Where The REAL Action Is
When Dirk Mathison, San Francisco bureau chief for People magazine, infiltrated
the exclusive Bohemian Grove retreat this summer, he got a view into the U.S.
elite that very few reporters have glimpsed. Unfortunately, that elite includes
the management of Time Warner, the owner of People, which prevented Mathison
from telling his story.
Bohemian Grove, a secluded campground in California's Sonoma County, is the site
of an annual two-week gathering of a highly select, all-male club, whose members
have included every Republican president since Calvin Coolidge. Current
participants include George Bush, Henry Kissinger, James Baker and David
Rockefeller -- a virtual who's who of the most powerful men in business and
government.
Few journalists have gotten into the Grove and been allowed to tell the tale
(one exception is Philip Weiss, whose November 1989 Spy piece provides the most
detailed inside account), and members maintain that the goings-on there are not
newsworthy events, merely private fun. In fact, official business is conducted
there: Policy speeches are regularly made by members and guests, and the club
privately boasts that the Manhattan Project was conceived on its grounds.
Given the veil of secrecy that surrounds the Bohemian "encampment," a reporter
needs to enter the grounds covertly in order to get a full portrait. Mathison
entered the grounds three times July 1991, aided by activists from the Bohemian
Grove Action Network.
He witnessed a speech -- "Smart Weapons" -- by former Navy Secretary John
Lehman, who stated that the Pentagon estimates that 200,000 Iraqis were killed
by the U.S. and its allies during the Gulf War. Other featured speakers included
Defense Secretary Richard Cheney on "Major Defense Problems of the 21st
Century", former Health, Education and Welfare Secretary Joseph Califano on
"America's Health Revolution -- Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Pays", and former
Attorney General Elliott Richardson on "Defining the New World Order".
Mathison's entree into the secret world of the Grove was cut short on July 20,
however, when he was recognized by two of the participants in the festivities --
executives from Time Warner, People's publisher. More loyal to the Grove than to
journalistic endeavor, they had the reporter removed from the premises (San
Francisco Weekly, 8/7/91).
Mathison already had plenty of material, however, and turned in an article to
his editors, which was scheduled to appear in the Aug. 5, 1991 issue. They were
pleased with the piece, according to Mathison: "They liked it enough to expand
it a bit," he told Extra!.
But then the story was suddenly killed. Landon Jones, managing editor of People,
told Extra! that the decision had nothing to do with the Time Warner executives.
"It was cut partially because he hadn't been there long enough to get a complete
story. Secondly, we felt very uncertain about reporting what we did have,
because, and this is my fault and I take responsibility for this, I simply
didn't realize it was technically trespassing."
For his part, Mathison said he did not know why the story was killed, and
implied it would be nearly impossible to find the real reason. "It's easier to
penetrate the Bohemian Grove than the Time-Life Building," he told Extra!.
But the story raises questions about the ability of a media entity to report
critically on an elite when its executives are enthusiastic members of that
elite. Indeed, the Time organization was noted for sending a corporate plane to
the Bohemian gathering every year, according to long-time Grove-watcher Kerry
Richardson.
Time Warner is not the only media corporation with Bohemian connections. The
list of Fourth Estate bigwigs who have been members or guests is extensive:
Franklin Murphy, the former CEO of the Times Mirror corporation; William
Randolph Hearst, Jr.; Jack Howard and Charles Scripps of the Scripps-Howard
newspaper chain; Tom Johnson, president of CNN and former publisher of the Los
Angeles Times.
When Associated Press president Louis Boccardi spoke at one of the Grove's
"Lakeside Talks" about kidnapped reporter Terry Anderson (Spy, 11/89), he
referred to his audience as men of "power and rank" and "gave them more details
than he said he was willing to give his readers."
Walter Cronkite, now on the CBS board, hangs out at the same lodge at Bohemian
Grove as George Bush and the former chairs of Procter & Gamble and Bank of
America; Cronkite's voice has served as the voice of the Owl of Bohemia, a
fixture in the club's mock-druidic rituals.
The media figures attending the retreat all agree not to report on what goes on
inside. The prohibition seems to apply to reporters who are not guests or
members as well: In 1982, NPR got a recording of Henry Kissinger's speech at the
Grove -- but declined to air it (Spy, 11/89). Also in 1982, a Time reporter went
undercover as a waiter in Bohemian Grove; like Mathison's People article, his
story was killed.
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