Judith Regan's Story Seems Like a Walk in the Park to Me

It happens everyday in the relatively new world of mega-media-corporations, and it began with the FCC approved media mergers of 1996. That gave those with money the right to buy all the media outlets they could afford, thereby controlling agendas and conversations in a democracy. They are now so powerful they have no fear of retribution and therefore few ethics. The "People's airwaves" are now owned by arch conservatives. You want more proof: Here's my story. I will deliver it in headlines:

2005:

I wrote and produced a story on Ringling Bros. Barnum & Baily Circus and its abuse of the endangered Asian elephants performing around the world. The abuse is well documented by a few brave members of the USDA and Ringling workers as well.

Ringling is owned by Kenneth Feld, who according to documents in two lawsuits against him, is a bad dude indeed with friendly ties to not only the Las Vegas Mafia but just about every conservative media corporation in the country -- including News Corporation. (ala Judith Regan) Kenneth Feld and Michael Eisner own Disney on Ice together. Disney owns ABC.

I won a National award for the elephant abuse story. In that story I used the Circus' OWN video to make my points. Hard to argue with that -- one might say! But that does not stop the Corporate media or corporate Cronyism.

Next thing I knew, high profile Ringling Bros. attorneys flew into The San Francisco Bay Area and complained to my bosses that their eyes were playing tricks on them. What viewers witnessed in my reports did not really happen. In other words, viewers did not really see what they saw. That took a lot of nerve since the video was taken by RINGLING ITSELF and obtained by me through my sources.

This was the head smacking moment when I began to understand what I had blithely stepped into. Lies and deceit so intense it would make Machiavelli blush. I found out about a lawsuit against Kenneth Feld by Jan Pottker who claims Feld ruined her journalistic career by bugging her home, having her followed and interfering with her publishing efforts in unfathomable ways. See: The Greatest Vendetta on Earth by Jeff Stein.

Kenneth Feld had the former head of covert operations Claire George on his payroll at the time. Claire George is another bad dude whose worship of money and power makes all things duplicitous possible. Feld's former CFO admitted under oath during a deposition that Kenneth Feld did some horrifying things to Ms. Pottker. Nine year later, and millions of dollars spent to postpone a trial -- Pottker waits for justice and Feld continues to manipulate the press and disregard the first amendment. He can -- he's got the corporate media on his side.

2006:

I found out most of Ringling Bros. endangered Asian elephants traveling the world have been exposed to or have full blown M-Tuberculosis. The same strain of tuberculosis human beings carry and contract. TB in elephants is unheard of in the wild.

I tried to tell my Fox affiliate station of this huge public health issue. I was told "We do not see the story."

I lose my girlish enthusiasm and become completely void of anchor charm.

Meanwhile, in the nation's capitol, Ringling's attorneys are asked to release medical records in Federal court that would later prove my t.b. story to be correct. Patrick Ryan of the Los Angeles County health department says "Elephants exposed to M-TB should never be around the public--because there is no way to tell when they are cured." Don Francis, a world renowned epidemiologist who help discover AIDS and ran the Centers for Disease Control first AIDS division, looked at my evidence and said, "Ringling showed reckless disregard for public health by taking these exposed and infected Asian elephants around the country."

Washington based attorney Katherine Meyer is representing several of the largest animal rights groups in the country and suing Feld for abusing the Asian elephants including knowingly covering up the fact that most of them tested positive or had M-Tuberculosis. That case has been pending for almost eight years. Ringling's attorneys have filed enough delaying motions to make Linda Blair's head spin.

Ringling attorneys claimed in federal court that they should not have to release the medical records of the elephants (which include evidence of horrible beatings) because the information would be miss-used like it was by "The reporter in San Francisco." That would be me.

I am voted best anchor in Oakland magazine.

Shortly after that magazine is published, an anonymous half page defamatory article is written in The Oakland Tribune calling me a "dumb blonde." My recently hired Fox affiliate bosses begin to wonder -- between the Ringling attorneys, the Oakland Tribune article, and my increasing disillusioned attitude, if there's something amiss. They also notice Ringling has not been advertising with the station since my stories began.

As far as I know, the Oakland Tribune article was the first of its kind in any major newspaper.

It was unsigned-outside-an-editorial-section and written by an anonymous source called "The grump." "The Grump" had never written anything negative about anyone before. Previous to the article about me, he wrote mostly about things such as duck poop around our lovely lake Merritt sticking to the shoes of joggers.

Kenneth Feld's M.O. was all over that story like shit on tennis shoes.

A genetically close member of Feld's family called to tell me Kenneth Feld planted the "Oakland Tribune" story. I ask for an investigation by my Fox affiliate. They refused. "Just ignore it," they said. I later found three other reporters, sans Jan Pottker, who have been through similar adventures with Kenneth Feld. See: "The Scary Circus."

One extremely well known reporter had his fiancé stolen away by a muscle bound babe who apparently had a lot of Kenneth Feld's money to throw around as enticement.

2007:

I quit my high-profile-high-paying job now that I understood the propaganda and corporate cronyism and greed involved.

Kenneth Feld, who at first called my stories about M-TB in his elephants a lie, has just sponsored a Ringling Bros. conference on TB in Asian elephants positioning himself as the endangered species savior. He invited the world's experts to Florida and pretended the t.b. was shocking to him. Despite very clear evidence he tried to hide it from the public since 1993.

I got an e-mail from the same Feld family member who said "I had guts" for telling the Ringling Bros. tuberculosis story and Kenneth Feld's subsequent 15 years of covering it up. In other words be careful! Feld would still get me in some nefarious way. As a journalist, I can only say I hope the elephants will now get help. But media corporations with stockpiles to lose in commercials by reporting the truth are rare -- if not gone forever.

When I was just 26, I reported from Moscow. The Cold War was still silently raging. Reporters writing anything negative about the government did so underground. If they were caught, they lost their jobs and their reputations. That's if they were lucky. If they were unlucky, they got thrown in jail. Today, in America, substitute government for corporation then sadly in the land of the "free" add media corporation.

Comments

[Karen80]

I've known Leslie for a decade and can unequivocally say this: she's no dumb blonde.
Memo to Kenneth Feld: you picked the wrong journalist to try to silence.

[ConnieSue]

GANGSTERS HAVE TAKEN OVER
Leslie Griffith is to be commended for ripping the lid off the dark reality of mainstream media in the U.S. and showing us the nasty brew inside. It is very helpful that she reminds us this disastrous-for-American-freedom consolidation took place in 1996, during Clinton's administration. I was a Clinton fan, but no more, of either of them. They are entirely too pro-corporate in their policies and too cozy with the Bush family -- therefore, I think, dirty as can be.

That aside, Leslie's reports (also previously on Dan Rather being railroaded) make it painfully clear how gangsters have risen to the top of the power structures in America -- with media insights being her specialty. We can only take cold comfort in the fact there are millions of us good citizens outnumbering the gangs of criminals in charge -- and that with fantastic alternative media like The Huffington Post, a critical mass of public awareness will be reached and they WILL be taken down and held accountable. Someone wrote to me: The ice is cracking -- keep jumping up and down! I say that to Leslie, too -- and although I'm not a great admirer of the Bible, I hope in our currently tragic U.S. situation of the Bad Guys ruling the Good Guys, it will soon turn around, and "The last shall be first."

[Carleton]

Dear Leslie,

Good for you! You have more fortitude in your little finger than Dan Rather does in his whole body. Certainly one can't read your article and not understand that the corporate rot and degeneracy has gotten to the point where it is not going to be pulled back. Your decision to leave was no doubt the reasoned move. Your former employer willing to unabashedly show such open corporate whoring for corrupt advertising money first, rather than bringing to light the truth you fought for --AND THEY PAID FOR YOU TO UNCOVER, NO LESS-- made me sick. But given how Oakland scum takes care of journalists who stick their noses in places that the vermin don't want you to --I'm referring to the broad daylight gangland murder of the Oakland Post's editor Chauncey Bailey-- you probably did the right thing by leaving, especially if they're going to be sending you on faux news hunts they have no intention of airing.

The fact of the matter is, Leslie, that this nation is lost. Too much power has shifted to
ends-justifies-the-means oligarchs and they are beginning to crush those in their way with
their corrupted and now unstoppable power. You represent the last vanguard of what used to
be in place in journalistic America. Couple that with the fact that this nation is largely made up of "American Idol" and "Anything Related to Sports" worshiping dunces --who neither have the intelligence to defend
their liberties or who simply just don't care--paints a very bleak picture for this once free nation. But bless you for your very brave work. What few of us that are out there to still take notice and appreciate it thank you.

