NBC News: How Mighty Have Fallen

In 1940, NBC News was born on television. On Sunday, it may have died.

At the very least, NBC News is gasping and withering. It is a once proud, robust and pioneering institution whose roots have rotted, complexion has yellowed and vision and integrity have shriveled to tabloid size.

News division president Michael Gartner is cranking the body into the ground. But on Sunday it was Tom Brokaw--supposedly the news division’s best and brightest by virtue of his anchor/managing editor/chief of correspondents title--who helped shovel on the dirt.

He did it in his role as host of “Expose,” the network’s tawdry little news magazine clawing for life at 8 p.m.

Television has entered the May sweeps, when ratings are especially vital in setting local advertising rates. A trumpeted scandal piece could be just the ticket to titillate viewers. Yet this disgrace has much less to do about ratings than with ethics.

The occasion was Sunday’s 11-minute lead story accusing Sen. Charles S. Robb (D-Va.) of knowingly being in the presence of persons using cocaine, of committing adultery with a former beauty queen, and of having associates who menace those who have sought to expose him. Robb denied all of the charges.

A somber Brokaw introduced Sunday’s segment, calling it a “story of intimidation.” Note the omission of “alleged.” Brokaw was flat-out asserting that there was intimidation.

But as it turned out, this wasn’t a story of intimidation at all, or even much of a story of any kind. In the smelly tradition of “Hard Copy” and “A Current Affair,” it was a smear of Robb and, in effect, a smear of the grand tradition of NBC News.

It’s been a lowly 1991 for NBC News, first in badly losing the battle of Persian Gulf War coverage to its competition, then in following the lead of print tabloids in airing the name and picture of the alleged rape victim in the William Kennedy Smith case, and then on Sunday in journalistically raping Robb.

On the one hand, “Expose” is somewhat refreshing, given NBC’s slant toward softer news in the current climate of budget slashing mandated by the network’s parent, General Electric. But on Sunday, “Expose” shot way over the top, perhaps carrying Brokaw and the entire news division with it.

The “Expose” segment may have appeared damning on the surface, thanks to some fast talking and fast cutting. But a closer examination shows something else.

The drug charges appeared to be largely a rehash of previously reported allegations against Robb that he attended parties where cocaine was present when he was Virginia governor from 1982 to 1986.

“Expose” senior producer Marion Goldin asserted that “Robb was at more than one party where cocaine was being used.” The program offered no absolute proof of that, but even if true, his presence at such parties would not prove knowledge of drugs.

“Expose” freely used guilt-by-association tactics against Robb, but based its Robb-watched-cocaine-being-snorted scenario mostly on the account of Virginia Beach businessman Gary Pope, who claimed he was at a party where Robb watched a woman use cocaine “right in front of him.”

Outside of Robb himself, no one on the program spoke on the senator’s behalf, even though an earlier Washington Post story on the same subject quoted several persons as saying they were at the party described by Pope and did not see drugs being used. Inexplicably, “Expose” chose to see only one side.

The relatively new charge on “Expose” involved Tai Collins, a 1983 Miss Virginia-USA who Goldin said got to know Robb “on the Virginia Beach party circuit the year she was crowned.” To sleazily emphasize its point, “Expose” showed a semi-nude shot of Collins. Later in the segment, she claimed she had sexual relations with Robb, who has been married for 23 years to the former Lynda Bird Johnson, daughter of the late President Lyndon Johnson.

This alleged sexual liaison occurred in New York, according to Collins, who said she met Robb at his hotel suite. Goldin: “Did Chuck Robb commit adultery?” Collins: “Yes.”

Robb denied that to Goldin, although admitting some “peccadilloes” and that “a couple of times” he had placed himself in circumstances “appropriate for a bachelor, inappropriate for a happily married man.”

But even if he was lying about Collins, so what?

“Expose” never attached a date to this episode, so, for all viewers knew, it could have occurred recently. Yet according to other press accounts, Collins said the alleged tryst occurred in 1984.

That Robb is accused of having an affair seven years ago is a news story? Is there no statute of limitations in tabloid journalism? Of course, Goldin took care of the time element by adding that other “reports of his liaisons surfaced” during Robb’s 1988 Senate campaign.

Other reports? What did that mean? Did Goldin read about them at the supermarket checkout counter?

And what about the “intimidation” charge from Brokaw to open the segment? Bring on the games.

“Expose” immediately cut from Brokaw to Collins saying: “I had phone calls, and it was always when I was alone, and the guy would say . . . ‘I’m gonna slit your throat.’ ”

Click .

Now a man named Richard Miller was saying: “They said it would just be better to stay out of the situation, just keep my mouth shut.”

Click.

Now Pope was saying: “This man is a very powerful man. There’s no telling what he could do to me.”

Next came Goldin’s voice: “What has so unnerved these Virginians? Their senator, Charles Robb, and the campaign to keep details of his private life from becoming public knowledge.” Juicing up Goldin’s voiceover, “Expose” showed footage of Robb entering a room and closing the door behind him, a powerful visual image that, combined with Goldin’s words, symbolized secrecy. Yes, this man definitely had something to hide.

But wait. What campaign of suppression? “Expose” never documented its charge. For example:

* Collins made no connection between the “slit your throat” calls and Robb. Later in the segment, Goldin said that Collins secretly recorded Robb’s chief of staff, David R. McCloud, giving “warnings to her about a private detective who has been investigating Robb.”

“Expose” then aired what it said were McCloud’s words. But his “warning” was aimed not at Collins but at the investigator, who was never identified or linked to Collins. Yet the impression from the reporting was that McCloud was threatening Collins.

* Miller was later identified by Goldin as a “local barbecue king and caterer” who remembered getting a call from the host of a party that “Robb would attend.” Miller, who was catering the event, said he was told to bring a supply of cocaine. Then Miller added that after initially talking to “Expose,” he was visited by two men who warned him, “Just keep your mouth shut.”

But the program did not establish a connection between these men and Robb.

* Pope, said Goldin, now “fears retaliation from the Robb camp” after charging that Robb watched cocaine being used at a party. Pope added: “I hope he lets it lay. I hope he doesn’t do anything to me.”

Note there has been no retaliation, although in the eyes of “Expose,” apparently, Pope fearing it makes Robb guilty of it.

* Gary M. Van Auken was lobbed into the Robb segment from somewhere beyond left field, preceded by this introduction from Goldin: “Robb’s allies did more than threaten Virginia Beach policeman Gary Van Auken.” As if they had threatened others on the program, something “Expose” had not proved.

Goldin: “A very scared Van Auken revealed to ‘Expose’ how a banker, reportedly at the request of a Robb associate, demanded sudden payment on a loan that forced Van Auken to lose this house.”

Van Auken: “It was a demand note that I was made to pay back at a very inopportune time, and I’d been told that the reason for it was that they accused me of repeating some stories that I heard about the governor, which was not true.”

Is “Expose” on something? What banker? What Robb associate? Who are “they”? Exactly who allegedly told Van Auken he was being punished? What “stories” was Van Auken telling? And, mostly, how can Goldin justify concluding from this slush that “Robb’s allies did more than threaten” Auken?

Teetering on the tip of the “Expose” gangplank, Robb required one last shove that Goldin gave him with her tag: “In addition to those shown in this story, several federal and local officials have told ‘Expose’ that they were concerned about reports of Robb’s associations with drug dealers, prostitutes and a reputed Mob associate, but Robb never became a target of their investigation.” Then why mention it?

Why, as Robb asked Goldin, was “Expose” determined to accept so many charges against him at face value? His question, like many others Sunday, went unanswered.