ABSTRACT
In January 1978, KGO-TV, a station in San Francisco owned by the American Broadcasting Company, aired a series of reports on Synanon Foundation, a nonprofit organization that was founded to rehabilitate alcoholics and drug addicts. Formed in 1958, Synanon by the 1970s had gained an international reputation. But for those who claimed that the organization used threats and violence against neighbors of its northern California headquarters, and against its own members who tried to leave the group, it was no better than the most repressive religious cult. 1 After the group allegedly purchased a large quantity of guns and ammunition, KGO-TV broadcast reports about the group's weapons and alleged that Synanon's head, Charles Dederich, was under investigation for skimming funds from Synanon. 2
