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By Barbara Berger
Diane Dimond has said that "Sometimes she thinks her tombstone will read: SHE COVERED MICHAEL JACKSON."
Dimond has come a long way since she arrived at the doorstep of Hard Copy in 1990. For those who don´t remember, Hard Copy was one of the early TV programs that specialized in tabloid news and gossip. She was called an investigative reporter back then and actually still is, although the title remains ambiguous. She has said "I learned what goes into making an investigative report. It was exciting, like being a private detective. It felt exhilarating. It felt important." So how does one go from reporting on Capitol Hill, the White House, the Pentagon and the House of Representatives to reporting in the tabloid arena?
These words from 1993, "I was in a unique situation because Hard Copy is the only - I think I´m the only reporter, I think I can safely say that, to have seen the official documents, the official allegations against Michael Jackson. I got lucky; I´ll be honest with you. A source came to me, and said ´I want you to see something.´ I met him at a location and looked at it, and it was a stack that thick of documents about the Michael Jackson case. We ran with it on Tuesday because I had it in front of me."
Ten years later Dimond, now working at Court TV, got a call from a source saying, "´we got another kid,´" she recalled. "I asked if this one was going to stick and if they were going to raid Jackson´s Neverland Ranch again. I told them I want to be there when that happens, and I want to be the only reporter standing on the road."
Dimond requested resources from Court TV to pursue the story without revealing what the story was about. She said: "I told them, ´I want to go get you a big, juicy story, but I can´t tell you what it is; you just have to trust me. And you have to let me hire the camera crews because I don´t want anyone to know where I´m going.´ "
To her surprise, Court TV chairman and CEO Henry Schleiff granted her request. Dimond flew from New York to Santa Barbara on Tuesday, arriving at 2 a.m., enough time to get three hours of sleep and have one of her two camera crews stationed at Neverland when the police arrived at 6 a.m. She was at the local police station with the other crew when the raid commenced just in case Jackson was arrested, but she soon sped back over to Neverland.
On Nov. 18, Americans sat riveted before their televisions as Dimond, the lone reporter on the scene, filed a live report for Court TV as a caravan of police vehicles drove onto the sprawling Neverland Ranch to execute a search warrant.
In an interview with "This is CNN & Company" with Mary Tillotson, in 1993, Diane said "Well, I believe that you should stick to the facts, too, the absolute facts." Quoted in artcommotion.com, even the great TV journalist Diane Dimond of "Hard Copy" says "Victor Gutierrez is the only journalist that investigated the Jackson case better than our program, and we were number one."
If we are going to talk facts using the names of Michael Jackson, Diane Dimond and Victor Gutierrez, we need to travel back in time to 1995 when Michael Jackson filed a $50-million slander and emotional distress suit against "Hard Copy," reporter Diane Dimond and a Los Angeles radio station for alleging that authorities were reopening sexual molestation charges against him. The complaint alleges Dimond was a guest Jan. 9 on KABC´s Minyard and Barkley show, where she said on air there was a renewed "red hot" police probe into new allegations of child molestation against Jackson. She further claimed, according to the suit, that her most reliable source (Victor Gutierrez) had told her there was a 27-minute, black-and-white videotape of Jackson molesting a young boy.
In 1998 Dimond´s "most reliable source" was found by Superior Court Judge Reginald Dunn to have reported a story that was false and that Gutierrez knew it was false when he told it to "Hard Copy." Dimond later repeated those comments on Los Angeles TV station KABC-AM. The jury awarded Michael $2.7 million in compensatory and punitive damages after a three-day trial. Unfortunately charges against Paramount, which produced "Hard Copy", along with Diane Dimond and producer Stephen Doren were dismissed. If we are going to report on the facts, we should also mention that Dimond´s "most reliable source" fled to Mexico.
In April of 1995 Dimond fled too ... all the way to Canada to follow up on yet another Michael Jackson allegation for "Hard Copy". She might have thought that this was the "big one", but it was no story at all. From the transcript:
Diane Dimond: "You planted all this stuff in this kid´s head?
Man: "I didn´t plant it in his head. He was asking questions. I answered them the best I can. I told him what I could tell him about the place because I want Michael to face it."
Diane Dimond: "So this kid is a A1 number one liar."
Man: "Professional."
Diane Dimond [voiceover]: "The whole story was a scam. A Toronto street kid meets a man obsessed with the Michael Jackson case, and the result could have been an international scandal. Meanwhile, back at the police station, the boy finally broke down. He admitted that he and Rodney Allen had made up the whole story."
Is it such a long stretch to imagine that this could be happening again ... a pattern perhaps? Since most people are not aware of this scam that even fooled the Michael Jackson expert Diane Dimond, one can only imagine that Dimond couldn´t consider another scam. She´s finally going to get the story heard around the world.
Dimond moved up in status to Court TV in 2001 as a guest anchor and substitute host for Catherine Crier Live. Because Court TV was once known for its solid analysis and factual reporting on legal issues and cases, one would have to wonder whether the addition of a tabloid reporter has turned this once credible network into a celebrity obsessed entertainment show. After all, Dimond’s role has now expanded into hosting the new celebrity series on the network called Hollywood at Large, as well as guest-hosting the network’s daytime trial coverage.
In her own words "I did spend a lot of years underemployed, I guess," said Ms. Dimond, who within hours of breaking the new Jackson story was the hottest property in TV. The next day, she was debriefed on NBC´s "Today" and ABC´s "Good Morning America," "Access Hollywood," "Entertainment Tonight," CNN´s "Larry King Live," ABC´s "Nightline," the BBC, a German TV network and KTVK-TV in Phoenix, which had dispatched Mike Watkiss, a Dimond reporter pal from those tabloid days, to the Jackson scene. "When it all started to break again, something just clicked in my head and I just started taking copious notes. I don´t know that anybody is interested in what Diane Dimond was thinking when all this was happening, but I just started writing everything down. It turned out to be a good move."
At the time of the arraignment for Michael Jackson, Dimond said "It´ll be the first time I´ve gotten this close to him.” Of course she was concerned about securing a seat in the small courthouse, so she added "I´ve got my fingers crossed." An out of place comment coming from someone who was first on the scene giving live coverage to the media while Neverland Valley Ranch was being torn to shreds by 70 law enforcement people who hoped to find any "evidence" against Michael Jackson. But the significance of all of this is magnified by the D.A.´s own words "Ask Diane, she knows everything about Michael Jackson."
The higher one climbs, the farther the fall. It won´t matter if Dimond writes a book on her Michael Jackson years of obsessive reporting. The die is cast and she is on the losing team. "This is a tough business, but I love it," she said. "Each time I think about leaving or taking a break, it never seems to happen. I get bored easily. I just can´t stop. It´s not in my constitution. I´m like a shark, always moving in the water." And besides, added Dimond, "I don´t know how to do anything else."
Michael Jackson is INNOCENT. It might be beneficial for Dimond to learn how to do something else.
*Special thanks to Jennifer Fitzgerald for her research
Diane Dimond has said that "Sometimes she thinks her tombstone will read: SHE COVERED MICHAEL JACKSON."
Dimond has come a long way since she arrived at the doorstep of Hard Copy in 1990. For those who don´t remember, Hard Copy was one of the early TV programs that specialized in tabloid news and gossip. She was called an investigative reporter back then and actually still is, although the title remains ambiguous. She has said "I learned what goes into making an investigative report. It was exciting, like being a private detective. It felt exhilarating. It felt important." So how does one go from reporting on Capitol Hill, the White House, the Pentagon and the House of Representatives to reporting in the tabloid arena?
These words from 1993, "I was in a unique situation because Hard Copy is the only - I think I´m the only reporter, I think I can safely say that, to have seen the official documents, the official allegations against Michael Jackson. I got lucky; I´ll be honest with you. A source came to me, and said ´I want you to see something.´ I met him at a location and looked at it, and it was a stack that thick of documents about the Michael Jackson case. We ran with it on Tuesday because I had it in front of me."
Ten years later Dimond, now working at Court TV, got a call from a source saying, "´we got another kid,´" she recalled. "I asked if this one was going to stick and if they were going to raid Jackson´s Neverland Ranch again. I told them I want to be there when that happens, and I want to be the only reporter standing on the road."
Dimond requested resources from Court TV to pursue the story without revealing what the story was about. She said: "I told them, ´I want to go get you a big, juicy story, but I can´t tell you what it is; you just have to trust me. And you have to let me hire the camera crews because I don´t want anyone to know where I´m going.´ "
To her surprise, Court TV chairman and CEO Henry Schleiff granted her request. Dimond flew from New York to Santa Barbara on Tuesday, arriving at 2 a.m., enough time to get three hours of sleep and have one of her two camera crews stationed at Neverland when the police arrived at 6 a.m. She was at the local police station with the other crew when the raid commenced just in case Jackson was arrested, but she soon sped back over to Neverland.
On Nov. 18, Americans sat riveted before their televisions as Dimond, the lone reporter on the scene, filed a live report for Court TV as a caravan of police vehicles drove onto the sprawling Neverland Ranch to execute a search warrant.