Sincerely,

Carleton Bryant

[SparkyP]

Leslie,
It's taken me a day of mulling and I still have not been able to untangle the mass of convolutions that stop me up short when I try to wade through our loss of freedoms. Like trying to climb over a churning kelp bed, twenty feet out in a winter's storm. Not gonna happen.
Yet despair? Nevah. Even though, yes, we are in peril -- I cannot count on my vote actually being counted, clearly cannot count on the branches of government checking one another as they ought, and as your story points out, now that the interior of the government has crumbled beyond recognition, I cannot even any longer count on the fourth branch of government to shore up our democracy as it should -- I need not give in. In fact, now more than ever I must find my voice and my legs and my arms to reach out to help others hold faith. Even in the midst of this pelting rain and gale force winds, there is a beacon out there. I can count on that light.
That your uncompromising integrity blinks steadily does matter, Leslie. I will match you, blink for blink, in my own way -- through writing on tough topics for children and through staying in touch regularly with our government officials, even when that brings me frustrated to the point of sputtering. We can still find candidates to back who will not be bought either. (And yes, we have to do more! Is it time to march with a torch for Obama? And not in a parenthetical mode but in a forthright jubilant campaign.) Together -- the countless many of us must continue lighting the way home to groundedness.
Carry on, Leslie! And thank you. Yours, Sparky Powell

[NicholasDemNJ]

Leslie - Excellent Gutsy Reporting.

There is a pink elephant hiding in the corner, wearing a tutu, and you turned the spotlight right on it.

Controlling the press is the ultimate Sport.

Giuliani, as NYC Mayor, took full control of the City Hall press. Reporters would risk loss of access, if they wrote unfavorable articles. I always felt Giuliani advised the Bush Administration on such tacticts. Dictatorship tactics that go against everything that stand for America.

We are selling pieces of Americas soul for the polical/financial gain of a few ego maniacs.

Thank you for speaking out on the Truth.
Take Care
Nicholas

[tranzplant]

I'm so glad Leslie wrote this article. Every one talks about the stranglehold corporations have on national media but few people talk about how local markets, big and small, are being affected. Editors and reporters at small newspapers are feeling the same pressures to ignore stories, or re-write them, at the behest of publishers and advertisers. I walked from a small newspaper for just those reasons.

As Leslie's story shows, the current state of journalism is downright scary. I only hope good, ethical journalists can hang on long enough for the wall between business and the newsroom to be rebuilt, with a moat around it, stocked with suit-eating sharks.

[onetwonew]

Leslie Griffith's article was informative regarding the treatment elepants, and I believe she is correct and the only reason this health problem was never disclosed earlier is because of money. Money is the driving force behind all business,it is unfortunate, but until something comes to light for the public to understand then business usually does not care about the public well being.

Leslie Griffith shoud be commended on her courage and honesty to share the truth about the abuse and health problems associated with the elephants.. She should of never been punished for being truthful.. I think Americans have forgotten how to think for themselves.

Ken

[kellygrrrl]

Wow, Leslie, not only is your post very impressive, but your engagement and dialogue with the commenters is awesome! I'm a new fan!!!!
Keep up the great work, Sister

[AlexHidell]

Leslie's story isn't an isolated FoxSnooze event, Fox did this to Jane Akre and Steve Wilson who did a story about BGH in Florida cow's milk. Fox retaliated on them big-time to use a Dick Cheney figure of speech when discussing targetted journalists.

Fox's lack of ethics and journalistic standards are no surprise but by now it should be common knowledge that truth has no place in the Fox newsroom.

[sebastiankunz]

From WITHIN the Corporate News Machine:

Leslie's story is the truest illustration of the dilemma facing dedicated journalists moreso now than ever before: stick to your ethical guns, or play nice and do what you're told.

At my place of employment (a major radio corporation with a dwindling news division inside a dwindling programming department), I've been lucky. In our AM stations' positions, we can't compete against the 24/7 newsradio operations in the Bay Area.

In short, the corporate directive given me most days is "cover the stuff others aren't". I'm quite lucky, even if the ulterior reason is understaffing, rather than journalistic excellence. I'd never have guessed a corporate giant would afford this sort of chance.

I'm lucky that one of my AM stations is, this month, teaming with Project Censored to present the Top 25 unreported stories of the year.

But we had a nice round of firings last year, and it's again Corporate Radio chopping block season.

With sales executives, who don't own an AM radio, selling ads, it's sacrilegious that management sends out group emails praising account executives as though they were rock stars, while their fat sales contracts turn out to be as valid as the NorCal housing boom. Now, the Hip Hop stations make more money than my news/talk stations do, so I'm cool with them having a fleet of Hummers with sick paint jobs, while I drive a rundown unmarked minivan to my news events. At least I get to go out into the field.

But it's a shade frightening that my job, where I've learned more in 2 years than the previous 13 years in small-town radio, still exists in large part because Michael Savage gets (some) ratings.

Meanwhile, the next group email could easily be that Sebastian Kunz is no longer with the Company. I hope not.

But (a) I get under 30 a year, and (b) they could have cut me at any time, this IS corporate radio after all.

I just tell the story, to the very best of my ability.

