September 5, 2023 • 42 mins
At the peak of her powers, Cookie is taking flak from every direction, including an ambush from her biggest rival...the U.S government.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
This is a production of Journalista Podcast LLC and iHeartRadio.
And as for you, my fine mighty true, I can't
attend you here and now as I'd like, but just
try to stay up.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
In my way.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Just try.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
I don't get you mine pretty and your little dog too.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
That Welcome back to the Journalista Podcast. Okay, Cookie didn't
have a dog. And there is no yellow brick road
in Nicaragua. But there is a wicked witch and it
ain't karma, it's reality. Sometimes it bites, It eventually catches
up with you, no matter how fucking cool and badass
(00:42):
you think you are, even if you're from New Orleans.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
So the Mexican crew is back here as usual. There's
no particular story that we were in search of. We
had to keep ourselves busy. We had to work our
day's work to get our days past.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
So you just go out and look for stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
We go out look for stuff I'd invent, you know,
a trip here, a trip there. And the Mexicans were
always game, they were fearless.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
And even Larry.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Doyle, that was his favorite crew to work with because
he knew he could count on these guys to do
anything everything and go above and beyond because there were
some crews that didn't like to do extremely dangerous stuff
they did.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
So we go out. It was a Tuesday, and.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
I knew it was Marti Gras in New Orleans because
the night before had spoken to some family members. In
a war zone, and you're there for years, you kind
of lose track of what's going on in the real world.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
You know, you're only in the other real world, which
is war.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
So we're out and we met up with a platoon
of Sandinistas. I think that we were in an area
that Contras had been in but had since been pushed
out or they had abandoned. The soldiers are talking and
the Mexicans and myself we're walking ahead.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
All of a sudden, I hear some screaming and some arm.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Flailing from one of the soldiers, saying stop, stop, stop,
don't take another step, don't move. When somebody tells you
that in a warzone, you stop. You don't ask questions,
you don't argue.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
You stop.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
You got to remember the crew is holding all this equipment.
I'm probably at that point holding a tripod, and these
things were not lightweight back then. This was heavy stuff.
So we stop and we're like, why are we stopping?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
What's wrong?
Speaker 3 (02:34):
And one of the soldiers says, I hate to say this,
but you're in a possible minefield, and I mean, what
do you mean possible? And he says, well, sometimes the
consciras leave these mines, which we found out later were
Claymore mines and left over from the Vietnam War.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
According to the International Red Cross, during the Civil War
in Nicaragua, the two sides laid over one hundred and
seventy nine thousand land mines and an estimated eight hundred
and forty one minefields, leaving a legacy of senseless death
and human misery.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Claymore minds are detonated by remote control, so someone has
to be around there to set it off. But since
the countures had already left, there's another way to activate
these minds, and that's with tripwires. I'm not familiar with minds,
whether it be detonating with a remote control or trip wires.
(03:26):
All I know is a mine is a mine, and
a mine will blow up. We're told don't move. We
think we have somebody that knows the schematics of what's here.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
You know where you can.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Step, but he's not here. Now and we have to
find it so again. And it's you know, the middle
of the day. The sun is beating down because it's
an open field, and I'm just looking and saying to myself,
here you go again, your stupid bitch. You're in a
situation you can't get out of by your charm.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
By bullshitting. I could be New Orleans right.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Now at Marti Gras, but here I am yet in
another fix, in another problem.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
What's your problem?
Speaker 4 (04:09):
My problem is I don't want a thousand steel balls
to shread my genitals.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Uh, Claymore mind full of steel balls that fly one
thousand meters or one click a second right.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
At dick levels easy for peace or ass level, which
in your case would also take off your head. That
was a clip from the FX show Archer explaining exactly
the kind of damage a Claymore Mind can do to
the human body.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
It had a happy ending.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
The guy came that was familiar with the area and
he taught us, screaming at us what to do to
look for the trip wire because it wasn't the fear
of a remote control because there were no contras there
and the contiras had been using these Claymore minds. I
think that even used it in the Capitol killed a
(04:55):
busload of civilians, so we were able to disarm another
of them to walk out of that field and get away.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
So they were instructing you how to how to.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Find the trip wires because the trip wives aren't obvious,
so you.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Had to find the trip wires, disarm the mind.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Well, cut the trip wire, and then disarming the mine
wasn't a big deal because that was only if it
was going to be remote controls.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Still is fucking scary.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
It is scary, and I never looked at an open
field the same way.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Again.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
I mean, how many times have you watched a movie
or a show where people are stuck in a minefield
and inevitably someone's going.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Up and you don't know if you've already set off
the wire. You know you'll hear a click or something.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
I didn't know.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
That, but that was the day I got my education
in mind.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
I'm sure at that moment, Bourbon Street looked pretty good.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
It sure did.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
And I remember getting back to the hotel and calling
some family and friends and saying, you'll never believe what
my Mardi Gras was like, and they never I have
these stories and they just sound so unbelievable, but they're
all true.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
But you're in a war zone. This is what happens.
This is not unusual in a war zone.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
No it's not.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
But when it happens to you for the first time,
it's like, damn shit, what have I gotten myself into?
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Yet again?
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Yeah, of course you could have got shot on Bourbon
Street too. Absolutely, we often talk about how you often
became the story.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
That was one of the tips Mike gave me early on.
Never be the story. Just cover the story. It didn't
happen just that one time. It happened several times.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
There was one event where you absolutely were the story.
There was this attack on the airport in Monagua, and
you were all up in the middle of that. Shit,
why were you there?
Speaker 3 (06:50):
I had this thing, and you know by now from
several episodes that I always liked taking care of my boys,
and one of the things I loved doing was going
personally to the airport to pick up Cruise and their
equipment or anyone that was coming in to do a story.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
And I also liked dropping them off.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Even though drop off time and departure times in Nicaragua
were before the crack of dawn.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
I was doing something that no one does. Now everyone does.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
I used to go out in my pajamas, whether it
be regular pajamas or Victoria's secret nightgowns, and my mother
always told me that's going to get you in trouble
one day.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
So this one.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Particular morning, I'm taking the Mexican crew, Roberto Pineda and
Jime Robliz. They've done their six week stint in Nicaragua.
Up until that point, Cruise would check in their gear
like luggage I had always been done, because there was
always so much of it, and of course the networks
didn't particularly like to have to pay for an extra
(07:53):
seat to put the camera and the recorder on a flight.
So we get there, I'm wearing my Victoria's secret Nike,
thinking it's going to be business as usual. Dropping off
the crew. We were inside the terminal somehow or another.
I would always be allowed to go all the way in,
you know, to check in the crew and their gear,
(08:14):
even though there'd always be a Sandinista soldier telling me
you can't go in, and of course I would go
in this particular time, I think the sun was just
starting to rise.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
The crew's checked in. The gears checked in.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
I think and Roberto each had a camera, a still
camera which they always carried around.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
We're waiting because I'd.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Always wait until they would get on the flight and
take off. All of a sudden, we heard a bombing.
We thought it was inside of the airport. We're thinking bombs.
The soldiers in the airport are not letting anyone.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
In or out.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
We know this is a because this is an attack
in the city, in the capitol, which was very, very unusual,
and it's the airport. What we did not know was
that a Contra pilot in his small Cessna airplane was
going to fly in and bomb the airport. The Sandinistas
(09:20):
had anti aircraft soldiers in their trenches, but since nothing
had ever happened before in the city, they were sleeping.
We think we're under attack. We obviously want to get out.
We want to film. We can't get our gear at
this point, but if we can get out of the terminal,
we can get local gear from the local TV station.
(09:44):
At this point, journalists, everyone that was based in Monagua,
they're already at the airport outside, but they're not being
allowed in either. Everyone thinks the airport's under attack, it's
under siege. We're going to be killed, and like idiots,
the soldier aren't letting us out.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Everyone stays in.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
We were stuck in there, I would say two maybe
three hours before we started to gather some information. I
would talk it to some of the soldiers that I
already knew what happened were we bombed, and I was
told what they thought had happened. I have now managed
to get the crew and myself not outside of the airport,
(10:26):
but outside on the armat, which is where the destruction was.
And at first you really couldn't tell were they shot down.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Was this guy shut down.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Or as the cameraman Roberto Pineda said, this guy got
caught in a wire. This pilot, who was from Nicaragua
and knew the layout of the airport somehow lost control
of the plane. The plane got caught up in a wire,
whether it was you know, electrical wire, but wire, which
(10:57):
was the first.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Boom that we've heard.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Then the wire projected him against the airport building itself.
All of this is outside, it's not inside, but we
don't know that. We don't know what's going on.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
But what did.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Happen is when that plane hit the terminal on the outside,
it blew up pieces of body all over. Well, at
this point, we don't have gear, we don't have cameras,
but we got the still cameras, so we start taking
turns using one camera, only.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Still camera to take pictures.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Remember I've said this before, airplane crashes, helicopter crashes, horrible
stories to cover Krispy critters. You're burned to death, pieces
of bodies strewn about. And I remembered when it was
my turn to start taking the pictures and we're the
only ones in there taking these pictures. Roberto told me,
just take the picture. Don't look at what you're taking
(11:56):
the picture of before you take the picture.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Take the picture. And I'd do it.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
I would feel like I was getting physically ill. We
took several pictures that later made it into Newsweek magazine.
Later on, the San Denistis changed the story. They said
that that third explosion was the anti aircraft soldiers shooting
down the plane. The funny thing is, at that point,
(12:22):
every network, international, local, everyone wanted to interview me, and
I'm wearing my pajamas. Someone handed me a blazer to
put over it, and I proceeded to be interviewed that
day by at least twenty to twenty five different news agencies,
and the point of contention was how many explosions did
(12:42):
you hear? Which conflicted with the amount of explosions the
Sandinista government set happened. Obviously, the US embassy was happy
with my version. The Sandinista government wanted their version to
be the official version.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
The New York Times wrote this about the airport attack.
The next day, A.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
Light plane piloted by anti Sandinista exiles bombed Monagua's main
air base and international Airport today, causing heavy damage to
the control tower and other airport buildings. Responsibility for the
attack was claimed in neighboring Costa Rica by the Revolutionary
Democratic Alliance under the leadership of Eden Pastora, the former
Sandinista deputy Defense Minister. The Nicaraguan government said the plane,
(13:25):
described as a twin engine propeller driven Cesna, was hit
by anti aircraft fire and crashed into the airport control tower.
According to the Foreign Ministry, the attack, aircraft and bombs
were handed over to the counter revolutionaries as part of
assistance given by the US government via the Central Intelligence
Agency to these forces.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Never happened, Never happened.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
I love the fact that spin is always a part
of these stories.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Remember the propaganda machine was twenty four seven full force.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
The Sandinistas couldn't afford to look bad.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Well, they could ford to look like, yeah, we have
any aircraft soldiers, but they were sleeping. Why the fuck
do you have any aircraft soldiers if they're sleeping. If
they had been away, that play would have never made
it as close to the airport as it did.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Yeah. I think also in terms of being in a war,
you don't want your enemy to think you can just
show up and blow up your airport.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Correct, you know, to know a weakness that you have.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
I think that they even went so far as to
honor these sleeping any aircraft soldiers because they are the
ones that shot down the plane.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Oh, they got medals for Spra.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
They got medals.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
They were paraded about as having saved the airport in
Managua and saved lives, because no one was killed that day,
miraculously except that pilot.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Sandinista Defense Minister Humberto Ortega said the use of a
plane from Costa Rica shows the disrespect the CIA has
for that country, which surely has been carrying out operator
behind the backs of that country's authorities.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
It didn't make me stop wearing my pajamas to go
out after that, But it was a scary day. I
thought that day we were going to be blown to
bits because we didn't know how many planes would flown in,
We didn't know how many bombs were going to be dropped.
It was a scary, scary morning.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
It's funny, it just sounds like another Third world fucked
up attack. Yeah, so Cookie survived aerial bombing, mortars, minefields,
helicopter crashes, even been shot at on several occasions. She's
clearly indestructible. Coming up, Cookie finds her kryptonite. We'll be
(15:45):
right back. Welcome back our rat fampin and it's dragged.