In an interview with "This is CNN & Company" with Mary Tillotson, in 1993, Diane said "Well, I believe that you should stick to the facts, too, the absolute facts." Quoted in artcommotion.com, even the great TV journalist Diane Dimond of "Hard Copy" says "Victor Gutierrez is the only journalist that investigated the Jackson case better than our program, and we were number one."
If we are going to talk facts using the names of Michael Jackson, Diane Dimond and Victor Gutierrez, we need to travel back in time to 1995 when Michael Jackson filed a $50-million slander and emotional distress suit against "Hard Copy," reporter Diane Dimond and a Los Angeles radio station for alleging that authorities were reopening sexual molestation charges against him. The complaint alleges Dimond was a guest Jan. 9 on KABC´s Minyard and Barkley show, where she said on air there was a renewed "red hot" police probe into new allegations of child molestation against Jackson. She further claimed, according to the suit, that her most reliable source (Victor Gutierrez) had told her there was a 27-minute, black-and-white videotape of Jackson molesting a young boy.
In 1998 Dimond´s "most reliable source" was found by Superior Court Judge Reginald Dunn to have reported a story that was false and that Gutierrez knew it was false when he told it to "Hard Copy." Dimond later repeated those comments on Los Angeles TV station KABC-AM. The jury awarded Michael $2.7 million in compensatory and punitive damages after a three-day trial. Unfortunately charges against Paramount, which produced "Hard Copy", along with Diane Dimond and producer Stephen Doren were dismissed. If we are going to report on the facts, we should also mention that Dimond´s "most reliable source" fled to Mexico.
In April of 1995 Dimond fled too ... all the way to Canada to follow up on yet another Michael Jackson allegation for "Hard Copy". She might have thought that this was the "big one", but it was no story at all. From the transcript:
Diane Dimond: "You planted all this stuff in this kid´s head?
Man: "I didn´t plant it in his head. He was asking questions. I answered them the best I can. I told him what I could tell him about the place because I want Michael to face it."
Diane Dimond: "So this kid is a A1 number one liar."
Man: "Professional."
Diane Dimond [voiceover]: "The whole story was a scam. A Toronto street kid meets a man obsessed with the Michael Jackson case, and the result could have been an international scandal. Meanwhile, back at the police station, the boy finally broke down. He admitted that he and Rodney Allen had made up the whole story."
Is it such a long stretch to imagine that this could be happening again ... a pattern perhaps? Since most people are not aware of this scam that even fooled the Michael Jackson expert Diane Dimond, one can only imagine that Dimond couldn´t consider another scam. She´s finally going to get the story heard around the world.
Dimond moved up in status to Court TV in 2001 as a guest anchor and substitute host for Catherine Crier Live. Because Court TV was once known for its solid analysis and factual reporting on legal issues and cases, one would have to wonder whether the addition of a tabloid reporter has turned this once credible network into a celebrity obsessed entertainment show. After all, Dimond’s role has now expanded into hosting the new celebrity series on the network called Hollywood at Large, as well as guest-hosting the network’s daytime trial coverage.
In her own words "I did spend a lot of years underemployed, I guess," said Ms. Dimond, who within hours of breaking the new Jackson story was the hottest property in TV. The next day, she was debriefed on NBC´s "Today" and ABC´s "Good Morning America," "Access Hollywood," "Entertainment Tonight," CNN´s "Larry King Live," ABC´s "Nightline," the BBC, a German TV network and KTVK-TV in Phoenix, which had dispatched Mike Watkiss, a Dimond reporter pal from those tabloid days, to the Jackson scene. "When it all started to break again, something just clicked in my head and I just started taking copious notes. I don´t know that anybody is interested in what Diane Dimond was thinking when all this was happening, but I just started writing everything down. It turned out to be a good move."
At the time of the arraignment for Michael Jackson, Dimond said "It´ll be the first time I´ve gotten this close to him.” Of course she was concerned about securing a seat in the small courthouse, so she added "I´ve got my fingers crossed." An out of place comment coming from someone who was first on the scene giving live coverage to the media while Neverland Valley Ranch was being torn to shreds by 70 law enforcement people who hoped to find any "evidence" against Michael Jackson. But the significance of all of this is magnified by the D.A.´s own words "Ask Diane, she knows everything about Michael Jackson."
The higher one climbs, the farther the fall. It won´t matter if Dimond writes a book on her Michael Jackson years of obsessive reporting. The die is cast and she is on the losing team. "This is a tough business, but I love it," she said. "Each time I think about leaving or taking a break, it never seems to happen. I get bored easily. I just can´t stop. It´s not in my constitution. I´m like a shark, always moving in the water." And besides, added Dimond, "I don´t know how to do anything else."
Michael Jackson is INNOCENT. It might be beneficial for Dimond to learn how to do something else.
*Special thanks to Jennifer Fitzgerald for her research
