  large  part  on  the
reporting  of one man, James Phelan.  Phelan wrote a blistering  article
for  the  "Post"  published on May 6, 1967.  He  attacked  Garrison  and
Russo,  and  claimed that Russo's original statement to  Assistant  D.A.
Andrew  Sciambra  differed  from his later testimony.  In  view  of  the
earlier  editorial position of the "Post" when Lyron Land and  his  wife
questioned  the Warren Commission findings, the Phelan article  came  as
somewhat  of  a  surprise.   In fact, the  "Post"  had  taken  a  strong
conspiracy stand when in 1967 it published a long article excerpted from
Josiah Thompson's book, "Six Seconds in Dallas," and featured it on  the
magazine's cover.

The  Garrison investigation, however, turned the "Post" around.   Phelan
became  directly  involved in the case, and in a sense was  more  of  an
accessory  than  Walter Sheridan or Richard Townley.   He  travelled  to
Louisiana  from  Texas,  spent many hours with  Perry  Russo  and  other
witnesses, and generally obfuscated the Shaw trial picture.

Phelan  joined the efforts to persuade Russo to desert Garrison  and  to
help  destroy  Garrison  and  his case.   According  to  a  sworn  Russo
statement,  Phelan  visited  his house four times within  a  few  weeks.
Phelan told Russo he was working hand-in-hand with Townley and Sheridan,
that they were in constant contact, and that they were going to  destroy
Garrison and the probe.  Phelan warned Russo that he should abandon  his
position  and that Russo would be the only one hurt as a result  of  the
trial.  Phelan claimed Garrison would leave Russo alone, standing in the
cold.

Phelan offered to hire a $200,000-a-year lawyer from New York for  Russo
if  he  would cooperate against Garrison.  He asked Russo how  he  would
feel  about  sending an innocent man (Clay Shaw)  to  the  penitentiary.
Phelan  left New Orleans and Baton Rouge and returned to New York,  only
to telephone Russo several times and offer to pay Russo's plane fare  to
New York to meet with him and discuss going over to Clay Shaw's side.

Phelan was subpoenaed by Shaw's lawyers during a hearing in 1967 because
his  article  attacked Garrison.  Sciambra welcomed the  opportunity  to
cross-examine  Phelan on the stand.  He described the article  as  being
incomplete,  distorted  and  tantamount to  lying.   Sciambra  said,  "I
guarantee that he (Phelan) will be exposed for having twisted the  facts
in  order  to  build up a scoop for himself and  the  `Saturday  Evening
Post.'"

Sciambra  went  on to say that Phelan had neglected the  most  important
fact  of all in his article.  It was that Phelan had been told by  Russo
in  Baton Rouge that Russo and Sciambra had discussed the plot  dialogue
(to assassinate JFK) at their initial meeting.

                       Capital City Broadcasting

This  organization owns several radio stations in the capitol cities  of
various  states  and  in Washington, D.C.  Their interests  in  the  JFK
assassination  increased  in 1967 and 1968 when the  Garrison-Shaw  case
made headlines.  A producer at Capital City, Erik Lindquist, decided  to
do  a series of programs designed to ferret out the truth.   The  author
furnished  various  evidence  for scripts to be used  in  the  programs.
After  several months of work the project was cancelled,  presumably  by
top management, and the broadcasts never took place.

                   North American Newspaper Alliance

This  newspaper  chain,  with papers  affiliated  in  small  communities
through  the northern and eastern U.S., supported the Warren  Commission
findings as did all the other major newspaper services and chains.

The Alliance also became involved in the Martin Luther King case and  it
circulated the syndicated column by the black writer and reporter, Louis
Lomax, who had taken an interest in finding out what really happened  in
the King assassination.

Lomax located a man named Stein who had taken a trip with James Earl Ray
from  Los Angeles to New Orleans.  The two retraced the automobile  trip
of Ray and Stein, beginning in Los Angeles and heading through  Arizona,
New Mexico and Texas.  They were trying to find the telephone booth from
which Ray had called a friend named Raoul in New Orleans somewhere along
the route.  Raoul, according to Ray, was the man who actually fired  the
shot that killed King.  Stein remembered that Ray told him he was  going
to  meet  Raoul in New Orleans and that Ray phoned  Raoul  at  someone's
office.   Stein  couldn't  remember exactly where the  phone  booth  was
because he and Ray had been driving non-stop day and night.

Lomax  wrote a series of articles depicting Raoul as the killer and  Ray
as the patsy.  He sent them to the Alliance, a column each day, from the
places  along  the retraced trip he and Stein  took.   Finally,  Lomax's
column  announced  they had found the phone booth at a  gas  station  in
Texas and that he was going to obtain the phone number Ray had called in
New  Orleans.  He presumably was planning to visit the  local  telephone
company office the next morning and obtain the number.

That  was  the last Lomax column ever to appear in  the  North  American
Alliance  papers.  He seemed to disappear completely.  The readers  were
left  hanging,  not  knowing whether he obtained  the  phone  number  or
whether he discovered who it belonged to.  The Committee to  Investigate
Assassinations located Lomax several months later and asked him what had
happened.

He said he had been told by the FBI to stop his investigation and not to
publish or write any more stories about it.  He said he found the  phone
number  and where it was located in New Orleans.  He gave the number  to
the  Committee to Investigate Assassinations.  He said he was afraid  he
would be killed and decided to stop work on the case.

Whether  North American Newspaper Alliance management knew about any  of
this remains unknown.  What is known, however, is that Louis Lomax  died
in  a very mysterious manner in 1970.  He was traveling at a  very  high
speed  and was found dead in a car crash, according to the State  police
report.  Lomax's wife says he was a very careful driver and never  drove
at high speeds.
                           Dallas Newspapers

The two newspapers in Dallas, "The Times Herald" and "The Morning News,"
became  accessories  after  the  fact.   They  suppressed  evidence   of
conspiracy and evidence concerning the Dallas police role in framing Lee
Harvey  Oswald.  It was not immediately established that the  management
policy  of  both papers supported the official positions  taken  by  the
Dallas police and district attorney, the FBI and the Warren  Commission.
During the first few days immediately following the assassination,  both
newspapers  printed anything that came along.  The editions on  November
22  through 25 make very interesting reading for the researcher  because
the  stories were printed before anyone had any idea what  to  suppress.
(For example, there are stories about other people being arrested, about
other  rifles  being found near Dealey Plaza, and about  Oswald's  rifle
being a Mauser and a British 303 model.)

