CIA vs. ABC

Trying to punish a network

The two-part investigation, broadcast to viewers of ABC's World News Tonight last September, was bizarre by any measure. Scott Barnes, who has sometimes presented himself as a "paramilitary expert," claimed he had taken a job as a prison guard in 1983 at the request of the CIA to watch Ronald Rewald, a Honolulu investment counselor who is under indictment for defrauding approximately 400 investors of $22 million. Barnes said that the CIA then told him, "We gotta take him out." According to the ABC show, Rewald's company had provided cover for several CIA operations, including the arrangement of secret arms shipments to Syria and Taiwan. The CIA denied the story, and two weeks ago ABC issued a "clarification." Barnes had refused to take a lie-detector test, said ABC Anchor Peter Jennings, and checking showed that his "charges cannot be substantiated and we have no reason to doubt the CIA'S denial."

ABC's statement has not satisfied the intelligence agency, which took the unprecedented step of filing a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission. The CIA charged that ABC violated the FCC's Fairness Doctrine by broadcasting "outlandish statements" in "reckless disregard for the truth." (The fairness regulation requires that broadcasters "afford reasonable opportunity for the presentation of contrasting viewpoints.") The CIA took the unusual action because the Supreme Court has indicated that federal agencies cannot sue news organizations for libel. In its complaint the CIA asked that the FCC order ABC to retract "all false allegations," and that it consider not renewing the licenses of the stations the network owns.

Determining the truth of the ABC story may prove difficult because the CIA'S link with Rewald is murky. At the agency's request, a U.S. district-court judge in Hawaii has sealed all documents in a federal proceeding involving the investment counselor on the grounds of national security. CIA Spokeswoman Kathy Pherson says flatly of Barnes: "The CIA has never had any relationship" with him.

More troubling to lawyers is a constitutional question: whether the Government can penalize allegedly false criticism of one of its operations by withdrawing the license of a station. Declares First Amendment Expert James Goodale of New York University Law School: "The approach by the CIA is heavyhanded and shows that it doesn't understand the law." Lawyer Floyd Abrams, who represents the media in many First Amendment cases, agrees, saying. "The remedy for the CIA is to participate in controversy and discussion in the court of public opinion."