ABSTRACT
The news instantly ricocheted around the world, followed shortly thereafter by the revelation that profit from the two-faced dealing was being used covertly to finance arms for the contras fighting in Nicaragua. President Reagan at first blamed the year's biggest uproar on the media "sharks circling" around him. The Miami Herald accepted the challenge made by presidential candidate Gary Hart to the New York Times to prove the whispered charges about his philandering. Far from the Washington Beltway, the Atlanta Journal and Constitution published the charge that the Georgia politician and civil rights activist, Julian Bond, regularly used cocaine. Local television and the national news media picked up the charge, finally dismissed by a grand jury. A Washington Post Robertson-watcher noticed in the profile that Robertson had changed his wedding date to conceal the fact that his son was born only ten weeks after Robertson was married thirty-three years ago.