Editorial  and management policy took over within a couple of weeks  and
the  lone assassin story received all the attention from then  on.   The
two papers have not since made any independent inquiries, have not  been
interested   in  any  conspiratorial  discussions,  and  have   remained
completely faithful to the official governmental position.

There  were  some inquiring reporters around (like  Ronnie  Dugger,  for
example,  or  Lonnie  Hudkins), but they  were  eventually  silenced  by
management  or  the  FBI and Dallas police.  Photographers  at  the  two
papers  left  town or were frightened out of talking about the  case  or
their  photographs.   Some  of  these  photographs  showed  evidence  of
conspiracy,  including  pictures of three conspirators under  arrest  in
Dealey  Plaza.   Other  photographs proved that members  of  the  Dallas
police planted evidence in the Depository building to frame Oswald.

Between  the  assassination and 1967, the management and owners  of  the
"Herald"  and  "News" were not completely aware of the  significance  of
some  of  the  evidence in their files.  Nor  were  they  attempting  to
control their reporters and news staff.  For example, Hudkins found that
Oswald had been a paid informer for the FBI.  He even found what his pay
number had been (S172).  He took the information to Waggoner Carr, Texas
Attorney General, in January of 1964.  Carr brought it to the  attention
of  the  Warren Commission.  Hoover denied it, and the  matter  died  in
secret executive sessions of the Warren Commission.

Several  photographs  taken by "Dallas Morning News"  photographer  Jack
Beers proved that the police created the so-called "sniper's nest"  from
which Oswald allegedly fired the shots.  The pictures show the positions
of  cartons  in  the sixth floor window before the  police  moved  them.
Beers's  photographs also indicate that the police made the large  paper
bag found inside the Depository building.

Beers  was permitted to use his photographs commercially in a book  that
he published jointly with R. B. Denson, called "Destiny in Dallas."   If
it  were not for that event, researchers would probably never have  seen
Beers's  photographs.   Once  the "Morning News"  editor,  Mr.  Krueger,
discovered  that  the photographs demonstrated both conspiracy  and  the
complicity  of some of the Dallas police force, he locked them up.   The
pictures remain suppressed to this date.

The  "Times  Herald"'s  record is not much better.   Through  1967  John
Masiotta,  the man in charge of the assassination photographs  taken  by
William Allen, made copies available on a very limited basis.  The basis
in the author's case was that a total of twelve pictures out of seventy-
three  taken  by Allen could be purchased.  The author  was  allowed  to
examine  35mm contact prints (about 3/4 X 1/2 inches) of the  rest,  and
the  selection  decision  was extremely  difficult.   Three  of  Allen's
photographs  showed  the  "tramps" under arrest who  were  part  of  the
conspiracy.

In 1968 the "Times Herald" management realized the implications of  some
of Allen's pictures in pointing out the real assassins, and locked their
files.   To date they have not permitted anyone to see the photos  again
or to purchase copies.

One  photograph taken by "Dallas Times Herald" photographer Bob  Jackson
was  so obviously in opposition to the official police position that  it
was  suppressed  by late 1966.  Jackson was riding in one  of  the  news
photographer's  cars  in  the  motorcade  with  "Dallas  Morning   News"
photographer,  Tom Dillard.  As Jackson's car approached the  Depository
building and travelled north on Houston Street, between Main Street  and
Elm Street, Jackson snapped a picture (see map in May 1970 "Computers  &
Automation"  article).  At the time, the Kennedy car was already on  Elm
Street  and was probably close to the position where the first shot  was
fired.  Jackson's car was eight cars behind Kennedy's (about twenty  car
lengths).

Jackson can be seen taking this picture in the Robert Hughes film and in
some of the TV footage taken by other photographers.  He also  testified
that  he  took the picture.  When the author asked  Masiotta  about  the
Jackson  photo  in early 1967, he became very flustered and  claimed  to
know  nothing about it.  Jackson himself was finally located  and,  when
asked  about  it, became very angry and denied taking a  picture.   That
photograph  has never been seen by anyone outside of the "Times  Herald"
staff.   It's not difficult to speculate about what it probably  showed,
since  the Hughes film, the Weaver photo, the Dillard photo and the  Tom
Alyea  TV  sequence all show the same thing.  Jackson's  photo,  without
doubt,  showed "Oswald's window" in the Depository building  empty  when
Oswald should have been in it--an embarrassing counterpoint to Jackson's
testimony that he saw someone in that window with a rifle.  If Jackson's
photo  (or  anyone else's for that matter) showed Oswald  in  the  sixth
floor window, the whole world would have heard about it on November  22,
1963.

                       Fort Worth "Star Telegram"

The  Fort  Worth  "Star  Telegram" shines like  a  light  in  the  Texas
darkness.    It   made  photographic  evidence  from   five   of   their
photographers, Joe McAulay, Harry Cabluck, Jerrold Cabluck, George Smith
and  William Davis available to everyone.  Even though the  "Telegram"'s
editorial    stance   was   eventually   pro-Warren   Commission,    the
photographers,  editors and the woman who ran the photo files  were  all
cooperative.

George Smith's photos showed the three members of the assassination team
under  arrest.   Jerrold Cabluck's aerial photos  were  instrumental  in
establishing  Dealey  Plaza  landmarks and  topography.   Joe  McAulay's
photos  of a man arrested in Ft. Worth in connection with  the  shooting
might yet become valuable.

                            TV Station WFAA

The second shining light in Texas was TV station WFAA, an ABC affiliate.
WFAA was very cooperative (albeit expensive) in providing copies of  all
their photographic evidence.  TV sequences by Tom Alyea, Malcolm  Couch,
A.  J. L'Hoste and Ron Reiland were made easily viewable and the  copies
made available.  Much of this evidence demonstrating conspiracy was also
sold to TV networks and newsreel companies.

