Trying Times In Wake Of Sex Ring Story
Lately, KREM-2 reporter Tom Grant seems to be spending more time in front of a judge than in front of a camera.
This is all due to the continuing fallout from Grant’s coverage of the Wenatchee sex ring cases.
On Wednesday, he and the station were ordered to turn over tapes of a June 3 interview with a 13-year-old girl who ran away from her foster home. Grant interviewed her at the home of a Chelan County commissioner, a longtime critic of the investigation, which is where she eventually ended up that night after running away. In that interview, the girl recanted her testimony and said she was pressured into making false charges against numerous people.
This was sensational stuff, especially since the girl was the star witness in many of the sex ring cases.
However, authorities in Douglas County didn’t care whether it was a scoop - they saw it as possible criminal behavior. They are investigating the commissioner and others who were there that night on possible charges that could include witness tampering, harboring a runaway and even kidnapping. Which is why they requested Grant’s tapes, notes and phone logs.
Grant said he felt the judge’s ruling Wednesday was at least a partial victory for the station, since it required the station to turn over only four tapes and not the notes and phone logs. Also, the judge did not hold Grant and the station in contempt. Still, the station is refusing to turn over the tapes, and is appealing the ruling.
Grant is warily eyeing these developments, since there is a chance that even he will be included in the criminal investigation.
“All we did was interview a girl who wanted to tell the truth, finally,” said Grant, who won the national George Polk Award for his earlier coverage of the cases.
Nobody has been charged with anything yet. Yet Grant said he thinks that it’s all part of a familiar pattern, in which authorities attempt to harass people critical of the sex ring investigations.
The most recent developments have accomplished at least one thing: It has effectively knocked Grant off of the story.
He’s now part of the story.
SPOKANE ON NATIONAL NEWS
The above story was the subject of a four-minute report on the “CBS Evening News With Dan Rather” on Thursday. The Wenatchee story was re-capped, and Grant was interviewed at length.
This was the third time in a week that Spokane made the national news.
The first was Tuesday’s “CBS Evening News” segment on the Phineas Priesthood. The Spokane bombings were prominently featured.
Also on Tuesday, “Dateline NBC” did a long segment on our own beloved coroner, Dexter Amend. It wasn’t particularly flattering for Amend, to say the least, but the Spokane scenery looked nice.
NO HOLIDAY FOR TERRY
Terry Holiday, host of KXLY-FM’s “Voices in the Night,” went way beyond the call of duty last week in order to collect coats for the station’s “Coats for Kids” campaign.
First of all, he vowed at 3 p.m. on Oct. 10 that he would stay on the air until 8,000 coats came in. By last Sunday, which was three days later, about 7,000 coats had come in.
Then, two unexpected things happened. First, the Amway distributors at a convention across the parking lot in the Arena got wind of the campaign and donated more than a thousand coats and thousands of dollars.
And that afternoon, at the height of the Amway excitement, Holiday got word that his wife and child had been involved in a rollover accident. He went home for a few hours, long enough to determine that they were unhurt, and then he returned to his post.
He stayed on the air until Monday at 5 p.m., a total of 98 hours during which he had only four hours of sleep.
The final tally: Over 10,000 coats, plus another $6,800 in cash.
WHERE HAS FAMILY HOUR GONE?
The Parents’ Television Council, a TV watchdog group, offers some evidence that the so-called family hour - between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. - is a thing of the past.
Their most recent study showed 40 sexual references and 72 vulgarities in one month during family hour.
Some of those words I can’t repeat, but maybe this will give you an idea: “Ass” was heard 29 times, and not in reference to a donkey.
MANITO’S ROCKIN’ ARABIA TOUR
The Spokane rock band Manito, formerly known as Manito Park, is embarking next week on an unusual month-long gig: playing for U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other Middle Eastern countries.
They’ll play about two dozen concerts, sometimes at bases deep in the desert. The tour is organized by the Armed Forces Entertainment Office.
Band member Dave Dupree said he contacted the office over a year ago after he had heard of other bands who had done tours. Representatives of the office flew in and caught a Manito club date - and the band passed the audition.
The band consists of Dupree, Bob Burdett, Mike Koep and Doug Smith.
CONCERT TICKET UPDATE
The usual grousing about how we never get any good rock concerts has been momentarily quelled by the announcement of four big shows in November alone: The Dave Matthews Band, Nov. 6; Phish, Nov. 22; Hootie and the Blowfish, Nov. 26, all at the Arena; and Satriani-Johnson-Vai on Nov. 6 at the Opera House.
Spotlight believes in letting you, the ticket-buyer, know when a show is approaching sell-out. So here’s the update: None of them are even close.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo
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