JOHN PALMER: Cha$ing After the Campaign

Three months after the demise of his acclaimed nightly news program “The World Monitor,” on the short-lived Christian Science Monitor channel, John Palmer is back on TV.

The former NBC News correspondent is host of “The Money Chase,” a seven-part series beginning Tuesday on PBS’ “The Nightly Business Report.” The investigation of campaign financing will focus on who gives what to whom and why and how politicians spend the money and what contributors expect in return.

Palmer, who spent 26 years with NBC News, is best known as the news anchor for “The Today Show,” 1982-89. In December, 1991, he joined the broadcasting division of the Christian Science Monitor and was named anchor of “World Monitor.” After the Monitor Channel ceased broadcasting in June, he began working on the development of radio and TV documentaries for Christian Science Monitor Co. (though no channel has arranged to air them).

Palmer also is host of the 13-part series “Secret Weapons,” which began Oct. 2 on the Discovery Channel.

Palmer talked to Times Staff Writer Susan King about “The Money Chase,” the demise of “World Monitor” and his new projects in a telephone interview from his home in Washington.

How did “The Money Chase” evolve?

I wanted very much to do something with the fall presidential campaign. I still have a hunger for the newsroom and the newsroom setting.

I was approached by Ned Schnurman, who is the executive producer of this program.

While this is not a news story, the idea how campaigns are financed is becoming increasingly important because the individual seems to be less and less important. More in the forefront are political action committees and corporations and labor unions who give money to candidates.

I heard a frightening statistic that the average senator has to make $3,000 in contributions a day, each day he is in office, in order to run for re-election.

A record number of congressmen this year have decided not to seek re-election. The reason (they have said is) they have to spend their time having to raise money to get elected again, rather than doing the job they were elected to. That is an unfortunate situation.

How are campaigns financed?

It all goes back to the reforms that were put into effect following the Watergate episode. They limit the amount of money an individual, corporation, labor union or political action committee can give to a political candidate. But there is a huge loophole you can drive a truck through. It is called soft money.

Sure, there are limits to how much you can give a given political candidate, but there are no limits whatsoever. Some individuals and corporations can give $1 million to their favorite politician and candidate by not giving it to him directly, but by giving it to him through a political action committee or, in the case of a presidential election, to a state party chairman to use as he sees fit (and that) with a wink of the eye goes to a particular candidate.

It really costs the taxpayer money even if a taxpayer doesn’t give a single dime to a party or to a candidate because political contributions influence legislation, they influence the members of Congress who depend on this money to get elected, and the legislation they produce often drives up the cost of all types of goods and services through price supports and tariffs on imported goods.

How much does it cost to win the Presidency?

Each of the candidates is getting a little more than $50 million--that is through the federal funds which people check off at a $1 on their income tax. Beyond that there is the soft money, and we will have to see how much that piles up.

What is unique about this (series) is we have a very special audience on “Nightly Business Report” and that is basically businessmen.

What I would like to do is to find out why these businessmen give money. I know one of the answers is that they do it because their competitor is giving money. We found that some companies will give money to candidates they despise because their competitor or a competitive industry is giving money. And if they don’t, they will be in serious trouble along the way because legislation may be passed that will be detrimental to their industry.

Besides “The Money Chase,” what else have you been doing since “World Monitor” left the air in May?

I am still with The Christian Science Monitor. The channel went down not to any lack of quality of the programs. I think they were trying to do too much too soon and they launched the channel in a hostile economic environment, but it was a truly fine product and I was happy to be associated with it.

You also are hosting “Secret Weapons,” a new documentary series on the Discovery Channel. Can you talk about that?

It is on various weapon systems. We look at the advent of the jet engine and how weapons designers came up with various changes to offset the changes brought about by another designer.

I have been working a year for that. I was not up on military technology.

“The Nightly Business Report” airs weeknights at 6 on KCET and 6:30 on KOCE and KPBS .

“Secret Weapons” airs Fridays at 6 and 9 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. on the Discovery Channel.