ABC DISPUTES DRUG OFFICE'S CLAIMS

ABC executives said Saturday the White House drug policy office asked
for scripts of TV shows before they were aired as part of its program
content-for-advertising swap, directly contradicting what the White
House office said Friday.

Patricia Fili-Krushel, president of ABC, said it is likely the Office
of National Drug Control Policy made the same script request of other
networks.

The statements are the latest twist to a controversy that erupted
Thursday over the networks' apparent use of program content in a
financial bargain with the government.

Fili-Krushel's disclosure suggests that the drug czar's office has
been trying to influence the content of TV shows, not merely with
input from experts, but as a condition for monetary credit with the
networks.

Fili-Krushel said ABC had been sending tapes of already-aired programs
- -- "The Practice," "Home Improvement" and "General Hospital," among
others -- to the ONDCP, which concluded the shows' content fulfilled
at least part of a contract granting the ONDCP free air time, or
public service announcements, for anti-drug messages.

However, Alan Levitt, the administrator of the ONDCP's controversial
arrangement with the networks, met with ABC salespeople last spring
and asked the network for advance scripts instead of aired tapes in
order to grant credit, ABC executives said.

"They (the ONDCP) told us they were changing the requirements, that we
had to submit scripts ahead of time in order to qualify for
programming content (credit)," Fili-Krushel told reporters at the
Television Critics' Association meeting in Pasadena.

Alex Wallau, ABC's president of administration and operations, said
the request was raised by Levitt.

While there was no explicit demand for script approval or input -- the
conversation didn't get that far, he said -- it is difficult to
imagine any other reason why the ONDCP would insist on seeing scripts
instead of tapes.

"We said we're not going to do that, and that was the end of
discussions," Wallau said.

The ONDCP issued a statement Saturday saying it never suggested
changes in scripts.

"Indeed, we have always assumed that any transcripts or programs
submitted for public service value qualification were final products
and not subject to further change," the statement said.

As a result of the script request, ABC stopped submitting program
content for possible fulfillment of its PSA obligation to the drug
czar's office beginning last fall, instead meeting its requirement
with free commercials.

ABC's disclosure contradicts statements made Friday to the critics'
group by Donald R. Vereen, ONDCP's deputy director.

"We don't approve scripts. We don't alter them. We don't ask for
them," Vereen said. "They're sent to us voluntarily, often after
they're totally completed or have already aired."

Wallau said the proposal written by the ONDCP and its ad agency,
Ogilvy & Mather, for the 1999-2000 season does not specify "as
strongly as it was specified in the meeting as to the desire for
scripts in advance," according to his sales staff.

In the wake of an investigative story broken this week by online
magazine Salon.com and other reports, the drug office seems to be
backing down.

"The agency, Ogilvy & Mather, called us (Friday) and said, `If you
want to submit (tapes) after the fact for a programming match, you
may,' " Wallau said. "We said we'll pass, we'll just stay with our PSA
match."

Nearly all the broadcast networks said last week that they have not
submitted scripts to the ONDCP for an advertising exchange. WB did
alter episodes of its series "The Wayans Bros." and "Smart Guy" in
response to ONDCP input, apparently for program content credit,
according to the Salon.com report.

ABC also contradicted suppositions that it profited from the
arrangement. "We lost money on this deal," Wallau said.

Fili-Krushel said in the 1997-98 season, the network aired $45 million
in paid spots for the ONDCP. In the second year it aired a projected
$45 million worth of free PSAs.

The PSA schedule, analyzed after the fact against ratings reports,
under-delivered air time by about $5 million, so the network submitted
tapes of some of its shows dealing with the subject, estimating the
combined programs were worth $105 million. The ONDCP agreed the
contract had been fulfilled.

While ABC did not come out ahead, it saved $5 million in additional
spots it would have had to give the drug policy office.