Have you ever been at a punk concert and thought
that mash pit looks like fund after all the shit
(16:06):
Cookies been through. It might just be an excited crowd
that kills her. So tell me the scariest thing that
ever happened to you as a journalist.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
It's funny because most people would think, you know, getting
shot down in a helicopter, running through mine fields, mortars,
It wasn't any of those things. It was one July
nineteenth and a versary of the revolution. Everyone was given
off work. People were given a stipend to be busted
in to the main plaza in downtown Monagua that had
(16:40):
been destroyed by the earthquake in seventy two. They would
set up, you know, a huge stage. There would be
dignitaries that would come in, different dignitaries at different times,
you know, Castro would come in.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Different people.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
This is actually the same day Cookie had a religious
experience with Mother Teresa.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
The populace is being bust in. They had seating on
the stage behind the speaker's podium, dignitaries in front of
the stage there were lesser dignitaries. Then there was press.
There were no press boxes or press booths. It's all
very third world. And then obviously all the people being
(17:20):
busted in, so we were set up somewhere in the
middle of the whole thing. Other speakers come to the podium,
they're giving their speeches, people are clapping, cheering.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
How many people were there, I would.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Say maybe one hundred thousand. I'm not good with figures,
but the plaza was full. And this was a big
plaza when Ortega finally takes the podium. He starts to
give his speech, and the crowd starts to get very
riled up. Here's their fearless leader, El Presidente. Somehow or another,
the crowd started moving towards the stage to the area.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Where ortegas give the speech.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
The crowd starts moving a little more aggressively, a little harder.
The next thing I know, I'm separated from the camera crew.
I'm by myself and I fall, and when I fall,
I have nobody to reach out for because the camera
crew had their equipment, and of course they're trying to
save their equipment as well, and I'm starting to be
(18:22):
trampled upon.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
People are screaming.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
They don't realize I'm on the ground, and if they did,
they didn't care because they are also falling and being trampled.
The one main thing that had saved me throughout all
these war years was my loud voice.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
It was a plus for several reasons.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
One of them, if we would be in a big
stadium or a big convention center, questions needed to be
thrown out. Even some of the other journalists would say, cookie,
can you ask such and such a question? Can you
ask these questions. Because I was loud, I could always
be heard. So I realized at this point, I am
going to die. I am going to die, and no
(19:07):
one's even going to know it.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
It's now or nothing.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
I have to start screaming now. Remember I can't hardly breathe.
I mustered up all the strength that I had and
started to scream out to Ortega. And I'm screaming, President Ortega,
Presidente Ortega, it's Cookie.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
I'm dying. I'm dying.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
And then all of a sudden, I could hear Ortega
over the loudspeaker saying to please settle down, to the crowd,
be quiet. I hear something. He knew my voice already.
I kept screaming, help me, help me. He told the
crowd stop moving, be quiet. Someone is in trouble. One
(19:50):
of the journalists is in trouble. Cookie is in trouble.
I could hear him say to State Security and to
Nicaraguan journalists, try to find Cookie.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Try to find Cookie. She's on the ground somewhere.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
So he is interrupting his speech.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
The speech is interrupted.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Is the crowd quieting?
Speaker 2 (20:07):
The crowd is quieting.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
The crowd has stopped surging because here's the fearless leader
telling them what to do. He saved my life. Someone
found me, they lifted me up. I got picked up,
brought together back with my crew, and then just continued
business as usual. He picked up on his speech where
he had left off after making sure that I was okay.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Did you ever speak to him after that about it?
Speaker 3 (20:31):
No?
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Never did.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
It's so crazy.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Never did.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Was it like one of those moments when you're at
a rock concert and the band comes out, everybody starts
pushing toward the front.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
It was like that, but the end result was more
like the soccer matches Melas when the crowd is just
out of control and there's no stopping them.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
There's no one yelling that would have the control.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Over the crowd to tell and people get trampled and
people die.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Yeah, but no one died that day.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Cookie avoids death by trampling because of her loud mouth.
But now she faces her biggest rival, the United States
of America, and they are coming for her.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Rumor had it that there was a list in Washington
of journalists that the administration deemed, you know, not friendly
to what was going on. I was told I was
on that list, was to try to blackball or discredit
some journalists that were deemed problematic for our government at
(21:35):
the time. They did not like the coverage that CBS
was giving.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Yeah, what did they call CBS?
Speaker 3 (21:41):
The Communist Broadcasting Service speaks for itself. It wasn't because
of that. We were not pro COMMI, pro socialists. We
were simply anti Reagan. A lot of us didn't know
was that Reagan was already suffering from a form of
dementia alzheim.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Who knows, but give him credit. The man could stand
in front of a microphone and put on a show.
He was good at the tame.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
He was an actor.
Speaker 5 (22:09):
There's another regional conflict that has serious implications for our
country security interest Nicaragua. Our policy consistently has been to
bring peace and freedom to all of Central America. Today,
four of the five Central American countries choose their governments
in free and open democratic elections. One country, Nicaragua, with
(22:29):
its communist regime, remains a threat for this democratic tide
in the region. So our message to the people of
Nicaragua tonight is the same as it has been for
the past seven years. Freedom based on true democratic principles.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
What we didn't know the person that was pulling the
strings was his VP, George HW. You have to understand
George HW was the head of the CIA.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Bush was appointed CIA Director by President Gerald Ford in
nineteen seventy six. He'd been in Congress, men from Texas,
special envoy to China under Nixon, an ambassador to the
United Nations. One hell of a resume, according to CIA
dot gov. His tenure at the CIA lasted just short
of a year, but he's credited with restoring the credibility
(23:15):
and morale of the agency, leading reforms that earned the
respect of both political parties. So when he became Vice
president under Reagan, he was probably the most experienced person
to ever hold that position, and he already knew where
all the bodies were buried.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
This is a brilliant guy, and I'm not detracting from
Reagan's intelligence, but by this time he was compromised mentally.
Nobody knew that because Nancy and George H. W were
running the show, they came after us.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
So do you think the Reagan administration was onto you?
Speaker 2 (23:49):
We didn't even know what we were onto yet.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
I wanted to talk to you about something that I
found just researching your life. As you know, it's hard
to find things because one your cookie hood. You're not
Courtney hood to me.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
And I was always on the DL.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
For obvious reasons. Yeah, but I found a couple of
articles that are totally trashing not only you, but other
women who were working in the CBS office in Managua.