                           WBAP -- Ft. Worth

The NBC affiliate in Ft. Worth, WBAP, was less cooperative.  Even though
public statements were made that viewing of Dan Owens and Jim  Darnell's
footage  was  possible,  many roadblocks were thrown into  the  path  of
researchers.   As mentioned in the section on NBC, Darnell's footage  of
the  knoll  and  parking  lot  is  very  important.   It  has   remained
unavailable at WBAP.

                             KTTV -- Dallas

Independent TV station KTTV in Dallas also suppressed, or lost, valuable
evidence  of  conspiracy.   Don  Cook's  TV  footage  contained   twelve
important sequences.  One is a sequence of a man being arrested in front
of the Depository building at about 1:00 p.m.  From other evidence it is
possible to determine that the man may be William Sharp, participant  in
the  assassination.  Cook can be seen in a picture taken by Phil  Willis
pointing his 16mm TV film camera directly at the man from about ten feet
away.

Willis'  photo  does not show the man's face.  For this  reason,  Cook's
close-up footage is very important.  In 1967 the author interviewed Cook
in Dallas and found that his film had been turned over to the editor  at
KTTV.  A phone call to the station resulted in a statement being made to
the author that Cook's footage had been lost "on the cutting room floor"
and  was not available for viewing.  No further efforts have  even  been
made to open up KTTV's evidence in the assassination.

                         New Orleans Newspapers

The  only two publications in the United States that printed  the  truth
about the Clay Shaw trial were the New Orleans "Times Picayune" and  the
New Orleans "Times Herald."

Between 1963 and 1967 both New Orleans newspapers used AP and UP stories
on  most of their coverage of the Kennedy assassination.  Suddenly,  the
papers found themselves deeply involved in the middle of the sensational
Garrison investigation, and in 1969 they reported on the Shaw trial.

The  papers took no editorial position on Jim Garrison, the  trial,  the
investigation,  the  assassination, or the guilt or  innocence  of  Shaw
until  after  the final verdict was delivered by the  jury.   Then  both
papers  savagely  attacked  Garrison on the  editorial  page.   Off  the
record,  the  reporters and others at both  papers  supported  Garrison.
This  was reflected in a book published by the two  "Herald"  reporters,
Rosemary James and Jack Wardlaw, called "Plot or Politics."

The  management  and  editors  of the  newspapers  evidently  paid  more
attention  to forces from Washington and New York than they did  to  New
Orleans citizens or the testimony at the trial.

But  the verbatim proceedings at the Shaw trial, as well as all  of  the
detailed   events  for  the  two  years  that  the  Federal   Government
successfully  delayed  the trial, were faithfully printed  in  both  the
"Herald" and the "Picayune."  While you and I, dear reader, were treated
to  a  highly biased account for three years concerning  events  in  New
Orleans  by  "Time"  magazine, "Newsweek," "U.S. News,"  "The  New  York
Times," NBC, CBS, ABC, UP, AP, etc., the average New Orleans citizen was
well aware that the Justice Department, under both Ramsey Clark and John
Mitchell, was responsible for continually delaying the trail.  (You  and
I were fed the impression that Garrison delayed the trial.)

Mr.  New Orleans citizen, let's call him Joe, knew that  Shaw's  lawyers
were paid by the CIA.  You and I were told that Shaw paid his lawyers  a
lot of money and suffered financially because of it.

Joe  knew  that  the  FBI was looking for Shaw  under  his  alias,  Clay
Bertrand, before lawyer Dean Andrews ever mentioned the name  associated
with Lee Harvey Oswald just before he was killed by Jack Ruby.  You  and
I were told that Andrews fabricated the name Clay Bertrand out of  whole
cloth, and no mention was made to us of the FBI's search.

Joe knew that twelve people saw Clay Shaw together with Oswald and David
Ferrie on many occasions, exchanging money on two occasions.  You and  I
were  led to believe by "Time" and "The New York Times" that only  three
people saw them together and that the three were not credible witnesses.

Joe knows how Garrison was hounded and framed by the Justice  Department
in  a fake pinball rap.  More importantly, he knows the  government  did
not want Regis Kennedy, FBI agent, and Pierre Finck, Army doctor at  the
JFK autopsy, to testify at the trial.

Finck's testimony, however, was printed in the "Times Picayune" but  not
in "Time" magazine.  He said that an Army general gave orders during the
autopsy at Bethesda Naval Hospital.  The unidentified general told Finck
and  the other doctors not to probe the President's neck wound.  We  did
not read about this or hear about it.

The  "Times Picayune" record of the Shaw trial was especially  accurate.
The "Herald"'s record was reasonably accurate, but because the paper was
printed by 3:00 p.m., the paper missed some of the longer sessions.[9]

                         WDSU-TV -- New Orleans

As mentioned in the section on NBC, WDSU became directly involved in the
JFK assassination aftermath because of Rick Townley and Walter Sheridan.
Both  were  under  indictment  by Garrison  for  bribing  witnesses  and
tampering  with evidence.  Townley, on the staff of WDSU, was  close  to
the  action  with Garrison, Shaw, Andrews, Ferrie, Perry  Russo,  Layton
Martens,  Gordon  Novel,  Sergio  Arcacha  Smith,  David  Lewis,   David
Llewelyn, Guy Banister, and many other participants in the drama.

According  to accounts in the New Orleans papers and repeated  in  Paris
Flammonde's  book "The Kennedy Conspiracy," Townley tried to  get  Perry
Russo,  Garrison's  prime  witness  at the Shaw  trial,  to  change  his
testimony  at  the  upcoming trial to make it  seem  that  Garrison  had
hypnotized him and then asked leading questions to get Russo to  testify
against Shaw.

Townley  went  to Russo's house twice, threatened to discredit  him  and
perhaps  have him fired from his job, and offered him a chance  to  work
closely  with NBC in their efforts to "destroy Garrison and  his  case".
Townley  told Russo he could get Shaw's lawyer, F. Irving Dymond, to  go
easy on him if he would alter his testimony.  He assured Russo that  his
employer,  Equitable  Life, had promised the president of  NBC  that  no
retaliation would be taken against Russo if he cooperated with WDSU  and
NBC.

