Blowing in the "Tailwind"
Source: Editor
and Publisher, June 18, 2001 CNN has paid an
undisclosed sum of money to settle a lawsuit by former CNN
producer Jack Smith, who claims that he was unfairly fired
for reporting on the U.S. military's use of nerve gas in
Vietnam's "Operation Tailwind." Smith's $100 million
defamation suit claims that he and fellow producer April
Oliver actually got the story right, only to have their
reputations and careers ruined when the network caved in to
CIA pressure to retract the story. The network previously
settled out of court with Oliver for $1 million after a
deposition by Admiral Thomas Moorer, former chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, "pretty much confirmed Oliver and
Smith's reporting." However, the terms of the settlements
are sealed. Allan Wolper observes that this "deprived the
public of testimony from CNN founder Ted Turner, U.S.
Secretary of State Colin Powell, former Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger, and an A-list of TV network news stars."
Smith says that if CNN had not settled, he would have
demanded the network make public all the source material
that he and Oliver collected for their heavily critiqued
June 1998 documentary.