Do you remember that.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Yeah, that's what in the business we called hit pieces,
where out of the blue character assassination articles would be written.
We did not realize it. A wannabe shows up in Nicarai.
We're trying to pass himself off as a left leaning
journalist from Maryland or Virginia for a little known I
(24:41):
don't know if he told us it was a newspaper
or a magazine.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
I can't even remember.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
And unbeknownst to all of us, he was a plant
sent in by the US government, right wing publication. Let's
go blow the whistle on these kami journalists working against
us in in America. He ingratiated himself with a bunch
of us, you know, hung out with us, went on
(25:08):
junkets with us, not into the jungles, because he was
obviously a coward and not a real journalist, would hang
out at our get together as our parties and avail
himself of anything that myself and other journalists could help
him with. I go on a vacation, a really really
(25:29):
necessary R and R with Domingo and Azis, my other
favorite camera crew, and we were in Mexico. I get
a call from CBS New York. Now they knew I
was on vacation. That's the big boys, that's the big boys.
They knew I was on vacation, so them calling me
was a big deal. So I got a little nervous,
(25:51):
as did Domingo and Asi's because you never know what's
going on. I get this call from the Foreign desk
in New York telling me that I was on page
six of the New York Post.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Over the last forty years, page six has ruled the
world of gossip about the famous, and the powerful and
the notorious. Being mentioned there can make you or break you.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Page six.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
They trying to reach me for comment on a story
that was just published in Washington, but they can't reach
me because I'm too busy vacationing in Acapulca. So it
just made it sound like cavalier cavalier, I'm on vacation.
She's not a war correspondent. So here I am on
page six and I'm like, for what it was making
(26:38):
reference to an article that had been written for a
right wing publication that was I think actually even just
made up and made up for this one article.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
I think you know the name of the publication.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
The National Interest Magazine. The article was entitled Reporting Nicaragua,
written by Gary Moore, wrote this about our press conference
he attended given by Humberta Ortega, Santinista defense Minister.
Speaker 6 (27:06):
Just in front of me sat Courtney cookie Hood, Monogua
bureau producer for CBS News. Surrounded by the trappings of
military might, she rose from her chair and began to
weave back and forth to the music to dance a
little to boogie. As the producer danced, she raised her
hand in the air, saying loudly with apparent exultation, you know,
(27:26):
this is the youngest government that's ever been in power.
It's our generation that's running this government. While waiting for
Artega's arrival in the hall, the reporters were entertained with
rock music from the nineteen sixties and with cookie Hood's
impromptu dance and tribute to the Sandinista regime.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
In another hit piece in the right wing newsletter The
Aim Report, writer Daniel James estimated that ninety percent of
the US media were Sandinisa sympathizers and described the methods
used by the Sandinisis to cultivate these reporters, including the
use of sex. I even recall there was a specific
reference that some housekeeper had said that you were entertaining
(28:06):
the Minister of the Interior.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
In my private hotel room, and.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Then quoted you was saying, yeah, it was always weird
when he was sneaking in with.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
His bodyguards and everything, and that I would dance on
the tables of the offices.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
And all that was bullshit.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
It was all a lie.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
And I get a call from New York CBS New
York Foreign Desk saying your vacation is over. We need
you to fly in right away. We've got a problem.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
So the shit has hit the fan. The accusations are
flying fast and furious. The big question is is she
sleeping with Santainista generals and politicians to get all these
amazing stories that have made her such a threat to
the Reagan administration. Cookies in trouble, big trouble. We'll be
right back. Welcome back. Cookie thinks she's heading to another
(29:07):
firing squad, but this time it's in front of the
big whigs at CBS. But first, let's meet the Sandinista
man at the center of all the accusations. Minister of
the Interior to Moss Borge. In his obituary, The Guardian
wrote this to Moss Borge was one of the founders
(29:27):
of the Sandinista guerrilla movement that overthrew the Samosa family
dictatorship in Nicaragua. Revered by his followers, hated and feared
by his opponents, Borgey embodied many of the contradictions at
the heart of the Sandinista Revolution. A skilled poet and writer,
he was capable of attaining great lyrical and emotional heights
even while penning what was essentially propaganda. As Interior Minister
(29:49):
and secret police chief in the Sandinista government, he could
appear cynical and ruthless, as implacable with his enemies as
he was self sacrificing in the cause for which he
several times came close to giving his life.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
We were friends, we were acquaintances.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
I don't think that I ever really realized or thought
about how ruthless and cold blooded these guys were. They
were completely and one hundred percent capable of torture, killing,
slow death, the worst of the worst.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
And he was in charge of all of that, all
of it. He's a scary motherfucker.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
He's a scary motherfucker.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Had you known him prior.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
I knew him when they overthrew the Samosa regime and
he became one of the nine comandante's in charge.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
He genuinely liked you.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
He did because I was pretty, I was fun. He
was not a very good looking man. He was short,
he was stocky, he was ugly. Still did well with
the ladies because of He was very, very very powerful.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
If you remember back in episode five down in Dirty
Borge had the hots for Jane Wallace, Center flowers and everything.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
We just enjoyed what each of us represented to the other.
He represented inside scoop. Powerful pretty girl with power in
the news business was probably very attractive to him as well.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
And they had to know that you were a left
leaning journalist.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
They knew, as were most of the journalists based in Nicaragua.
I hate to say it, and I'm sure that many
of us don't even want to admit it now, but we.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Were all leaning left.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Not that we were socialists, not that we were communists,
but we were more humanists. I always remember saying.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
So you're getting these stories, You're getting a lot of
inside information from him and other people.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
You're getting dibbs, You're getting of the best.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
That's right, of the best.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
Remember I told you a little while back. Everybody was
a contact for me, from the gardener to the prostitute
to the president. Everyone was a contact for me. And
I always found behind every story there was true, some truth.
It could be a bullshit story, but there was some
(32:10):
truth to it.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Why was he so willing to give you leads? And
because he.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
Knew that I'd put it out there. I put the
story out there.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Did he think you would be fair?
Speaker 2 (32:22):
He thought I'd be fair.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
He might have just been using me one hundred percent
like I used him and many others. Sort of scratch
my back, I'll scratch your back.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Did you ever party with him in any way?