Walter  Sheridan  told  Russo  that NBC and WDSU could  set  him  up  in
California  (where Russo always wanted to live) if he helped  break  the
Garrison  probe's back.  NBC would pay his expenses there,  protect  his
job,  obtain a lawyer for Russo and guarantee that Garrison would  never
extradite  him  to Louisiana.  Sheridan told Russo that  NBC  had  flown
Gordon Novel out of Louisiana to McLean, Virginia (home of the CIA)  and
had  given  Novel  (an  important witness for  Garrison's  case)  a  lie
detector  test.  Sheridan said NBC would make sure Novel would never  be
extradited to Louisiana to testify.  (Novel never was extradited.)

Townley  also tried to influence Marlene Mancuso, former wife of  Gordon
Novel, and an important Shaw trial witness.  He told her that she should
cooperate  with WDSU and NBC because Garrison was going to be  destroyed
and  that  NBC was not merely willing to discredit the probe:   he  said
Garrison would go to jail.

On  July  10,  1967,  Richard Townley  was  arrested  and  charged  with
attempted bribery and two counts of intimidating two witnesses.  He  was
also accused of serving as an intermediary to influence  cross-examining
trial attorneys that the character and reputation of Perry Russo not  be
damaged.

Sheridan was arrested on July 7 on the counts of intimidating  witnesses
and  attempted  bribery.   Both  posted  bond.   Townley's   statements,
however,  did come true.  The Federal Government, aided and  abetted  by
WDSU and NBC, did crucify Garrison.

The author's belief is that this kind of behavior in the face of all the
evidence gathered by the staffs of their own organizations, on the  part
of  15 to 24 major news media management groups is highly  suspect.   It
might  be  that each major news organization shut up about  the  Kennedy
assassination  because each was afraid of losing face or influence,  FCC
licenses,  business or advertisers, or Government favors of one kind  or
another.

This  theory  is  perhaps best exemplified by a story  told  by  Dorothy
Kilgallen,  before she died, to a close friend.  Kilgallen  was  writing
several  articles  about the JFK assassination for  the  newspapers  who
published her column.  She strongly believed there had been a conspiracy
that included Jack Ruby.  She interviewed Ruby alone in his jail cell in
Dallas (the only person outside of the police who had this opportunity).
She told her friend shortly afterward that she was planning to "blow the
case  wide  open"  in her column.  She said the owner of  the  New  York
newspaper where her column appeared refused to let her print stories  in
opposition  to  the Warren Commission.  When the friend asked  her  why,
Dorothy  said, "He's afraid he won't be invited to White  House  parties
any more".

Of  the  three possible motives for suppression in the news  media,  the
influence  from the top and from high government places seems  the  most
probable.   When will we, as Americans, learn the truth about  influence
in the case of the Kennedy assassination?

                              Conclusions

The pattern of internal knowledge of conspiracy followed by the complete
suppression   of  such  information  is  too  strong  to  ignore.    Two
conclusions  suggest  themselves as one reviews the  evidence  regarding
suppression and secrecy.

The first is that our national news media are controlled on the  subject
of  the assassination by some very high level group in Washington.   The
orders  to cease, desist, and suppress came from the top in  each  case.
To  influence  the  very  top level of  all  fifteen  major  news  media
organizations  would have taken a great deal more than money, power,  or
threats.   In fact, the only kind of appeal which seems likely  to  have
had  a chance of shutting everyone up is a "highly  patriotic,  national
security,"  kind of appeal.  It was probably just such an argument  that
worked  with the Warren Commission.  Judging by the fact that Lyndon  B.
Johnson   told  Walter  Cronkite  there  was  a  conspiracy   and   then
successfully  persuaded CBS to edit this out of his remarks "on  grounds
of national security," this kind of an appeal obviously does work.

The  second  possibility, rather remote from a  probability  standpoint,
should  nevertheless  be  considered.   It is that all  15  to  24  news
organizations  reached  a point of exasperation and disbelief  in  1968-
1969.  It's possible the top managers of these 24 organizations  reached
this  exasperation  point independent of one another.  Within a  two  to
three-year period, culminating in the Shaw trial and discrediting of Jim
Garrison,  every one of these managers might finally have  said,  "Stop,
cease,  desist, lock the files, you're fired, shut up, I don't  want  to
hear another word about it."

                                  1976

How,  one  may  ask,  could all of this have  happened  in  the  world's
greatest  democracy?  What has become of the principles of the  Founding
Fathers,  Horace  Greeley, Will Rogers and others, in which  the  "free"
press is supposedly our best protection from the misuse of  governmental
power.   Didn't things change with Watergate?  What about the "New  York
Times"  and the "Pentagon Papers," the "Washington Post," Bernstein  and
Woodward, Watergate, NBC's white paper on Vietnam, Sy Hersh and the  CIA
stories in the "New York Times"?

The  actions taking place in November-December, 1975 and on  into  1976,
proved the media were still influenced and controlled by the same forces
that  controlled the media in 1968 and 1969.  Some of the names  of  the
players were different:  Ford for Nixon, Colby for Helms, Kelley for  J.
Edgar Hoover.  But the forces were the same.  The chairmen of the boards
and  presidents  of NBC, CBS, ABC,  Time,  Inc.,  "Newsweek"-"Washington
Post,"  "Los Angeles Times," "Chicago Tribune," UPI, AP, and  the  rest,
were  still very much controlled and influenced by the White  House  and
the Secret Team.  Some of the influence was by infiltration, as Fletcher
Prouty so aptly demonstrated.[10]

The Secret Team members were to be found everywhere at or near the  top.
Other  influence  came from the Ford administration  through  direct  or
indirect  pressure.  The FCC, the IRS, the Department of  Commerce,  the
military  and other government agencies had some control over the  media
or the personal lives of the top managers.  (It must be remembered  that
Gerald  Ford  was  and is one of the cover-up conspirators  in  the  JFK
case.)

                         What is the Evidence?

What  is the evidence for this?  One measures the influence by  results.
In  an  era when all who have really examined the  basic  evidence  know
there were conspiracies in the JFK and RFK assassinations, we still find
the 15 organizations concluding there were lone, demented gunmen in  the
two cases.

