In 1992, Bill Clinton's presidential campaign was nearly ended when tapes between the Arkansas governor and cabaret singer Gennifer Flowers were released. At the time, KCBS, the network's owned-and-operated affiliate in Los Angeles, took the tape and submitted it to private detective and forensic tape expert Anthony Pellicano for analysis. Mr. Pellicano's conclusions that the tapes were "misleading" and "not credible" played a role in Mr. Clinton surviving the controversy.
Only later was it learned that Mr. Pellicano had no formal training in evaluating tapes and was at the time being paid by Democratic sources to squelch "bimbo eruptions" surrounding Mr. Clinton. In other words, Mr. Clinton's own private eye was able to discredit one of the most damaging eruptions that preceded Monica Lewinsky. In his own memoirs published this year, Mr. Clinton confessed to the Flowers affair, contradicting his fierce denials at the time. /.../
The same legal office finally stopped the network from going off the cliff in 1995 with a story about tobacco "whistleblower" Jeffrey Wigand, who claimed he had been subjected to a death threat for spilling the industry's beans. Never mind that an FBI investigator had already told the network that Mr. Wigand had faked the death threat himself. Never mind that the FBI also reported that his probable motive had been to entice CBS to run his story by adding a dash of sensationalism. Mike Wallace and Co. ignored the evidence and prostrated themselves before a "source" who was a liar and scam artist, forcing network suits finally to intervene to vet and all-but-kill the story.
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In 1992, Bill Clinton's presidential campaign was nearly ended when tapes between the Arkansas governor and cabaret singer Gennifer Flowers were released. At the time, KCBS, the network's owned-and-operated affiliate in Los Angeles, took the tape and submitted it to private detective and forensic tape expert Anthony Pellicano for analysis. Mr. Pellicano's conclusions that the tapes were "misleading" and "not credible" played a role in Mr. Clinton surviving the controversy.
Only later was it learned that Mr. Pellicano had no formal training in evaluating tapes and was at the time being paid by Democratic sources to squelch "bimbo eruptions" surrounding Mr. Clinton. In other words, Mr. Clinton's own private eye was able to discredit one of the most damaging eruptions that preceded Monica Lewinsky. In his own memoirs published this year, Mr. Clinton confessed to the Flowers affair, contradicting his fierce denials at the time.
/.../
The same legal office finally stopped the network from going off the cliff in 1995 with a story about tobacco "whistleblower" Jeffrey Wigand, who claimed he had been subjected to a death threat for spilling the industry's beans. Never mind that an FBI investigator had already told the network that Mr. Wigand had faked the death threat himself. Never mind that the FBI also reported that his probable motive had been to entice CBS to run his story by adding a dash of sensationalism. Mike Wallace and Co. ignored the evidence and prostrated themselves before a "source" who was a liar and scam artist, forcing network suits finally to intervene to vet and all-but-kill the story.