The Seizing of the American Broadcasting Company (1987 article)

[Mika]

The Seizing of the American Broadcasting Company

There is an untold story about the ABC television network. It is about how a company in which CIA Director William Casey is a major player took over the network. The least of the questions this raises is whether Casey used his CIA position to help drive down the price of ABC stock, thereby facilitating the takeover. The most important question it raises is, who really controls ABC, and what can be expected of these people?

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ABCIA?
If NBC is now tied into the defense establishment, ABC control has passed to men who, in the case of Casey, have open or, in the case of other founders and executives, questionable other links to what's euphemistically known as the "intelligence community." The potential for abuse at this network exceeds that at NBC because the possibility of spook-driven news manipulation at ABC has never been publicly aired or examined. (Although some may say the decision to air Amerika is one of the first signs of such manipulation, in fact the show was commissioned before the Cap Cities takeover.) On the other hand, despite much public pressure about the series, ABC executives under Cap Cities have remained steadfast in their commitment to the miniseries. While day-to-day politically motivated intrusion by management into entertainment and news decisions is not unusual --- see the Mother Jones issue of November 1985 for historical precedents at ABC before the Cap Cities deal --- the major impact of Cap Cities on ABC is more likely going to be in its choice of senior news and entertainment executives both at ABC and at stations owned and operated by it. The tone and parameters are set from the top down; control the top levels, and you needn't concern yourself about day-to-day affairs.
A closer look at Cap Cities shows three areas that beg for deeper inquiry. One is the founders themselves --- who they are and what their ties may have been to the U.S. intelligence establishment. Another is the relationship of Cap Cities' founders and execs to a company called Resorts International, some of whose divisions have been said to be intimate with intelligence agencies. And finally, there is the stock deal and William Casey's role in it, as well as any ongoing Casey role in Cap Cities.

Cap Cities was founded in 1954 by several men who were or would become prominent. Chief among them, and the principal players in the company, were famed explorer-newscaster Thomas; Tom Dewey, the former New York governor and twice GOP candidate for president (both, like most other Cap Cities founders, now deceased); and William J. Casey, who was Cap Cities' chief counsel and a member of its board of directors until 1981, when he joined the Reagan administration. He still owns $7.5 million in stock in the now-merged entity called CC/ABC, his largest holding.

Casey should require no introduction. Appointed by Reagan in 1981 as director of the Central Intelligence Agency, he brought to the job an early training in intelligence in the wartime Office of Strategic Services (which later became the CIA) and a lifelong network of friends and allies in the intelligence community. Crafty, secretive, an ardent supporter of covert action and a big-time player in corporate politics, Casey is part of an "old boy" network of intelligence hands who have frequently used American companies to help in intelligence or covert-action matters or, as in the case of ITT and the CIA in Chile, persuaded the CIA to help out in corporate affairs. (Using corporations to help out in a variety of ways --- from washing money, to providing fake business to CIA "front companies," to furnishing cover for intelligence agents --- was a specialty of the man who did the most to give the CIA its power and covert network: its former director, Allen Dulles, a friend, wartime colleague and, rumor has it, business partner of Casey.)

This article originally appeared in the February 20-27, 1987 issue of The LA Weekly. --> here.

[Judi Lynn]

1. Kicking this gem. Thank you! n/t

[bobthedrummer]

2. Spot on Mika! K&R

ABC=Domestic Information Operations/IO (Psy-Ops)

I'd like to "talk" to the CIA's Entertainment Industry Liason Department, wouldn't you? How does David Muir et.al. sleep at night???

CIA Pitches Scripts to Hollywood (Mark Riffee 9-16-11 WIRED)
http://www.wired.com/2011/09/cia-pitches-hollywood

The CIA And The Media: 50 Facts The World Needs To Know (Prof. James F. Tracy 9-27-15 Truth Theory)
http://truththeory.com/2015/09/27/the-cia-and-the-media-50-facts-the-world-needs-to-know

[yurbud]

3. reality is more depressing than any conspiracy theory