For  example,  CBS broadcast a two-part special on November 25  and  26,
1975,  once  again  reinforcing their stand  that  Oswald  acted  alone.
Except for the substitution of Dan Rather as chief narrator in place  of
Walter Cronkite, the cast was the same as in the 1967 four-part  series.
Leslie  Midgely  was  the  producer,  Bernie  Birnbaum,  the   associate
producer,  and Jane Bartels, Birnbaum's girl-Friday.  Eric Sevareid  and
Eddie  Barker were missing.  So was Bob Richter, another 1967  associate
producer  who had discovered the truth about the conspiracy and the  way
CBS  handled it.  (He now manages his own film-making company,  Richter-
McBride,  in New York.)  Richter's opinion about the 1967 CBS  four-part
special,  as expressed in an interview with Jerry Policoff published  in
"New  Times"  magazine in October 1975,[11] barred him from  becoming  a
consultant to Midgely on the November 25 and 26 programs.

                     Hard Evidence Never Mentioned

Time, Inc., in their November 17, 1975 issue supported the lone assassin
myth  as  they  have  since 1964.[12]  Since "Life"  was  no  longer  in
existence, Time management used "Time" and "People" magazines to further
the causes of the White House and the CIA in the cover-up of the  cover-
ups.  The November 3, 1975 issue[13] of "People" magazine hand-picked  a
group  of  "researchers"  and  portrayed them  as  obvious  maniacs  who
believed  in and furthered the conspiracy theories being bandied  about.
One of the favorite tricks of the media throughout the years has been to
couple the words "conspiracy" and "theory" together;  never once did the
major  media mention any of the hard evidence pointing to conspiracy  in
any  of the four major cases.  The "Time" policy and article,  according
to  Jerry  Policoff,  was  commanded from the  very  top,  above  Hedley
Donovan's level.[14]

The  fine hand of David Belin can be traced in the "Time" article.   All
of  the  1964  arguments against conspiracy were aired  once  again,  as
though they were brand new.

               The Forces of Good vs. the Forces of Evil:

                       A Life and Death Struggle

David  Belin:  Belin shows up in several places.  He constructed  a  new
CIA-White  House base on behalf of his superiors by  personally  writing
most  of  Chapter 19 of the Rockefeller Report on the CIA and  the  FBI.
That  material  was  used by Belin and others to try and  shore  up  the
Warren Commission defenses.

The  reader  may  ask, "Why did Belin appear on  `Face  the  Nation'  on
November  23,  1975 and get himself on the front page of the  `New  York
Times' on the same day by proposing the reopening of the JFK  case?"[15]
The  answer  lies in Belin's own explanation.  He wants America  to  see
that  a  new  investigation  will confirm the  findings  of  the  Warren
Commission, thereby strengthening the country's faith in its government.
Just  how did Belin manage to get on "Face the Nation" and on the  first
page of the "New York Times?"  To answer that you must analyze the  life
and death struggle that is going on between the forces of evil who  want
to continue the cover-ups, and the forces of good who want to expose the
truth.   Senators  Richard  Schweiker  and  Gary  Hart  and  the  Church
Committee's subcommittee looking into the JFK assassination were not the
push-overs that Mark Lane, Harold Weisberg and others once were.   There
were also Henry B. Gonzalez and Thomas Downing and their new resolutions
in the House, not to mention Don Edwards' subcommittee and Bella Abzug's
subcommittee.

The evil forces needed to muster the strongest counterattack possible at
this  stage.   For  them it was a matter of life  and  death.   So  they
rounded  up David Belin, Joseph Ball, Wesley Liebeler, John  J.  McCloy,
Dr.  John Lattimer, the old Ramsey Clark panel of doctors  who  secretly
went  into the Archives in 1968, and some of the coterie of writers  who
were in their camp in the 1960's.

                      "I've Seen No New Evidence"

Any  doubts  about  Belin's  recruitment by Ford  and  the  White  House
disappeared  with Gerald Ford's press conference on Wednesday,  November
26, 1975.  A reporter asked Ford whether he would support reopening  the
JFK  investigation.[16]   He said, "I, of course, served on  the  Warren
Commission.  And I know a good deal about the hearings and the committee
report,  obviously.  There are some new developments--not  evidence--but
new developments that, according to one of our best staff members (David
Belin), who's kept up to date on it more than I, that he thinks just  to
lay  those charges (of conspiracy) aside that a new investigation  ought
to  be undertaken.  He, at the same time, said that no new evidence  has
come  up.  If those particular developments could be fully  investigated
without reopening the whole matter that took us 10 months to conclude, I
think some responsible group or organization ought to do so.  But not to
reopen  all  of the other aspects because I think they  were  thoroughly
covered by the Warren Commission."

Thus  Ford, in one of his own inimitable paragraphs, tried to  give  the
impression  that he was following the lead of David  Belin--rather  than
the  other way around--in the continued cover-up efforts.   Earl  Warren
was  always  saying, "I've seen no new evidence."  Ford, Belin  and  the
rest were forced to echo this refrain, as though all of the things  that
have  been learned since 1964 about the real assassins of  John  Kennedy
and  their  planners  and  backers, were false  rumors  or  stories  and
theories  created  out of whole cloth by the researchers  and  later  by
Congress.[17]

                           Pure Coincidence?

One CIA-White House lackey is James Phelan, formerly a freelance  writer
for  the  old  "Saturday  Evening Post."   Phelan  was  brought  out  of
mothballs  to do a pro-Warren Commission piece in the "New  York  Times"
Sunday magazine section.[18]  By pure coincidence, it happened to appear
on  the same day that Belin's arranged interview was found on page  one.
The  "Times"  is  one  of  the worst,  if  not  the  worst,  news  media
organization on the evil side of the battle.

An  article  in the July 1971 issue of  "Computers  and  Automation"[19]
shows  that the CIA control of the "Times" had for years  been  directed
through  Harding Bancroft, the Secret Team member there.  He  controlled
all  stories  and editorial positions on  domestic  assassinations.   He
undoubtedly arranged for both stories to appear on the same day.[20]

                   CBS.  Cover-Up Broadcasting System

The  Belin appearance on the CBS show, "Face the Nation", was  no  doubt
timed  to  coincide with the first two parts of the  new  CBS  whitewash
series.  (The new name for CBS is "Cover-Up Broadcasting System".)   The
men at the top made the decisions in 1967 and 1975 to support the Warren
Commission,  and Leslie Midgeley carried them out.  In 1967  the  entire
program format was changed by top management from pro-conspiracy to pro-
Warren Commission in the last ten days before the first show went on the
air.[21]   By  1975  there  wasn't  any  doubt  about  the  conclusions.
Midgeley  and Co. started out with the lone assassin thesis and, as  the
Warren Commission did, merely sought witnesses, experts and explanations
that would back it up, while they totally ignored everything else.

