A lot of DU'ers are probably unaware of this little bit of history...
http://groups.google.com/group/ca.politics/browse_thread/thread/fb4a0a69e810f038/8f018b2cc8e89a22?lnk=st&q=%22Capital+Cities%22++Casey&rnum=5&hl=en#8f018b2cc8e89a22 This is the fifth in a series of profiles on the major media corporations
in the United States. This article appeared in the Mar/Apr 1990 issue of
"Extra!", a publication of FAIR, and is reprinted here with permission.
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Capital Cities/ABC: No. 2, AND TRYING HARDER
By Doug Henwood
<snip>
| The Bill Casey Connection |
| |
| Several Capital Cities founders and board members have had |
| intelligence connections, but none more prominently than the |
| late CIA director William Casey. |
| Casey, along with broadcaster Lowell Thomas, Republican |
| leader Thomas Dewey and others, started Cap Cities in 1954. |
| Serving as the company's chief counsel, Casey was also a |
| board member until 1981, when he was appointed by Reagan to |
| head the spy agency. When Casey was forced to put his stocks |
| in a blind trust in 1983, he quietly kept control of his |
| largest single holding: $7.5 million in Cap Cities stock. |
| Despite his close connections to a company in the news |
| business, no one ever accused Casey of being a fanatical |
| supporter of the First Amendment. In November 1984, in his |
| official capacity as CIA director, he asked the Federal |
| Communications Commission to revoke all of "ABC"'s TV and |
| radio licenses, in retaliation for an "ABC News" report that |
| suggested the CIA had attempted to assassinate a U.S. citizen |
| ("ABC News," 9/19/84, 9/20/84). In February 1985, the CIA |
| asked the FCC to apply Fairness Doctrine penalties to the |
| network. The following month, "ABC" was bought by Casey's |
| Cap Cities. |
| (See "The Seizing of the American Broadcast Company," by |
| Andy Boehm, "L.A. Weekly," 2/20-26/87.) |
| --The Editors |
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