WGBH Journal; Brooke Media Cover

Good afternoon and welcome to the dbx Journal. I'm Bill Gavin the problems of Massachusetts Senator Edward Brooke has been the subject of a great deal of media coverage in recent weeks. I look at this coverage will be the subject of the first piece on today's show. We'll also hear about sunspots and solar flares and hear commentary on the news with the line. Two months ago the Boston Globe in The Washington Post published investigative reports on the financial affairs of Senator Edward Brook the nation's only black senator. Both newspapers based their report on the contents of a pretrial divorce deposition leaked to the papers by Brooks own family according to the Massachusetts senator has

been in the Senate for 12 years and although he was in the center of a conservative challenge within his own party is Johnson's were seeking and obtaining a third term look good. The media reports on Brooke's financial affairs however place the junior senator's political future in jeopardy. Greg Fitzgerald took a look at the media coverage of broke and filed this report. I have called a press conference in the office by Attorney Robert F. McGrath to indicate the private nature of the matter that was reported in The Boston Globe this morning. I did make a misstatement and I did make a mistake and I apologize for making both. And I asked the people of this commonwealth and of this nation who have given me their faith and confidence and trust all the years of my public life to understand and to forgive. May

26 Senator Edward Brooke confirms a Boston Globe report stating he made what he termed a misstatement in a divorce deposition which listed a forty nine thousand dollar loan from a friend Massachusetts liquor distributor a Rainman Ty brook at never reported the loan to the Senate and in fact had never received forty nine thousand dollars from time. Instead he received two thousand from tie and the remainder from his mother in law's insurance settlement in his attorney's office he apologized to the nation for his mistake and weeks later gave a probate judge the remaining $30000 left from the settlement in an attempt to end the controversy. But the controversy did not end during the month to follow almost daily the Boston Globe and other national newspapers published more details of Brook and his family's finances. Some of which appeared to conflict with the Senate rules and state law. The Washington Post published a story claiming the senator listed his two daughters as dependents on his income tax when they were married and living away from home. Brook denied the Post story but in a telephone interview

with The Boston Globe The next day Brooks daughter Rainey disputed her father. Days later the Globe published its second Spotlight Team report on Brook claiming the senator is listed as the co-owner of his mother's Watergate apartment in Washington and that the senator did not disclose that fact with the Senate nor the probate court. RIP later claimed he had no equity involved in the apartment and was listed as co-owner for estate planning purposes. Therefore no disclosure to the Senate was needed he said. More stories were published angering broke to the point where he called the press to his office one afternoon and berated them on camera disallowing follow up questions. It is generally believed to be political suicide to criticize the press in this country. But in the last few weeks I have been seeing and mis leading this started reporting to the risk of political suicide. I simply cannot allow my case to be tried by a newspaper reporter using as evidence unfounded

rumor and half truths leaked to them by pot is in a contested divorce. I would bear always the recrimination. Which they have or have brought into my life. I accept the responsibility for my mistake and my oversight. I accept the responsibility for the fact that this private matter this personal family business have become public. But I cannot equate the right of the public to know. That the right of the media to rebel. I cannot believe that you would see and hear me tonight. Believe that every bureau drawer on. Every clothes closet. Every item in my checkbook every person an agreement between mother and son husband wife father and daughter should be a subject of hot headline following the Globe report from the senator's confirmation of misstatements in the divorce deposition.

Middlesex Probate Judge Laurence Pereira granted remeasure Brooke a new divorce trial but last week the senator and his wife agreed on a property settlement out of court thus ending what could have been a drawn out legal battle. Further embarrassing the senator in the fall. And a significant development in the book divorce occurred in the settlement as Mrs. Brook conceded at the center of his misstatement was not taken into account in the first property settlement. This could have the effect of eliminating Brooke from the danger of perjury charges which a special prosecutor selected by Suffolk district attorney Garrett Byrne is now considering false statements under oath cannot be considered perjury under Massachusetts law unless the statement is considered material to the case. But Brooks misstatement and other financial dealings reported in the press are still considered political liabilities. Republican officials are trying to discount the effects of the press reports and in fact are attacking the press for the manner in which the media investigated Brooke. Gordon Nelson state Republican committee chairman.

It's rather well known that I have many disagreements with Ed Brooke. I'm a Reagan conservative in and he certainly isn't. And although I may disagree with Ed Brooke philosophically I think he's really been taken advantage of here and I think a lot of people feel as I do that this whole thing has been carried to much too great an extreme I think somebody whose personal problems are not the fit subject for headlines day after day in the front pages of the Massachusetts newspapers. What remains to be determined is whether or not any of these charges can be proven to be substantial. If that's the case that's one thing. But up to now what's happened is that we've really been throwing around a lot of dirt a lot of mud and we've created the appearance or the impression of wrongdoing but it's not certain that there's really any substance here other than the original misstatement in regards to the forty nine thousand dollars which Senator Brooke admitted to from day right in the beginning.