The CIA's man at CBS who controlled this policy is not known.   Personal
experiences and contacts within the organization by the author have  led
to the conclusion that it is someone below the level of William C. Paley
and above the level of Midgeley.  That leaves Richard Salant and one  or
two  other  possibilities.   Salant is known to  have  had  intelligence
connections through the decades since World War II.

                           Too Perfect Timing

CBS  and the "New York Times" are sometimes simultaneously  orchestrated
by the evil forces.  One example was the CBS show preview by the "Times"
on  November  24 (the show was scheduled to appear on  November  25  and
26).[22]   The  article,  written by John J. O'Connor,  was  a  reverse-
psychology strategy by the top managements of both organizations and was
used  to  reinforce  their pro-Warren  Commission  policies.   To  quote
O'Connor,  "In bringing some facts to bear on the feverish  speculation,
CBS  News is less sensational but more telling."  This was in  reference
to David Susskind and Geraldo Rivera on Channel 5 in New York, and  ABC,
who  the  "Times"  believed  provided no facts  in  disputing  the  lone
assassin conclusion.

How  did O'Connor and the "New York Times" take a look at the CBS  shows
*two days in advance* while other publications and reviewers had to wait
and watch it with the rest of us?  There goes the orchestration again.

                     "Newsweek" Editorial Position:
              Schweiker, Hart and Gonzalez Misled by Kooks

The "Washington Post"-"Newsweek" situation is a little more  mystifying.
It  is  difficult  to  believe that  Katherine  Graham,  owner  of  both
publications, is a Secret Team member.  The "Newsweek" story on the  JFK
assassination,  published in the issue of April 28, 1975[23] was not  as
blatantly pro-Warren Commission as the "Time" article.  Yet it left  the
impression  with  the  readers of  "Newsweek"  that  editorial  position
regarded the researchers as kooks who misled or talked Senator Schweiker
and  Representatives  Gonzalez  and Downing into  the  wrong  attitudes.
"Oswald  did fire the shots" is the "Newsweek" message.  Individuals  at
"Newsweek"  like Evert Clark did not really believe this.  So where  did
the pressure come from?  Mrs. Graham herself, or Benjamin Bradlee at the
"Post," or someone else near the top of "Newsweek?"  With reporters like
Bernstein  and  Woodward,  and  Haynes  Johnson  who  later  moved  into
management,  it  is  strange  that  the  "Post"  supported  the   Warren
Commission.  Yet that has been the "Post"'s editorial stance since 1964.
It  remains  adamant  in  its continuing  contention  that  lone  madmen
assassinated our three leaders and attempted to assassinate Wallace.

                        Eliminate Areas of Doubt

Researcher Jim Blickenstaff, disturbed by a "Newsweek" article in  April
of  1975,  wrote to the editors.  Madeline Edmundson replied  for  them.
"It  was  certainly  not  our  aim to  discredit  those  who  doubt  the
conclusions  of  the  Warren Commission or to express  opposition  to  a
reopening of the investigation of John F. Kennedy's assassination."

Yet, "Newsweek" did exactly that and, in effect, took the same editorial
position it had taken in May, 1967, when CIA lackey Hugh Aynesworth  was
doing their dirty work.  (Aynesworth later did the CIA's dirty work  and
supported the Warren Commission for the "Dallas Times Herald.")  The new
position  in favor of reopening the investigation was the one  taken  by
Belin.  It was expressed best by Harrison Salisbury, the man at the "New
York Times" who knew better.  Salisbury was quoted in "Newsweek" saying,
"A new investigation is needed to answer questions of major  importance.
We will go over all the areas of doubt and hope to eliminate them."

     UPI:  Accessory After the Fact in the JFK Conspiracy Cover-Up

AP  and UPI have not repeated their 1967-1968 performances  recently  in
which  they sent out the longest stories ever broadcast over their  news
service  wires.   They  were  so  long  that  they  were  divided   into
installments.  The stories backed up the Warren Commission and  attacked
the  researchers,  especially Jim Garrison.  UPI, of course,  became  an
accessory  after the fact in the JFK conspiracy cover-up by  suppressing
the original 8mm color films by Marie Muchmore and Orville Nix.  It went
even further by employing Itek Corporation to prove there was no one  on
the grassy knoll.

In  July of 1975 a UPI alumnus, Maurice Schonfeld, published an  article
in  "Columbia  Journalism Review"[24] that subtly contended one  of  the
riflemen  on  the knoll as seen in the original Nix film was  either  an
illusion or a man without a rifle.

                           "Expert" Opinions

Itek:   Itek is still at work helping out their friendly employers,  the
U.S.  government and the CIA.  Itek analyzed the Zapruder film  and  the
Hughes  film  on the CBS program aired in November of 1975,  giving  its
"expert"  opinion  that all shots fired in Dealey Plaza  came  from  the
sixth floor window of the TSBD Building.

Maurice  Schonfeld, perhaps unwittingly, did a favor for researchers  in
his  "Columbia  Journalism  Review"  article  that  revealed  that   two
officials  of  Itek, Howard Sprague and Franklin T.  Lindsay,  were  CIA
Secret  Team members.  So when Ford, Belin and Salant or whoever at  CBS
needed  help, all they had to do was call upon good old Itek and  Howard
Sprague.  (Frank Lindsay has since departed.)

                AP:  Faithful to the White House and CIA

Associated  Press  has been editorially silent since  1969.   They  have
faithfully broadcast all of the White House-CIA cover or planted stories
without comment.