Speaker 3 (32:36):
Not really, not drugs or anything. Cocktails, yeah, but no,
not drugs.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Was he the kind of guy that you could have
a drink with?
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Was he fine in those situations?
Speaker 2 (32:47):
He was interesting, not fun.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
He wasn't a fun guy, but he was interesting, and
the fact that he found me completely enthralling that I
was a journalist, also that I came from the elite
part of society that he probably never really had an
entrance into.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
I think I was intriguing to him.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
He probably knew everything about you.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
That absolutely I found out later there was a big,
big file on me.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Wow. Yeah, I would like to have seen that.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
I would too, I would have liked to have seen
that as well.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
So he became a source for you.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
He did, And I don't think he was a source
for many people because of what he did, but he
became a source for me.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
He liked me immediately. I liked him.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
He was a very kind of flirty, dirty old man
kind of thing, which I was well versed in that language.
We just hit it off, you know, got to know
each other. I think he gave me his card, told me,
you ever need anything, you call me. I'm thinking in
terms of if I ever get arrested or do something bad,
(34:03):
but he meant it in the terms of, you know,
if I can ever help you in a story.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
I'm available.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
And did that happen?
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Both things happened in different levels. I would get calls
from his people alerting me to maybe go track this
thing down or go look at to this person, sort
of breadcrumbs leading me to a bigger story without telling
me what that story was.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
And why do you think he chose you for that?
Speaker 2 (34:34):
I'm not sure.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
Maybe he found I don't want to say, a kindred spirit,
but maybe he found someone that could quite possibly be
open minded to what he was selling. I don't want
to say a comrade, because I'm a journalist. I'm not
supposed to be anybody's comrade.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
Maybe he just felt that I would be somebody that
could be helpful, and that he could be helpful too.
I'm sort of not ashamed, but a little embarrassed about
that I would help them.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
So you find out down the road that he was
more involved in your life than you thought, looking out
for you, protecting.
Speaker 6 (35:19):
You, right.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
I found that out years later.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
I find that fascinating.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
I found out that on every junket that I ever
made out of the city, any dangerous near death situations
that I found myself in, I did not know at
the time, but he always had one or two guys
whose job was you die before she gets a scratch,
(35:46):
not just when I would leave the city in search
of Bang Bang or the war, but also in the city,
he always made sure that I was safe.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
That's crazy. Rookie and Timos boor Hey were friends that
needed each other. But did she have sex with him
to get her stories? Let's find out.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
I get this call.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
It's from one of the old guard, old school tough journalists,
David Bucks Bob. Anybody at CBS from that era knew
exactly who Bucks was.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
He was of the ilk of.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
Cronkite Morrow, and this was a kind of guy that
still referred to women as Broad's and he wasn't always
very keen on women.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
But I had met him a few times and he
liked me.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
He's calling me, and he's furious. I was scared I
was going to lose my job.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
So they call you in, So they call me in.
Speaker 3 (36:48):
They fly me out of Mexico. This is after the
page six story hit.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
Sometimes it's good to be on.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
Page six, Sometimes it's great. This time it wasn't. I
explained to him exactly what had happened, that this was
obviously an ambush. None of those things were true. If
they had been true, he would have heard about it
long ago from other journalists. Plus they knew the reputation
(37:15):
of one of the other female journalists. I was in
good company in other words, for them to believe that
it was all.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
False, and even if there was some truth.
Speaker 3 (37:25):
To any of it CPS at that point, they were
getting what they wanted and what they needed, which was
the stories, breaking news exclusives. We were getting them and
that was because of me.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
So did they literally look at you and say, Cookie,
is this true?
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Yeah? And I said, there's no truth to it.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
I am friends with these people, but I'm not sleeping
with them to get the story.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
I don't need to.
Speaker 3 (37:51):
We're friends, they're my contacts, They're in my rolodex.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
As soon as I set him at ease.
Speaker 3 (37:58):
I did not know this, but Bucks wrote a very
threatening letter not only to that publication, the Right Way publication,
but also to the fake wanna be journalist Gary Moore
and just basically cease and desist.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
Stop all of this.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
We want a retraction and if there is none, you
will have the wrath and the power that is CBS
on your ass.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
Bucksbom wrote this to Irving Crystal, the editor of the
National Interest magazine, the man behind the bullshit smear on
Cookie and the women of CBS Monagua.
Speaker 7 (38:36):
Dear mister Crystal, an article in the current summer issue
by freelance writer Gary Moore, deals with issues of journalistic
access to the news. In addition to a number of
faulty assumptions, it contains a series of allegations and innuendos
about the conduct of CBS News personnel working in Nicaragua.
Our investigation of the substance of those allegations and innuendos
has convinced us that they are false. In addition to falsity,
(38:58):
they have every appearance being malicious, an unjustifiable attempt to
taint both the professional reputations and the personal lives of
responsible news journalists. Your writer and your magazine owe them
an apology. Sincerely, David Bucksbaum, CBS News, Vice President News
Coverage and Operations.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Basically, cease and assist, fuck around and find out. Esquire
Magazine called Irving Crystal the godfather of the most powerful
new political force in America, neo Conservatism. George W. Bush
awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. You might know
his son, Bill Crystal, neo Conservative founder of The Weekly
(39:37):
Standard and now editor at large of the bulwark and
popular pundit on numerous cable news programs. He held various
positions in the Reagan and Bush administrations and was a
leading advocate of the misguided invasion of Iraq. He's a
proud Republican, but now an outspoken critic of the former
President Trump.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
Here's Nobodies, Gary Moore and Nobody the publication, which I
think was just invented to do that piece. Realize, Yeah,
we fucked him. Now we're finding out they retracted it.
I will forever be grateful to Bucks. I loved that man.
That letter would have been as if Walter Cronkite had
(40:16):
signed it himself. I cried, I've kept it all these years.
It was a badge of honor for me. We cleared everything.
He showed me the letter defending me and my honor
because he was that kind of old school guy and
defending the honor of CBS that we are always on
the up and up, even though sometimes we weren't. But
(40:39):
you gotta do what you gotta do to get the story.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
So you are saying categorically that you did not sleep
with generals for.
Speaker 3 (40:46):
Stories or dance on tables, saying I love revolutions and No,
that did not happen.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
I see you dancing on tables.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
Correct, But not for that, not for that.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
Cookie die a bullet. She's on top of the world,
master of her domain, but there is one unstoppable enemy
that's about to take her down. Someone she's been battling
her whole life herself. Next time on Journalista.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
We were in a very remote part of the country.
I was with Subsandinista soldiers. One of them realized that
I'd been smoking weed. We get back to the barracks,
he ratch me out. The next thing I know, the
commander and I guess what they call their MPs grab
me by both arms and they're going to lead me
(41:39):
away to I don't know jail.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
The Journalista podcast features the stories and voice of Cookie Hood,
narrated by Steven Esteb, Produced by Sean J. Donnelly, Executive
producers Jason Wagensback, Roy Laughlin and Ellen k Heart. Executive
producer Tyler Klang, Written and edited by Steven Esteb, Music
by Jay Weigel, Associate producer in sound design Stephen Tonti,
(42:09):
Sound mixing by Jesse Sollen Snyder. Special guests Lloyd Sherr,
Stephen Tonti, and Casey Groves. Special musical appearance by Rhythm
Collision with Sean J. Donnelly on drums. This is a
production of Journalista podcast LLC and iHeartRadio
This is a production of Journalista Podcast LLC and iHeartRadio.
And as for you, my fine mighty true, I can't
attend you here and now as I'd like, but just
try to stay up.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
In my way.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Just try.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
I don't get you mine pretty and your little dog too.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
That Welcome back to the Journalista Podcast. Okay, Cookie didn't
have a dog. And there is no yellow brick road
in Nicaragua. But there is a wicked witch and it
ain't karma, it's reality. Sometimes it bites, It eventually catches
up with you, no matter how fucking cool and badass
(00:42):
you think you are, even if you're from New Orleans.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
So the Mexican crew is back here as usual. There's
no particular story that we were in search of. We
had to keep ourselves busy. We had to work our
day's work to get our days past.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
So you just go out and look for stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
We go out look for stuff I'd invent, you know,
a trip here, a trip there. And the Mexicans were
always game, they were fearless.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
And even Larry.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Doyle, that was his favorite crew to work with because
he knew he could count on these guys to do
anything everything and go above and beyond because there were
some crews that didn't like to do extremely dangerous stuff
they did.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
So we go out. It was a Tuesday, and.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
I knew it was Marti Gras in New Orleans because
the night before had spoken to some family members. In
a war zone, and you're there for years, you kind
of lose track of what's going on in the real world.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
You know, you're only in the other real world, which
is war.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
So we're out and we met up with a platoon
of Sandinistas. I think that we were in an area
that Contras had been in but had since been pushed
out or they had abandoned. The soldiers are talking and
the Mexicans and myself we're walking ahead.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
All of a sudden, I hear some screaming and some arm.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Flailing from one of the soldiers, saying stop, stop, stop,
don't take another step, don't move. When somebody tells you
that in a warzone, you stop. You don't ask questions,
you don't argue.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
You stop.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
You got to remember the crew is holding all this equipment.
I'm probably at that point holding a tripod, and these
things were not lightweight back then. This was heavy stuff.
So we stop and we're like, why are we stopping?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
What's wrong?
Speaker 3 (02:34):
And one of the soldiers says, I hate to say this,
but you're in a possible minefield, and I mean, what
do you mean possible? And he says, well, sometimes the
consciras leave these mines, which we found out later were
Claymore mines and left over from the Vietnam War.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
According to the International Red Cross, during the Civil War
in Nicaragua, the two sides laid over one hundred and
seventy nine thousand land mines and an estimated eight hundred
and forty one minefields, leaving a legacy of senseless death
and human misery.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Claymore minds are detonated by remote control, so someone has
to be around there to set it off. But since
the countures had already left, there's another way to activate
these minds, and that's with tripwires. I'm not familiar with minds,
whether it be detonating with a remote control or trip wires.
(03:26):
All I know is a mine is a mine, and
a mine will blow up. We're told don't move. We
think we have somebody that knows the schematics of what's here.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
You know where you can.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Step, but he's not here. Now and we have to
find it so again. And it's you know, the middle
of the day. The sun is beating down because it's
an open field, and I'm just looking and saying to myself,
here you go again, your stupid bitch. You're in a
situation you can't get out of by your charm.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
By bullshitting. I could be New Orleans right.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Now at Marti Gras, but here I am yet in
another fix, in another problem.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
What's your problem?
Speaker 4 (04:09):
My problem is I don't want a thousand steel balls
to shread my genitals.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Uh, Claymore mind full of steel balls that fly one
thousand meters or one click a second right.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
At dick levels easy for peace or ass level, which
in your case would also take off your head. That
was a clip from the FX show Archer explaining exactly
the kind of damage a Claymore Mind can do to
the human body.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
It had a happy ending.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
The guy came that was familiar with the area and
he taught us, screaming at us what to do to
look for the trip wire because it wasn't the fear
of a remote control because there were no contras there
and the contiras had been using these Claymore minds. I
think that even used it in the Capitol killed a
(04:55):
busload of civilians, so we were able to disarm another
of them to walk out of that field and get away.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
So they were instructing you how to how to.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Find the trip wires because the trip wives aren't obvious,
so you.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Had to find the trip wires, disarm the mind.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Well, cut the trip wire, and then disarming the mine
wasn't a big deal because that was only if it
was going to be remote controls.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Still is fucking scary.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
It is scary, and I never looked at an open
field the same way.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Again.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
I mean, how many times have you watched a movie
or a show where people are stuck in a minefield
and inevitably someone's going.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Up and you don't know if you've already set off
the wire. You know you'll hear a click or something.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
I didn't know.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
That, but that was the day I got my education
in mind.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
I'm sure at that moment, Bourbon Street looked pretty good.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
It sure did.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
And I remember getting back to the hotel and calling
some family and friends and saying, you'll never believe what
my Mardi Gras was like, and they never I have
these stories and they just sound so unbelievable, but they're
all true.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
But you're in a war zone. This is what happens.
This is not unusual in a war zone.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
No it's not.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
But when it happens to you for the first time,
it's like, damn shit, what have I gotten myself into?
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Yet again?
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Yeah, of course you could have got shot on Bourbon
Street too. Absolutely, we often talk about how you often
became the story.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
That was one of the tips Mike gave me early on.
Never be the story. Just cover the story. It didn't
happen just that one time. It happened several times.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
There was one event where you absolutely were the story.
There was this attack on the airport in Monagua, and
you were all up in the middle of that. Shit,
why were you there?
Speaker 3 (06:50):
I had this thing, and you know by now from
several episodes that I always liked taking care of my boys,
and one of the things I loved doing was going
personally to the airport to pick up Cruise and their
equipment or anyone that was coming in to do a story.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
And I also liked dropping them off.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Even though drop off time and departure times in Nicaragua
were before the crack of dawn.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
I was doing something that no one does. Now everyone does.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
I used to go out in my pajamas, whether it
be regular pajamas or Victoria's secret nightgowns, and my mother
always told me that's going to get you in trouble
one day.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
So this one.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Particular morning, I'm taking the Mexican crew, Roberto Pineda and
Jime Robliz. They've done their six week stint in Nicaragua.
Up until that point, Cruise would check in their gear
like luggage I had always been done, because there was
always so much of it, and of course the networks
didn't particularly like to have to pay for an extra
(07:53):
seat to put the camera and the recorder on a flight.
So we get there, I'm wearing my Victoria's secret Nike,
thinking it's going to be business as usual. Dropping off
the crew. We were inside the terminal somehow or another.
I would always be allowed to go all the way in,
you know, to check in the crew and their gear,
(08:14):
even though there'd always be a Sandinista soldier telling me
you can't go in, and of course I would go
in this particular time, I think the sun was just
starting to rise.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
The crew's checked in. The gears checked in.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
I think and Roberto each had a camera, a still
camera which they always carried around.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
We're waiting because I'd.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Always wait until they would get on the flight and
take off. All of a sudden, we heard a bombing.
We thought it was inside of the airport. We're thinking bombs.
The soldiers in the airport are not letting anyone.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
In or out.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
We know this is a because this is an attack
in the city, in the capitol, which was very, very unusual,
and it's the airport. What we did not know was
that a Contra pilot in his small Cessna airplane was
going to fly in and bomb the airport. The Sandinistas
(09:20):
had anti aircraft soldiers in their trenches, but since nothing
had ever happened before in the city, they were sleeping.
We think we're under attack. We obviously want to get out.
We want to film. We can't get our gear at
this point, but if we can get out of the terminal,
we can get local gear from the local TV station.
(09:44):
At this point, journalists, everyone that was based in Monagua,
they're already at the airport outside, but they're not being
allowed in either. Everyone thinks the airport's under attack, it's
under siege. We're going to be killed, and like idiots,
the soldier aren't letting us out.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Everyone stays in.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
We were stuck in there, I would say two maybe
three hours before we started to gather some information. I
would talk it to some of the soldiers that I
already knew what happened were we bombed, and I was
told what they thought had happened. I have now managed
to get the crew and myself not outside of the airport,
(10:26):
but outside on the armat, which is where the destruction was.
And at first you really couldn't tell were they shot down.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Was this guy shut down.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Or as the cameraman Roberto Pineda said, this guy got
caught in a wire. This pilot, who was from Nicaragua
and knew the layout of the airport somehow lost control
of the plane. The plane got caught up in a wire,
whether it was you know, electrical wire, but wire, which
(10:57):
was the first.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Boom that we've heard.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Then the wire projected him against the airport building itself.
All of this is outside, it's not inside, but we
don't know that. We don't know what's going on.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
But what did.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Happen is when that plane hit the terminal on the outside,
it blew up pieces of body all over. Well, at
this point, we don't have gear, we don't have cameras,
but we got the still cameras, so we start taking
turns using one camera, only.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Still camera to take pictures.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Remember I've said this before, airplane crashes, helicopter crashes, horrible
stories to cover Krispy critters. You're burned to death, pieces
of bodies strewn about. And I remembered when it was
my turn to start taking the pictures and we're the
only ones in there taking these pictures. Roberto told me,
just take the picture. Don't look at what you're taking
(11:56):
the picture of before you take the picture.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Take the picture. And I'd do it.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
I would feel like I was getting physically ill. We
took several pictures that later made it into Newsweek magazine.
Later on, the San Denistis changed the story. They said
that that third explosion was the anti aircraft soldiers shooting
down the plane. The funny thing is, at that point,
(12:22):
every network, international, local, everyone wanted to interview me, and
I'm wearing my pajamas. Someone handed me a blazer to
put over it, and I proceeded to be interviewed that
day by at least twenty to twenty five different news agencies,
and the point of contention was how many explosions did
(12:42):
you hear? Which conflicted with the amount of explosions the
Sandinista government set happened. Obviously, the US embassy was happy
with my version. The Sandinista government wanted their version to
be the official version.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
The New York Times wrote this about the airport attack.
The next day, A.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
Light plane piloted by anti Sandinista exiles bombed Monagua's main
air base and international Airport today, causing heavy damage to
the control tower and other airport buildings. Responsibility for the
attack was claimed in neighboring Costa Rica by the Revolutionary
Democratic Alliance under the leadership of Eden Pastora, the former
Sandinista deputy Defense Minister. The Nicaraguan government said the plane,
(13:25):
described as a twin engine propeller driven Cesna, was hit
by anti aircraft fire and crashed into the airport control tower.
According to the Foreign Ministry, the attack, aircraft and bombs
were handed over to the counter revolutionaries as part of
assistance given by the US government via the Central Intelligence
Agency to these forces.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Never happened, Never happened.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
I love the fact that spin is always a part
of these stories.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Remember the propaganda machine was twenty four seven full force.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
The Sandinistas couldn't afford to look bad.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Well, they could ford to look like, yeah, we have
any aircraft soldiers, but they were sleeping. Why the fuck
do you have any aircraft soldiers if they're sleeping. If
they had been away, that play would have never made
it as close to the airport as it did.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Yeah. I think also in terms of being in a war,
you don't want your enemy to think you can just
show up and blow up your airport.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Correct, you know, to know a weakness that you have.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
I think that they even went so far as to
honor these sleeping any aircraft soldiers because they are the
ones that shot down the plane.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Oh, they got medals for Spra.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
They got medals.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
They were paraded about as having saved the airport in
Managua and saved lives, because no one was killed that day,
miraculously except that pilot.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Sandinista Defense Minister Humberto Ortega said the use of a
plane from Costa Rica shows the disrespect the CIA has
for that country, which surely has been carrying out operator
behind the backs of that country's authorities.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
It didn't make me stop wearing my pajamas to go
out after that, But it was a scary day. I
thought that day we were going to be blown to
bits because we didn't know how many planes would flown in,
We didn't know how many bombs were going to be dropped.