As important as the protest of state Republican officials are those of Massachusetts black community in the Bay State that are the only state wide black operated newspaper in Massachusetts condemned the way in which the globe received and published the contents of the book pretrial divorce deposition proclaimed it was his daughter Amy who quote unquote peddled them to the media. Two weeks ago in Portland Oregon the national convention of the NWA Sepi adopted an emergency resolution expressing alarm and outrage at what it termed an appearance of a systematic attempt to drive Brooke from public office. MICHAEL FIELD a reporter for The Bay State Banner has been covering reaction to the media investigation of Brooke's affairs. Since the first Boston Globe story broke in May this wouldn't be happening to Brooke if if he were a white politician then those folks who may have an axe to grind with Brooke haven't been able to find anything that they could quibble with in his public record. So they've had to dig up some things in his personal life

and in a sense his family his delivering him unfortunately to his enemies and his enemies are taking the best advantage of it. I think that the black community seems to see it in light of racism. They see what's happening to Brooke what's happening to Charlie digs out in out in Michigan Proposition 13 The Bacchae decision they see that that there's a reactionary. Up for age in this country that's manifesting itself in a number of ways. They see it is as yellow journalism sensationalism and that is really aiding and abetting the people who have it in for they see that you know they see it is a personal attack. People are drawing parallels to what happened to Adam Clayton Powell back in the 60s they see it is a double standard

because they don't see the focusing the intense media scrutiny on on some of the white politicians. Well we certainly are well aware of the fact that he is the only black senator state and we know the ramifications from that point of view. Our feeling was that we were dealing with public documents public records and Mattos that the public itself ought to know. The Boston Globe to date has no regrets for its coverage of Senator Brooks affairs managing editor Jack Driscoll denies the racist charges brought by some members of the black community. He challenged those who claim the globe unfairly and unnecessarily uncovered the personal matters of Brooke's divorce. Well I don't think that we delved into the divorce case at all. We did you use public records that came out of the divorce that

pertain to. The senator's financial matters. But I think if you read our stories. There was nothing about the divorce per se. The senator I'm self has said that. His integrity is a public issue even if it pertains to private matters. So what we did. Was analyze his disclosures to the Senate. And we matched them with disclosures in the divorce depositions and also his financial statements. It is also a fact that a spotlight team did the definitive. Reconstruction of the Chappaquiddick incident pertaining to our only other senator Senator Kennedy. So that I don't think that we can really be charged with picking and choosing.

People that we take a hard look at. If you had it to do over again would you cover the story in the exact same way we had. Seven hours of interviews with. The senator on three occasions maybe if we had to do it over again we would have had one interview and printed a story. Boston Globe managing editor Jack Driscoll. There is an appeal underway now at the urging of Senator Brooke black community leaders and other state Republican officials to come to the aid of the senator by using a crossover strategy in the September primary in Massachusetts registered Democrats can switch to independents and then vote in either Republican or Democratic primaries but not both. According to The Boston election department there has been a heavy run of crossovers in the hub. But it is uncertain to whose advantage that crossover is for. And whether the crossover movement will be strong enough to sustain the senator's strength through the primary is in question.

As Brooke also faces a challenge which has been haunting him since his vote on the Panama Canal treaty last April. Massachusetts like many other states has seen the numbers of conservatives growing. And conservative challengers are not short in number. But again Chairman Gordon Nelson feels Brooks personal problems in combination with the growing conservative movement will face the biggest test in the September primary. I think a lot of people are kind of shocked they're disturbed they're dismayed but they haven't reached the point where they're willing to vote against it Brooke. So it's it's it's safe to say that he's been hurt by this entire business. But it's not safe to say that he's been hurt seriously or that he's in danger of losing his Senate seat. I think his real test will come in the primary I've said from the beginning that it Brooks major problem in his reelection drive in 1978 will be in the Republican primary not in the final. And I think this entire. Matter of his personal problems

makes that an even more correct analysis. If Ed Brook wins the primary and doesn't just squeak through but if he wins it by a meaningful margin then everyone will conclude that he may have been hurt to some extent but obviously he's rebounded and he's still very strong and he's a strong incumbent. And if he can get by Abby Nelson in the primary I think he'll be able to handle any of the Democrats that are now in the field. I think Abby Nelson is his major Republican to his re-election. The incumbent was out of touch with the electorate on almost every major issue. I am in the mainstream of thinking with the electorate the ranking issue of course is taxes and inflation the economic question. Abhi Nelson a former radio talk master in Boston is Brooks only serious contender for the September Republican primary. Nelson came down hard on broke during the Panama Canal debates and with the passage of Proposition 13 last month has been riding high on conservative issues. To date Nelson has not brought up Brooks personal

problems in the campaign and barring new revelations he doesn't see the need for those problems to enter the race. I consider the whole situation to be a personal tragedy and I have no comment on it. It is not the plane of discussion that I got into this campaign to bring to the people and it certainly is not the plane that I would like to shift to I prefer to keep the campaign on the higher level of discussion with regard to the politics and philosophy of the office and not let it sink to the lower level of any kind of personal involvement. You asked the question whether this will have an impact on the race. The very interesting thing about politics there is the reality. And then there is the perception of reality and sometimes the perception of reality. If it if it holds long enough can actually make the reality and its one of the interesting fashion nations of the world of politics. The reality is that Senator Brooke has not been at all adversely affected by this. The perception of reality is that he has been adversely affected by it.

Whether the perception of reality will make the reality. I dont know. I don't know if anybody does. Since the Boston Globe and Washington Post reports on Senator Brooks surfaced in May the challenge to the senator has moved from one arena to another with the brook divorce settled and with the appearance that perjury charges will not be brought against him. The senator now must face the scrutiny of a special investigation conducted by the Senate Ethics Committee which only this year has overhauled its rules. The timing of the investigation by the committee could be crucial to Brooke as he faces his most serious political challenge since running for the Senate. Twelve years ago for GBH Journal I'm Greg Fitzgerald. The sun is mankind's greatest benefactor though people suffering meat free meat at West

Texas might tend to disagree at the moment. But aside from making possible the process of the life itself and supplying our greatest heat source the sun can effect broadcast signals. X-ray machines magnetic fields do all kinds of things we seldom think God. Recently I chatted with George with the Smithsonian after a physical observatory concerning a recent solar flare and sun spot activity and their effect on us. The sun has like big weather centers only they're marked by sunspots which you can see with if you have a telescope to see with your naked eye as black spots in the sun in these areas are called centers of activity. And there's a lot of energy stored in these regions which occasion they can get triggered off as a what appears a solar flare. And you can see these in the visible part of the spectrum or you can see these with spacecraft at X-ray ranges you can also see them in the radio range and they typically last anywhere from tens of minutes to hours. They're in effect

like the thunderstorms associated with a big front system on the earth. And we've had. A series of solar flares just in the last few days have been that they 9th 10th and 11th I think in July. Yes there's there's a region on the sun which is producing large solar flares and it produces three large ones in the ninth and 10th and 11th in the last one on the 11th is the biggest producer the most X-ray radiation that that's been recorded ever ever. Does this have any direct effect on it. Here it is this Fall of x ray machines and that other thing when the flare goes off it generates a large amount of x ray radiation which when it hurt hits the earth traveling at speed of light it affects the conditions in the years I honest fear and produces short wave radio fade outs basically changes the reflectivity of the eye in a sphere. Thanks to radio communications particularly across the Atlantic. And it can also affect TV

produce freak TV reception. I was going to say with a little bit of fear with I was watching television and listening to the radio here not alone not in a local not on a local basis but the main effect as far as the effect on the earth is effect on communications. But there have been some solar flares that have caused even more thanks right here amongst us and they were the one about the one in August the 72 one of a very large flare like these are rare. They happen every 10 years or something like that. You know August of 72 the flare there were a series of very large flares in the sun and they produced a powerline trench and they reported that even a transformer blew up in Canada and it trip circuit breakers and it can affect communicate radio telephone communications. And another one recently earlier this summer. Knocked out the Coast Guard had trouble communicating with the ships between Boston we was between the East Coast and down the

Caribbean. So they can produce a fair number of effects that affect our daily lives. But these players can have a direct effect and you say an astronaut of the moon you know for example. Yes the again this is rare but one has to worry about it. Back during the Apollo program the mass was watched. Basically they had us a set up to watch the sun very carefully because these large very large flares can produce radiation which could be harmful to an astronaut who's particularly these outside of a spacecraft. And the August flares would have been a serious problem for an astronaut that the 72 this is the 70 to. The astronauts in Earth orbit where he's shielded by the Earth's magnetic field. There's much less of a problem. Our magnetic field and would be a kind of insulation. Yes it's an insulation. We have basically two layers of insulation yours magnetic field extends out maybe 10 times the diameter of the earth.

That acts as the first layer of insulation keeps the particles away. Then your sadness fear itself keeps away the radiation harmful like the x ray radiation cannot get through the Earth's atmosphere. So we have to worry about it. What that would I suppose pose a problem for some of the very high flying supersonic transport days. Yes there is a Concorde in the void. Yeah. You know if you're very high up in a supersonic trip you know like a supersonic airplane. Then there is sufficient radiation gets through to that part of the atmosphere that for ordinary passengers like would a fly in a Concorde they would fly to lower altitudes. Well do these solar flares occur more or less in a cycle that thing. Yes the the sun has. The way we measure this is we basically count the number of spots we see in the sun and there are lots of them at certain times in the cycle and very few at other times in the cycle. The

cycle last bottle 11 years and right now the increasing part of the cycle the number sunspots are good. There are more and more sunspots every month on the average and the maximum X maximum will come around June of 1080. Now to complete the day's Journal and commentary on the news with. The president's commitment to the economic summit was it America will control inflation and oil imports on his first day back. He won one round the cut oil use but lost a bigger battle against inflation. The Senate passed the section of his energy program that authorizes the Energy Department

to require industry and utilities to convert from oil or gas to coal or one that's found practical. The estimate is that this can save a million barrels of oil imports a day by 1985 or oil imports are now seven and nine tenths million barrels a day by 1985 they're expected to reach a level and a half million barrels a day. Senator Jackson chairman of the Energy Committee says while this is a small deal it's part of the ever this nation must make to let our allies know we mean business. When it comes to doing something about energy the Senate's 92 to 6 vote for the coal conversion was the first approval of what is called the least controversial part of the energy bill that's been in Congress 15 months. It has still to be acted on in the house but in the area of the most rapid inflation the president's bill to apply it cost control to hospitals was big in the House Commerce Committee organized medicine and lobbied against it for a year. Hospital costs rose 16 percent last

year. The committee substituted for mandatory cost controls. Acceptance of a voluntary move to cut costs by 2 percent a year sector California AGW called the committee action a defeat for the public interest and a victory for the special hospital interest the bill he said remains the number one on four priority now before the Congress in the fight against inflation. But I asked if the administration would continue to fight for the medical cost controls against the defeat in the committee. California said I don't know. Well if as this suggests the administration accepts the committee defeat it's evidently that the control's bill failed to rouse strong support in the Congress. The medical profession argue that to limit costs would threaten the quality of medical care. The bill lacked strong enough support of organized labor. Which season government control of even the most inflated costs the threat of general wage and price controls which it opposes as

strongly as does the National Manufacturers Association. Failure of consumer groups to provide effective support for medical cost controls is consistent with the failure of the consumer movement generally in this conservative congress and undoubtedly reflects a national climate against federal bureaucracy. But one may suspect the chief cause of failure of public arousal is the narrow invisibility to the individual patient and the rising medical costs that are screened through the complex of insurance liability in the rights of Blue Cross Blue Shield systems that are under state regulation. Failure of the government to obtain regulation of so big an area of inflation puts the responsibility on the state governments so that departments of insurance to make the health institutions and their insurers accountable. The unanimous election of Robert Ward as it went out of schools is treated as a major development for Boston as of course it is the strong administrator an independent man

Ward has been given a mandate to take charge and to restore a debilitated school system. Both would and the committee describe his election as opening a new chapter in Boston. Unanimous vote says as much about the present committee as about war and in turning over for authority to run the schools as an educational system. They will increase the strength of patronage in petty politics that eroded administrative post with pets of individual members in the past. What brings to the complicated problems of the Boston schools. The experience of having been present at the University of Massachusetts of having run the MBT and having served as federal secretary of urban affairs he says the condition of the schools as a basic to the condition of the city. Confidence in a sound school system as essential to maintain Boston as a place of residence. The reclining repealed of the Boston school system has been achieved because of the flood the population of the suburbs. Over the past generation what has been the Coordinating Council to help and Judge Gary's program to rescue the

schools from the politics of racial prejudice from this experience what is familiar with the most desperate of the city's problems. His association in that role with Judge Garrity offers the prospect that the judge will have enough confidence in the word administration to remove the court from the management of the school board. The school must have counted on that as a plus in would choice the masterless Supreme Court in reversing the murder conviction of Ella Ellison a black woman describes their conviction in 1074 as a failure of justice. She was convicted with two men held to have been the driver of their getaway car from a robbery in which a Boston policeman was killed. But efforts and her support won a perjury trial. When the two men convicted admitted their line in saying she was involved one of them testified he had invented a girl driver to minimize his own role. The court holds her constitutional rights were

violated in that her defense was not informed of pretrial statements by the two men who the court says were willing to lie under oath. Well a serious black mock for Boston justice as of nine hundred seventy four. One would hope that our newly we organized court system would prevent a repetition of such sloppy prosecution and trial procedure. The House Judiciary Committee in Washington approving a 30 month extension for the Equal Rights Amendment voted a protection against its losing ground by denying the right of a state to rescind ratification as several have moved to do the 30 months as a compromise with a seven year extension sought. It would give until July 1982 to win the three more states needed. That's it in the house as expected. But Senate action is last assured. Wednesday the 19th of July 1978 that PBS Journal of regional news magazine heard

Monday through Friday at 4:30 a.m. Hertz is the journal's producer and editor. Today's engineer John Moran And I'm Bill Gavin. Have a care this Wednesday evening that the floor.