                           Keeping the Lid On

"Los  Angeles  Times:"  "The Los Angeles Times,"  controlled  by  Norman
Chandler who was strongly influenced by the Ford administration, the CIA
and  Evelle  Younger (the Attorney General of  California),  produced  a
complete cover-up effort in the Robert Kennedy assassination conspiracy.
Younger, of course, was D.A. in Los Angeles County when RFK was  killed.
He  and  Ed  Davis,  L.A. Police Chief, teamed  up  with  Joseph  Busch,
assistant D.A., to cover up the conspiracy evidence.  The "Times" for  a
short, unguarded period allowed reporter Dave Smith to publish the truth
about  the  assassination.  This stopped in 1974,  after  Al  Lowenstein
stirred  Vincent  Bugliosi,  Baxter Ward, Thomas  Bradley,  and  finally
Governor Pat Brown, Jr. to take a new interest in the case.

Younger influenced Chandler to shut off the flow of information  through
the  "Los  Angeles  Times."   Chandler, who  contributed  to  the  Nixon
campaign,  undoubtedly was strong-armed by both Nixon and Ford  (or  the
CIA)  to support the position of the Los Angeles police and  the  D.A.'s
office.  Ronald Reagan and his immediate deputy at the time also  helped
sway Chandler and others in California to keep the lid on.

                Zapruder Film Broadcast on Two Occasions

The  American Broadcasting Corporation was the first of  the  television
networks  to seemingly break away from CIA-White House control.  In  the
spring  of 1975, after Robert Groden, Dick Gregory, Ralph Schoenman  and
Jerry Policoff decided to release and publicize a clear, enlarged, stop-
action  color copy of the Zapruder film, the ABC show hosted by  Geraldo
Rivera, "Good Night, America," showed the film on two occasions.  Rivera
might  have  made this move against the wishes of  top  ABC  management.
Rumor had it during the summer months that he was in hot water with high
level  people.   All doubts about ABC's position disappeared  when  they
broadcast an assassination special during the week of November 17,  1975
that supported the lone assassin theory.

                           "Conspiracy Fever"

"Commentary:"  One surprising newcomer to the cover-up conspiracy  group
is  "Commentary."   The liberal,  open-minded,  non-government  magazine
"Commentary"  broke their pattern in the October 1975 issue[25] when  it
published  an article by Dr. Jacob Cohen from Brandeis University  which
attacked the researchers as paranoid conspiratorialists.  Cohen has been
writing  these  defenses for the Warren Commission for over  ten  years.
This article was republished in several other places in November,  1975,
as part of the orchestrated campaign by the CIA-White House.

                         A Straight News Story

"U.S.  News and World Report:"  "U.S. News" may be one of the few  media
publications  to  change positions.  On September 15, 1975  they  ran  a
story  entitled,  "Behind the Move to Reopen the JFK Case".   It  was  a
straight  news  story  about Senator Schweiker's  efforts  and  list  of
uncovered  evidence  raising new questions.  The  article  closed  with:
"Numerous  Americans  who  long  have  doubted  the  Warren   Commission
conclusions will be watching what the Senate does with his (Schweiker's)
idea."   That  is as close as any of the fifteen organizations  came  to
saying they believe the Warren Commission was wrong.

                         A Breath of Fresh Air

"Saturday Evening Post:"  Like a breath of fresh air from the  heartland
of America in Indianapolis, Indiana, the revived "Saturday Evening Post"
(Bobbs  Merrill  subsidiary) took an editorial stance.  The  "Post"  not
only  published several strong articles on the assassinations  but  also
called  for reopening all of the cases, supported  the  Gonzalez-Downing
resolutions,  and  offered a sizable reward for information  leading  to
conviction  of  the murderers of John F. Kennedy.[26]  Thus  the  "Post"
joined  the  ranks  of  the  "National  Enquirer,"  "National  Tattler,"
"National  Insider,"  "Argosy," "Penthouse,"  "Gallery,"  "Genesis"  and
other  publications  of  this type, plus  nearly  all  the  "underground
newspapers" in calling for new investigations.

               CIA Operatives Are Serving as Journalists
                     For News Organizations Abroad

"Variety:"  On November 12, 1975, "Variety" published an article on  the
House and Senate Intelligence Committees' suspicions about relationships
between the CIA and broadcasting organizations.[27]  "Variety" said  the
committees were probing the CIA's influence on the media  organizations,
particularly management connections, and commented, "A central issue  in
the  investigations  is reports of financial dealings with the  CIA  and
media firms with extensive overseas staffs."

William  Colby  admitted that CIA operatives were currently  serving  as
journalists  for  news organizations abroad, and that  "detailmen"  were
assigned  abroad to news organizations, often without the  knowledge  of
management.  Ronald Dellums, California representative asked Colby in an
open  session of a House hearing if the CIA had ever asked a network  to
kill a news story.  Colby would not answer specifics in open session, so
the panel went immediately behind closed doors to grill him for  several
hours.

                              Conclusions

It  is  to  be hoped that all committees in the House  and  Senate  will
investigate  the Secret Team members in the 15 media  organizations  and
their  influence  and  control  over  editorial  policies  on   domestic
assassination conspiracies.  It is also to be hoped that the  committees
will investigate the role of then-president Gerald Ford and his  working
relationship to various CIA people in the original cover-up of the  John
F.   Kennedy   assassination  conspiracy.   Certainly,   David   Belin's
relationship to the CIA and to Ford in the media cover-up campaign needs
be investigated.

Fletcher  Prouty  claimed  in his November,  1975  article  in  "Gallery
Magazine,"  "The  Fourth  Force,"[28] that Belin  is  a  CIA  operative.
Prouty  says,  "The Rockefeller Commission did not look into  this  (the
Fourth Force-CIA) because it had been penetrated on behalf of the CIA by
David  Belin,  its  chief  counsel and  former  counsel  of  the  Warren
Commission.   In  fact,  Belin still reports to the CIA."   If  this  is
indeed  true,  it explains every move Belin has made since 1964  and  it
also explains the mysterious way he appeared and reappeared on the front
pages  and  editorial  pages  of various  major  newspapers,  on  choice
television shows, and on the Rockefeller Commission.

If  the  Congress leaves the media-government-CIA  link  untouched--more
serious  than  any  of the other problems raised  by  the  assassination
conspiracies  and their cover-ups--the United States might, in fact,  be
headed for the real 1984.

