TV channel weighs JFK-Johnson film inquiry

AP | 2/05/04 | LYNN ELBER

[kattracks]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Former aides to President Johnson met with History Channel executives Wednesday to demand a re-examination of a program that accused Johnson of conspiracy in the Kennedy assassination.

"We can't let stand the blatant falsity of the allegation in that program," Larry Temple, special counsel in the Johnson White House and president of The LBJ Foundation, said after the meeting in New York.

The aides, along with former Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and Johnson's widow, Lady Bird Johnson, want an independent probe of the claims in "The Guilty Men," which the channel aired in November.

Temple, along with journalist Bill Moyers; Jack Valenti, head of the Motion Picture Association of America; and Tom Johnson, chairman of the LBJ Foundation, met for an hour with Nickolas Davatzes, president of A&E Television Networks, which includes the History Channel.

Davatzes and History Channel executive vice president Dan Davids agreed to consider their request, Tom Johnson said Wednesday.

"They made no commitment whatsoever" to an investigation, he said. "I told them we would not accept a whitewash ... and are not yet abandoning the potential for litigation."

No indication was given of when a History Channel decision would be made, he said.

Davatzes and Davis listened to the concerns presented "and took them very seriously," according to a History Channel statement Wednesday. "The History Channel strives to present history in an accurate manner."

Kennedy's killing remains a controversial event and the channel presented a series of programs that looked at many conspiracy theories about Kennedy's death, some contradictory, the statement said.

"The History Channel does not endorse any specific theory," it said.

Tom Johnson said the executives expressed concern that the issue had been "ratcheted up" by letters from Ford, Carter and Mrs. Johnson to the chief executives of NBC, Hearst Corp. and The Walt Disney Corp., which own A&E Networks.

The letters pressed the case for an investigation by independent journalists or historians of "The Guilty Men," one of a series of documentaries aired by the History Channel to mark the 40th anniversary of Kennedy's murder.

"I assured them (Davatzes and Davids) that those were very heartfelt letters," Tom Johnson said. "I also conveyed my disappointment that I had been unable to get an earlier hearing on this."

The Johnson camp expects a probe will find the film falsely accused Johnson of conspiring to kill Kennedy, Temple said, and wants either an on-air program or a statement retracting the allegations.

The documentary "clearly has resulted in misleading a lot of people, particularly young people, who have written to the LBJ Library asking, 'How can you have this monument to a murderer?'" Temple said.

[Keith]

Whether you think he killed JFK or not, he was still a murderer...so many bodies, so much work for LBJ.

[Robert Drobot]

....and then there's the stories of dead bodies telling no tales in Texas, when LBJ was ran for a seat in the House, or was it about the time he first ran for the U.S. Senate.....

Texans play hard ball. Not Hyannisport batmitten.

[leadpenny]

Update Ping (names taken from yesterday's thread). Not a ping list!

[ambrose]

He was a real piece of crap. Probably the most evil president we've ever had. Slick was plenty of bad, but I think Hitlery was responsible for most of the dirty work.

[leadpenny]

Now I know why it would take - I was trying to enter 185JPH.

[leadpenny]

For reference:

TAKE IT BACK (Valenti Demanding History Channel Rebut Kennedy Assassination Documentary)

[leadpenny]

would = wouldn't

[#3Fan]

I say "bring it on". Let's take a good hard look at the Henry Marshall murder especially. Suicide by a bolt-action rifle with 5 bullets my ***.

[Terry Mross]

It's a proven fact because you say it is? Or did you go personally count all the bodies? Or were you there and counted each one as he or she was murdered? That's the only way an exact number could be proven. Do the math. If six million were killed over a six year period that's one million per year. That's 2739 murders per day. I doubt that. I doubt there were that many around to kill.

The bottom line is this: Even if it's all true it's still time to stop milking it. And here's another fact that I believe to be true. The Jews did kill their Messiah. I'm not saying the Jews of today are guilty but the Jews at the time of Jesus were guilty. I'm sick and tired of the Jews always wearing the victim tag. Just like I'm sick of the blacks claiming because their ancestors were slaves they don't have a chance today. Enough is enough. Get over it, already.

Finally, is there any subject you would admit to being ignorant about or do you know everything? Just wondering.

[leadpenny]

Excuse me, Terry.
May I ask you a very personal question?



Thank you!




Here goes!





What in the heck are you talking about?

[Terry Mross]

In answer to your personal question.

Here goes.




I posted to the wrong person.


Ask me another personal question. Ask me if I'm stupid.


Here goes.


YES!