Big ups, Leslie.
-cBas Kunz

[HeevenSteven]

This MSM problem is kind of an open secret. Why aren't more journalists talking about this? Why don't the big guns, the trusted old timers who've made their bones already and don't need the money (i.e. Koppel, Brokaw, Cronkite etc) --or who care more about integrity than money-- speak to this.

[TalkingFrog]

I don"t know whether MSM realizes how far they"ve marginalized themselves. We used to look up to and trust the newscasters. I think people today realize they"re being fed a load of crap. Every news item I know anything about is presented in a biased, filtered way, and typically has a huge backstory that the MSM just ignores. I hardly ever watch "The News." Leslie, with your history as part of MSM news, it must be especially difficult for you to witness this decline and rot.

A concern of mine is that the corporate powers controlling MSM will take over and control content and distribution on the Internet, as is currently being done in other countries. The boiling frog analogy is a good one- our rights and freedoms are being stripped away too slowly for most to notice. A lot of those who do notice the water is heating up have become discouraged and resigned. When it comes to fighting against the endless erosion of rights, propaganda and greed, it seems Whack-A-Mole is another appropriate analogy.

[Primadonna]

Huff Post is a great place to come together ... find out about one another ... assist each other as best as we can (in finding employment and/or for a caring vent) and find another outlet to get information out. It's too bad that You Tube and My Space are being gobbled up by the same conglomerates that own all of the other media outlets. Perhaps stand with the Writer's Guild in what they're attempting to settle ... it's mind boggling to me in even that coverage people are not associating their challenge to the bigger picture of what has systematically been happening in our country. Yes, it was on the backs of the air traffic controllers, textile workers, auto workers, etc., but we can't look back and stay immobilized ... for we have seen what has happened and will continue until we unite.

As a consumer advocate, I worked opposite of what big business was expecting ... I believe in win/wins and as an organization comprised of humans, I operate on the premise as a human we all can make mistakes. Therefore, let's turn this issue with your company into a public relations opportunity. Once the corporations realized I wasn't out to burn them, we could begin changing things more and more from their inside out. We must be forgiving in order to progress. Unity rather than division can progress our existence and co-existence in a more sustainable manner. Collaboration and cooperation is at the forefront of this movement.

As for the Kenneth Feld's of the world? They truly must be hurting souls ... keep your chin up, Leslie. Thank you TomT for your share.

My best,

Donna Larner Lavery

[skyeapril]

Now I understand why Leslie left KTVU. I remember the elephant story, but had no idea that started it. It is difficult to come to terms with the fact that my favorite news channel is owned by Fox - I deliberately avoid all other programs associated with them.

We need more brave investigative journalists. The cards are stacked against anyone not willing to report the "angle" the media owners want. Independence of reporting is becoming an endangered species and we need to protect and nuture it back to health. MSM in its current condition is a joke and my hope is that we look back on this period in time as we do Joe McCarthy now, the Dark Ages.

Rolling back the disastrous FCC rules for ownership will take a huge and concentrated effort and we currently are just fighting to keep it from getting worse. Very scary to think how much worse it can get before we see any reform.

[Primadonna]

Dear Leslie:

Thank you for your courageous stand. I am an Emmy Award winning investigative journalist, a consumer advocate, filmmaker, writer that also took Westwood One (CBS Radio) to task as they syndicated the show I was on and did not have the rights to my on-air persona in the one hundred and sixty-four cities they aired us to. They were more or less sold a bag of goods by my employer, Clear Channel. Due diligence was overlooked when it came to me as I was just the executive producer and on-air sidekick to the host of the show. It was an all male revue, hence my radio name of Primadonna. Although the merits in our case were never disputed, we lost the case after three years in litigation (California - State Statute 3344 - protection of intellectual property) due to the Appellate Court's Opinion that we belonged in the federal courts under the Copyright Act. Interesting how that was never an issue those entire three plus years. I ended up having to pay their attorneys fees - needless to say, one lone single mom of two taking on two behemoth broadcast companies and their slew of attorneys more than breaks the bank. I lost our home. As Primadonna, a consumer advocate, the irony of this is that I was so instrumental in assisting people in keeping their homes, getting the surgeries their insurance companies were denying them, getting their banks or phone companys to take care of a discrepency ... five days a week three hours live. These past years living in what Naomi Klein calls "The Shock Doctrine" has made consumer advocacy needed more than ever.

What have I learned in all of this? That I choose higher ... that I believe we're in a paradigm shift and we're at the stage where life seems more out of control and crazy frenetic energy is seemingly palpable. The old way is about division and control ... I'm choosing not to buy into that outdated modality. Those of us who have been pummeled for our integrity can unite. My Rome isn't burning. (Continued)