                               Postscript

On  April 27, 1976 "The New York Times" published a story on the  Senate
Intelligence Committee revelation that the CIA would be keeping  twenty-
five  journalist  agents  within  the  news  media.[29]   The  Committee
disclosed  that  George Bush planned to keep these people in  the  media
positions that they had occupied for a long time.

The  significant  point about the story was a statement by  a  Committee
staff member that many of the individuals were in executive positions at
American news organizations.  Bush had directed that the CIA stop hiring
correspondents  "accredited"  by American publications  and  other  news
organizations.   The "Times" recognized that the pivotal word in  Bush's
directive   was   "accredited."   "Executives  who  do   not   work   as
correspondents  are apparently not covered by Mr. Bush's directive,  nor
are freelance writers who are not affiliated with a specific  employer."
The article also said that in most cases the media organization was  not
aware of the individual's CIA connection.

This  was  yet the best confirmation that the CIA had  its  Secret  Team
members planted at the top of the media.  Only one executive is required
at the top of a media organization to control it when needed.  Since the
CIA had twenty-five executives planted, that figure is more than  enough
to control the fifteen media organizations mentioned in this chapter.

Who  are  they?   The  answer can be  supplied  by  watching  where  the
decisions come from to halt or change the news about domestic  political
assassinations.

The indications from the analysis in this chapter are that the following
media executives are among the twenty-five retained by the CIA:  Harding
Bancroft,  Jr.  ("New York Times"); Richard Salant (CBS);   George  Love
(Time, Inc./"Life");  Walter Sheridan (NBC); Lewis Powell, lawyer (ABC);
and Benjamin Bradlee ("Washington Post").
____________________

[1]  "Accessories  After  the  Fact" is the title of a  book  by  Sylvia
     Meagher,  published by Bobbs Merrill in 1967, accusing  the  Warren
     Commission  and the various government agencies of covering up  the
     crime of the century.  This book accuses the national news media of
     the same crimes.

[2]  Black  Star is a New York based organization made up of  free-lance
     photographers,  called  stringers, in every major  city.   They  do
     contract work for news media with Black Star acting as  contracting
     agent.

[3]  Samuel Thurston, "The Central Intelligence Agency and `The New York
     Times,'" "Computers and Automation," July, 1971.

[4]  CBS-TV Special on the Assassination of John Kennedy -- June 25, 26,
     27 and 28, 1972.

[5]  "Computers and Automation," July, 1971

[6]  For  a  more  detailed analysis of  the  "Times"'  culpability  and
     selective  bias  in reporting the facts of the  assassination,  see
     Jerry  Policoff's October 1972 article in "The Realist:"  "How  All
     the  News About Political Assassinations In the United  States  Has
     Not Been Fit to Print in `The New York Times.'"

[7]  A  detailed review of NBC's performance and Walter  Sheridan's  and
     Richard Townley's involvement is given in "The Kennedy  Conspiracy"
     by Paris Flammonde.

[8]  Those interested in more detail are referred to the map in the  May
     1970 issue of "Computers and Automation" on the JFK  assassination.
     The  UPI definition of "the grassy knoll" was the area  bounded  by
     the  picket  fence,  the stone wall, the top of the  steps  on  the
     south, and the cupola.

[9]  For  a  comparison of New Orleans newspapers and  all  other  media
     coverage of the Shaw trial, see the author's unpublished book  "The
     Trial of Clay Shaw -- The Truth and the Fiction."

[10] Prouty, L. Fletcher, "The Secret Team," Prentice Hall, 1973.

[11] Policoff,  Jerry, "The Media and the Murder of John Kennedy",  "New
     Times," October, 1975.

[12] "Who Killed JFK?  Just One Assassin," "Time" magazine, November 24,
     1975.

[13] "Up  Front -- Did One Man With One Gun Kill John F, Kennedy?  Eight
     Skeptics Who Say No," "People," November 3, 1975.

[14] Author's discussion with Jerry Policoff, November 29, 1975.

[15] "Warren  Panel  Aide Calls for 2nd Inquiry Into  Kennedy  Killing",
     "New York Times," November 23, 1975, p. 1.

[16] Transcript  of  Gerald  Ford Press  Conference  "New  York  Times,"
     November 27, 1975.

[17] For a summary of the evidence and scenario about what it shows  the
     reader  is referred to two articles in "People and the  Pursuit  of
     Truth:"   "The  Assassination  of President  John  F.  Kennedy  the
     Involvement of the Central Intelligence Agency in the Plans and the
     Cover-Up," May 1975, and "Who Killed JFK?," October, 1975.  Both by
     the author.

[18] Phelan,  James  R., "The Assassination," "New York  Times  Magazine
     Section," November 23, 1975.

[19] Thurston,  Samuel  F.  (psuedonym for  Richard  E.  Sprague),  "The
     Central  Intelligence Agency and `The New York  Times'"  "Computers
     and Automation," July, 1971.

[20] Bancroft  retired in early 1976.  A successor has undoubtedly  been
     groomed by the CIA.  However, Bancroft still has a strong influence
     at the "Times" on the subject of assassinations.

[21] Based  on  a discussion among the author, Dan  Rather,  and  Robert
     Richter  at CBS in Washington, D.C., approximately ten days  before
     the first Cronkite-CBS section of the 1967 four-part series on  the
     JFK assassination.

[22] O'Conner,  John  J.,  "TV:  CBS News is  Presenting  Two  Hour-Long
     Programs  on  the Assassination of President  Kennedy",  "New  York
     Times," November 24, 1975.

[23] "Dallas:  New Questions and Answers," "Newsweek," April 28, 1975.

[24] Schonfeld,  Maurice  W.,  "The  Shadow  of  a  Gunman,"   "Columbia
     Journalism Review," July-August, 1975.

[25] Cohen, John, "Conspiracy Fever," "Commentary," October, 1975.

[26] "Saturday Evening Post," September, October, November and December,
     1975 issues.

[27] "D.C.  Digs Deep Into TV News Ties With CIA,"  "Variety,"  November
     12, 1975.

[28] Prouty, L. Fletcher, "The Fourth Force," "Gallery," November, 1975.

[29] "CIA  Will Keep More Than 25 Journalist-Agents," "New York  Times,"
     April 27, 1976, p. 26.