August 10, 1994

FROM WASHINGTON, THIS IS MEDIA MONITOR WITH REED IRVINE
AND CLIFF KINCAID

HEADLINE: LIES ABOUT FOSTER X-RAY HURT FISKE 

     We've found yet another revealing flaw in the report of
independent counsel Robert Fiske into the mysterious death a year
ago of White House lawyer Vincent Foster. This time the
discrepancy is whether any X-rays were made of Foster's body
after he was found shot to death in a Virginia park alongside the
Potomac outside of Washington. The conflicting statements cast
light on the sloppiness of the Fiske report. Let's walk through
the evidence in order

     First, the Fiske report itself states that no X-rays were
made of Foster's body because the X-ray machine at Fairfax
Hospital where the autopsy was performed was -- quote "inoperable
at the time of Foster's autopsy." But on the official report of
the autopsy, the coroner, Dr. James Beyer, checked a box
indicating that an X-ray had been taken. We double-checked the
point with Dr. Beyer, who told us he must have made an error --
that the machine had in fact been out of order during July
1993.

     We decided to touch base with Atlantic X-Ray, of Virginia
Beach, Virginia, which has the service contract for Fairfax
Hospital. Again, a major discrepancy: Jessie Poor, the
serviceman, told us that the machine had been installed on June
15 and that according to his company's records, no service
request was made until October 29 -- three months after the
Foster autopsy. And the machine was in operating order, the
service request was to "darken up" the picture.

     We tried to ask Dr. Beyer, the coroner, to explain this new
discrepancy, but he is refusing to take phone calls from Accuracy
in Media. We now have an even more important question for the
coroner and for special counsel Fiske. It stems from a Park
Police report which was released under a Freedom of Information
Act request in July, and it further confuses the X-ray issue.

     The report was written by a Park Police officer who spoke
with Dr. Beyer at Fairfax Hospital the morning after Foster's
death, when he was performing the autopsy. Here is a direct quote
from the officer's report: "Dr. Beyer stated that X-rays
indicated that there was no evidence of bullet fragments in the
head." End of quote. Now, this statement simply does not jibe
with what Fiske wrote in his official report, nor with what Beyer
told us in a brief interview.

     The missing X-rays are not as damaging to Fiske's
credibility as other evidence we have cited in earlier broadcasts
showing that his report is badly flawed. This includes his
treatment of the bloodstain on Foster's face that supports the
theory that the body was moved, his brushing aside the FBI
discovery of blond hair, carpet fibers and semen on Foster's
underwear and his attempt to convince us that the man
who first found Foster's body had recanted his story about not
seeing a gun. The lies about the X-rays reveal that Fiske's
report is not only dishonest, but incredibly sloppy. He didn't
even notice that his story was contradicted by both the Park
Police and the autopsy report.