Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 18, 1994 TAG: 9411250005
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT WILLIAMS ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
``It wasn't an issue of money,'' said Ross, a slender, soft-spoken man with a near-shy, self-deprecating manner.
``It was never that they wouldn't spend money on the stories,'' he said judiciously. ``It was more the kinds of stories they wanted. ... Other stories I could get accomplished, but I always felt there was a wind in my face. Here, there's a wind at my back.''
His main forum will be ABC's ``Day One'' when it returns to the air in January, but Ross was seen Thursday night on ``PrimeTime Live,'' reporting on faulty airplane parts.
Ross is unique. No other TV reporter has done as many high-profile stories quite so anonymously for quite so long.
It was Ross, at ``Dateline NBC'' in 1992, who investigated Wal-Mart's ``We buy American'' campaign and traced it back to Bangladesh, where he found sweatshop children turning out the discount chain's private label clothes.
It was Ross who reported Iraq's attempts to buy nuclear weapons triggers and Ross who broke one of 1980's biggest stories: the FBI's Abscam investigation.
``We got a lead that they were investigating Congress and they had this town house in Washington,'' Ross recalled. ``Information was not coming fast, but it was coming from four or five sources.
``Then we found out the address of the town house,'' he said.
What followed were days of watching the town house in a big Winnebago, using TV crews from Pittsburgh and Miami to keep the story under wraps while Ross and Silverman fleshed out its bones.
The New York Times was on the story, too, but when Ross and Silverman submitted it, NBC News executives were skeptical. ``They figured, `We would have heard about this from somebody else if it were this big,''' Ross said.
That night, transmission problems delayed the New Mexico prison riot that was to have led the broadcast, so ``NBC Nightly News'' was forced to lead with Abscam.
Being an investigative reporter can get you stories like Abscam, but it can also get you sued. That's what happened later in 1980, when NBC aired a Ross-Silverman piece about entertainer Wayne Newton and his ties to the mob.
Newton sued, and Ross, Silverman and NBC were on trial for 10 weeks in Las Vegas, defending their story. Newton won the largest libel award in history - $19.2 million in damages.
``As the evidence unfolded we thought, `Hey, we're going to win this thing!''' Ross said. ``The jury was out four or five days - but it turned out they were just deciding whether it should be $20 million or $40 million!''
In the end, Newton lost. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the lower court, finding the story to be true and factually correct. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Newton's appeal.
Ross' reputation is based on his methods: ``You're always most comfortable when you're in the land of documents,'' he said. ``Documents are an oasis. Get me to a document! ...
``Probably the key is developing and nurturing sources from one story to another, one year to another, slowly but surely,'' Ross said.
``Then you go in and you're cynical about everyone, including your own information,'' he said. ``It's hard to do, but the most important part is to then to go back and test everything you have, and be tough on yourself.
``And if you aren't, your own lawyers will be.''
Elsewhere in television ...
STONES ON INTERNET: The Rolling Stones have booked the first pay-per-view live broadcast of a major rock concert tonight - in cyberspace.
The 20-minute broadcast, a teaser for the Stones' Nov. 25 pay-per-view cable TV concert, ``Hoodoo U Voodoo,'' can be accessed around 10:30 p.m. on the Internet MBONE (Multicast BackBONE).
Viewers with special software can receive ``six to 10 frames per second at a color resolution of 350-by-240 with 8-bit audio,'' promoters said.
by CNB