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September/October 2000 | Contents
The Darts & Laurels column is written by Gloria Cooper, CJR's managing editor, to whom nominations should be addressed.
SMALL WORLD
Did the idea for Epcot spring full-blown from the head of Disney,
or did the colossus steal it from a visionary intelligence officer in the
United States Air Force? The family of that officer, Lt. Col. Robert Jaffray
of Ohio -- a man who daily dealt with cold-war realities while dreaming of
a global theme park to create world peace; who spent the early 1950s developing,
refining, copyrighting, and trying to finance his "Miniature Worlds" plan;
who in 1963 took the plan to Disney, which dismissed it out of hand; and who
died this spring without ever seeking any recognition from Disney for his
possible contribution to what's become one of the most popular tourist attractions
in the world -- the late colonel's family would seem to have a case for the
statue of Jaffray they'd like Disney to put up at its Epcot pavilion. That
case has been taken up by Michael D. Sallah, national affairs reporter for
the Toledo, Ohio, Blade. Drawing
on letters, concept paintings, interviews, Library of Congress documents,
and a comparative review of designs for every world's fair and exposition
since 1893, Sallah's front-page report (May 28) objectively traced the many
"uncanny likenesses" between Jaffray's Miniature Worlds and Disney's Epcot.
A follow-up story on May 31 , as well as a Blade editorial
on June 3, gave added pressure to the challenge that Disney release its early
drawings and concepts for the park.
VEHICLES FOR CHANGE
After all that time spent stalled in cautious traffic, consumer
reporting may be moving once again into the fast lane. On the national level,
Dateline NBC presented an hour-long
investigation into the little-known methods used by State Farm, as well as
many other insurance agencies, to justify denying the legitimate medical claims
of automobile-accident victims. Fifteen months in the making and based on
an examination of some 70,000 records and interviews with 250 people, John
Larson's June 23 report not only documented State Farm's policy of sending
those medical claims to outside companies for purportedly independent "paper
review" by purportedly qualified (though sometimes nonexistent) doctors; it
also showed that the recommendations produced by such review were invariably
-- and far from accidentally -- in State Farm's favor. Lawsuits, state investigations,
and reimbursements to some 500 customers are in the works. On the local level,
KCBS-TV in Los Angeles, home to more cars and dealers than any other place
in the world, slammed fearlessly through a longstanding barrier with its five-part
May-sweeps series, "What Some Car Dealers Don't Want You to Know." Demonstrating
the secretly padded contracts, inflated buydown fees, overcharged interest
rates, and punishing sales tactics displayed by various Chevrolet, Ford, Toyota,
and Nissan dealers (among them, station advertisers), investigative reporter
Joel Grover unveiled a classic tale of widespread fraud. Even before the investigation
ended, one dealer was raided by DMV agents, while others hastened to make
things good with their newly educated customers.
GETTING UNDER THE SKIN
In a monumental six-week, millennium-summer series, The
New York Times unflinchingly explored the raw realities
of relations between black and white Americans. Documenting the day-to-day
experiences of normal life -- in places that ranged from a Georgia church
to a Texas construction site to a Kentucky army base, from a Louisiana football
field to a Harlem precinct house to a Baltimore stage set, from a New Jersey
schoolroom to an Atlanta boardroom to an Ohio newsroom and more -- the fifteen-part
series, written by a team of beat reporters, showed how far we all have come
-- and the distance yet to go. Unique in concept, powerful in execution, the
series prompted more than one parody. Those easy parodies, however, are easily
forgotten; "How Race is Lived in America" marks a memorable milestone in our
social, and journalistic, history.
STREET STORIES
Much of the world was undoubtedly shocked by those page-one stories
on June 15 reporting on the arrest of 120 alleged stock swindlers, ten of
whom had reputed connections to New York's five Mafia families. But to readers
of Business Week, it was just
the latest, most satisfying chapter in an investigative saga they'd been following
for years. In a December 16, 1996, cover story, "The Mob on Wall Street,"
senior writer Gary Weiss exposed the infiltration of organized crime into
the markets, tracking the mob-exploited stocks and challenging the independence
of the National Association of Securities Dealers. In his December 15, 1997,
cover story, "Rip-Off!", Weiss showed how small investors were being fleeced
through market manipulation and broker bribery. And in his April 26, 1999,
cover story, "Scandal on Wall Street," Weiss uncovered major improprieties,
from price-fixing in the options market to conflicts of interest by brokers
on the floor, at the American Stock Exchange. Indictments in Florida and New
York in 1997, as well as those this June, named many of the stocks, brokerages,
stock promoters, and reputed mobsters fingered by Weiss.
