Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Downey seeks to air show from near JFK slaying site Date: Sun, 22 Nov 92 17:26:45 EST Message-ID: \SE A;NATION \HD Downey seeks to air show from near JFK slaying site \BY Hugh Aynesworth \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES \DT DALLAS DALLAS - Lawyers for a Dallas radio station worked feverishly yesterday to get a federal injuction that would allow talk-show host Morton Downey Jr. to broadcast a three-hour program tomorrow near the window from which Lee Harvey Oswald shot President John F. Kennedy 29 years ago today. The county commissioners have refused permission for Mr. Downey to broadcast from the county-owned building. Mr. Downey said it isn't as if Geraldo Rivera were coming. He offers much more taste, he implied. Successful or not, station spokesmen said yesterday Mr. Downey will be at the front door of the former Texas School Book Depository building "at 8 a.m. Monday, ready to go." The sixth floor of that building - now the county's administration center - is where Oswald was seen just before the Nov. 22, 1963, shooting and where his mail-order Mann-icher-Carcano rifle was found stuffed between storage boxes shortly afterward. The gun bore Oswald's palm print and fibers from his clothing. Even a majority of the most bizarre JFK conspiracy theories accept that Oswald fired from the building, though some maintain the fatal shots originated from various other sites - in nearby trees, behind a picket fence, from an 18-inch sewer, the railroad overpass. Several years ago, the county erected a historical exhibition, "The Sixth Floor," where the event is depicted via audio, video, photographic and newspaper memorabilia. It draws hundreds of thousands of tourists annually. On his Friday broadcast, Mr. Downey said he didn't plan to come here to "make Dallas look bad." "This isn't Geraldo coming in there," he said, "or someone who had nothing to do with the family and who's in there to try an attack or make Dallas look bad. I don't have to make Dallas look bad, but certainly their officials are making themselves look bad." Mr. Downey has told Dallas radio executives that he "grew up with" the Kennedy children and that Joe Kennedy, the slain president's father, was once his father's agent when the elder Mr. Downey led a band nearly four decades ago. "He said the last thing he would do, under the circumstances, was to come here and trash it," said Don Walker, vice president and general manager of KGBS-AM, the Dallas station that began carrying the Morton Downey Jr. Show two weeks ago. Mr. Walker called tomorrow's effort a tribute show and said he felt the five county commissioners "overstepped their bounds" in this "rather obvious violation of the First Amendment." The impasse emerged Thursday when Dallas County commissioners first heard promos announcing that Mr. Downey planned to host his syndicated talk show from the building. County Judge Lee Jackson on Friday told The Washington Times he was "appalled" that permission had been given KGBS and Mr. Downey to broadcast from the exhibition area without formally contacting the commissioners. "We have procedures, and people must conform with them," said Judge Jackson. He said the head of the Dallas County Historical Foundation - the organization that actually runs the exhibit - had allowed media to photograph and conduct interviews inside the "Sixth Floor," but as for Mr. Downey's plan, the commissioners did not know about it until after the fact, and a several-hour commercially oriented production is an entirely different matter. The county judge said he had never heard of Mr. Downey, and that his reaction - and that of other commissioners - had nothing to do with the entertainer personally, nor with the fact that Mr. Downey planned to interview only conspiracy theorists. One of the announced participants is Jim Marrs, a former Fort Worth reporter who was an adviser to Oliver Stone's controversial "JFK" movie. Neither the book nor the movie has been accused of accuracy. Another guest was to be Dr. Charles Crenshaw, also of Fort Worth, whose story of receiving a telephone call from Lyndon Johnson on Nov. 24 while doctors were operating on Oswald, ordering him that they "had to get a confession from Oswald," sold hundreds of thousands of books earlier this year but gained little acceptance among others who were present. Regardless of the expected content, Mr. Jackson said that was not a consideration - and had not been in the past, as proven by unlimited access given Mr. Stone for several weeks in 1991. "We can't get in the censorship business," he said. "We've always tried to work with legitimate folks, under the guidelines set up. Apparently Mr. Hays [Bob Hays, executive director of the historical foundation] misunderstood." Mr. Hays said he thought he needed no specific approval from the commissioners because "other shows have originated from up there," but said there obviously was need for clarification. "I would welcome clarification," he said. "It's their building, and they have the right to say what they want to do with it." Mr. Downey and his producers said they thought the Dallas authorities refused to allow the show because of Mr. Downey's controversial background. "The hate of Mort Downey is nothing new," said one of his show's producers, Neil Augenstein. "Anywhere Mort goes, there is this reaction and this fear." "Have you seen any of the nine motion pictures, 36 television appearances or various benefits I have participated in?" Mr. Downey faxed the judge. "Although I have heard your name," Judge Jackson faxed back, "I have never seen or heard you, nor do I know anything about the content or style of your programs or the quality of your work." Mr. Downey's show generally originates at Washington's WRC-AM, where he began a two-year contract last March. Sources claim he will do three programs from Dallas, only one on the JFK assassination. Guests being sought for Tuesday and Wednesday shows include Stanley Marcus, venerable former head of Neiman-Marcus, and Gennifer Flowers, who claims to have had a long-running affair with President-elect Bill Clinton. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM