CNN SAYS IT WILL COVER LIBERTY DESPITE ABC PACT

The Cable News Network plans to provide full coverage of the Statue of Liberty centennial celebration, despite ABC-TV’s claims to exclusive coverage, a senior CNN official said Wednesday.

ABC paid David Wolper, producer of the event, $10 million last fall for broadcast rights to the July 3-6 celebration. The network recently announced detailed plans for 17 1/2 hours of coverage of the celebration, known as Liberty Weekend. Much of the coverage is exclusive.

“The entire event belongs to the American people, and not to any one network or to David Wolper,” said CNN Executive Vice President Ed Turner. “As a newsman, I find the idea of ‘exclusivity’ outrageous, and we are not going to tolerate it.”

CBS, which began the day saying it would honor ABC’s exclusivity, later issued a statement saying it “will give serious consideration to legal action if appropriate access is not worked out.”

Wolper, producer of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, was commissioned last year by the private Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation to produce the centennial celebration with a television sale in mind as a means of partially financing the $30-million event.

Wolper said through a spokesman Wednesday that any changes in plans for television coverage now “are up to ABC,” but that he “envisions no such changes.” ABC officials could not be reached for comment.

The issue being raised by ABC’s rival networks involves the degree to which Liberty Weekend has become a news event, open to all news media, rather than an entertainment event to which exclusive television rights can be sold, like a football game or the recent Vladimir Horowitz concert in Moscow.

Turner said that the major source of contention is the July 3 opening night ceremonies involving President Reagan, Chief Justice Warren Burger and the presentation of a new Medal of Liberty--conceived by Wolper for the telecast--to 12 naturalized U.S. citizens. There is no strong objection to ABC’s exclusive coverage of purely entertainment events, such as a star-studded closing event scheduled for July 6 at a New Jersey stadium, he said.

ABC has promised to provide other news operations with pool coverage of the President’s rededication and relighting of the 100-year-old statue, and of the induction of 20,000 new U.S. citizens by Burger. Turner said that this promise came only after strong protests from other news operations, including CNN.

However, ABC claims exclusive rights to the remainder of the evening’s ceremonies, including the Medal of Liberty presentations by the President.

“The notion that ‘exclusivity’ can be claimed for such an event is absurd,” Turner said Wednesday, terming the notion of selling the TV rights to such an event as one of “unmitigated gall.”

CBS echoed his contention in its statement: “The activities of the President and other government officials during Liberty Weekend festivities are legitimate news events. Therefore, we find it surprising that they would participate in a ceremony of such national significance that would deny access to news media for the benefit of entertainment producers and commercial interests.”

A spokesman for NBC News said his network also is pressing for more access “so that the people will see what they should be seeing.”

Wolper said through his spokesman that “the rules and regulations regarding exclusivity were made known when bidding among the three major networks took place last year, and that is when any complaints should have been made.”

“You don’t bid on news and public events like the one this one has become,” Turner said in response.

Turner expressed the view that most news operations until recently have been too distracted by coverage of world events to pay attention to plans for Liberty Weekend as they have unfolded.

He said that CNN officials initially expressed concern to Wolper in a letter about a month ago, when Turner and others at the cable network realized “we and other networks were going to be presented with plans for television coverage as a fait accompli. “

CNN received “a pleasant brush off” in response to its letter, he said, but since has continued to try to negotiate with Wolper and ABC for added access to the upcoming celebration.

“Whatever the outcome (of the negotiations), we’re going to cover what we want to cover, even if we have to do it with a long lens,” said Turner. “We’ll do whatever’s necessary.”

The July 3 ceremonies are scheduled to take place on two small islands near the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor--Governor’s Island and Ellis Island. Ceremonies directly involving President Reagan are to take place in a restricted area on Governor’s Island, which is intended to accommodate only 3,000 persons paying $5,000 each to view the event.

Space has been provided on Governors Island to CBS, NBC and CNN--”after long and heated debate,” according to Turner. But they are only supposed to photograph their anchors reporting on the event, not the event itself.