It was a scary, scary morning.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
It's funny, it just sounds like another Third world fucked
up attack. Yeah, so Cookie survived aerial bombing, mortars, minefields,
helicopter crashes, even been shot at on several occasions. She's
clearly indestructible. Coming up, Cookie finds her kryptonite. We'll be
(15:45):
right back. Welcome back our rat fampin and it's dragged.
Have you ever been at a punk concert and thought
that mash pit looks like fund after all the shit
(16:06):
Cookies been through. It might just be an excited crowd
that kills her. So tell me the scariest thing that
ever happened to you as a journalist.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
It's funny because most people would think, you know, getting
shot down in a helicopter, running through mine fields, mortars,
It wasn't any of those things. It was one July
nineteenth and a versary of the revolution. Everyone was given
off work. People were given a stipend to be busted
in to the main plaza in downtown Monagua that had
(16:40):
been destroyed by the earthquake in seventy two. They would
set up, you know, a huge stage. There would be
dignitaries that would come in, different dignitaries at different times,
you know, Castro would come in.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Different people.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
This is actually the same day Cookie had a religious
experience with Mother Teresa.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
The populace is being bust in. They had seating on
the stage behind the speaker's podium, dignitaries in front of
the stage there were lesser dignitaries. Then there was press.
There were no press boxes or press booths. It's all
very third world. And then obviously all the people being
(17:20):
busted in, so we were set up somewhere in the
middle of the whole thing. Other speakers come to the podium,
they're giving their speeches, people are clapping, cheering.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
How many people were there, I would.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Say maybe one hundred thousand. I'm not good with figures,
but the plaza was full. And this was a big
plaza when Ortega finally takes the podium. He starts to
give his speech, and the crowd starts to get very
riled up. Here's their fearless leader, El Presidente. Somehow or another,
the crowd started moving towards the stage to the area.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Where ortegas give the speech.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
The crowd starts moving a little more aggressively, a little harder.
The next thing I know, I'm separated from the camera crew.
I'm by myself and I fall, and when I fall,
I have nobody to reach out for because the camera
crew had their equipment, and of course they're trying to
save their equipment as well, and I'm starting to be
(18:22):
trampled upon.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
People are screaming.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
They don't realize I'm on the ground, and if they did,
they didn't care because they are also falling and being trampled.
The one main thing that had saved me throughout all
these war years was my loud voice.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
It was a plus for several reasons.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
One of them, if we would be in a big
stadium or a big convention center, questions needed to be
thrown out. Even some of the other journalists would say, cookie,
can you ask such and such a question? Can you
ask these questions. Because I was loud, I could always
be heard. So I realized at this point, I am
going to die. I am going to die, and no
(19:07):
one's even going to know it.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
It's now or nothing.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
I have to start screaming now. Remember I can't hardly breathe.
I mustered up all the strength that I had and
started to scream out to Ortega. And I'm screaming, President Ortega,
Presidente Ortega, it's Cookie.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
I'm dying. I'm dying.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
And then all of a sudden, I could hear Ortega
over the loudspeaker saying to please settle down, to the crowd,
be quiet. I hear something. He knew my voice already.
I kept screaming, help me, help me. He told the
crowd stop moving, be quiet. Someone is in trouble. One
(19:50):
of the journalists is in trouble. Cookie is in trouble.
I could hear him say to State Security and to
Nicaraguan journalists, try to find Cookie.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Try to find Cookie. She's on the ground somewhere.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
So he is interrupting his speech.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
The speech is interrupted.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Is the crowd quieting?
Speaker 2 (20:07):
The crowd is quieting.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
The crowd has stopped surging because here's the fearless leader
telling them what to do. He saved my life. Someone
found me, they lifted me up. I got picked up,
brought together back with my crew, and then just continued
business as usual. He picked up on his speech where
he had left off after making sure that I was okay.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Did you ever speak to him after that about it?
Speaker 3 (20:31):
No?
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Never did.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
It's so crazy.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Never did.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Was it like one of those moments when you're at
a rock concert and the band comes out, everybody starts
pushing toward the front.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
It was like that, but the end result was more
like the soccer matches Melas when the crowd is just
out of control and there's no stopping them.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
There's no one yelling that would have the control.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Over the crowd to tell and people get trampled and
people die.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Yeah, but no one died that day.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Cookie avoids death by trampling because of her loud mouth.
But now she faces her biggest rival, the United States
of America, and they are coming for her.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Rumor had it that there was a list in Washington
of journalists that the administration deemed, you know, not friendly
to what was going on. I was told I was
on that list, was to try to blackball or discredit
some journalists that were deemed problematic for our government at
(21:35):
the time. They did not like the coverage that CBS
was giving.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Yeah, what did they call CBS?
Speaker 3 (21:41):
The Communist Broadcasting Service speaks for itself. It wasn't because
of that. We were not pro COMMI, pro socialists. We
were simply anti Reagan. A lot of us didn't know
was that Reagan was already suffering from a form of
dementia alzheim.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Who knows, but give him credit. The man could stand
in front of a microphone and put on a show.
He was good at the tame.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
He was an actor.
Speaker 5 (22:09):
There's another regional conflict that has serious implications for our
country security interest Nicaragua. Our policy consistently has been to
bring peace and freedom to all of Central America. Today,
four of the five Central American countries choose their governments
in free and open democratic elections. One country, Nicaragua, with
(22:29):
its communist regime, remains a threat for this democratic tide
in the region. So our message to the people of
Nicaragua tonight is the same as it has been for
the past seven years. Freedom based on true democratic principles.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
What we didn't know the person that was pulling the
strings was his VP, George HW. You have to understand
George HW was the head of the CIA.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Bush was appointed CIA Director by President Gerald Ford in
nineteen seventy six. He'd been in Congress, men from Texas,
special envoy to China under Nixon, an ambassador to the
United Nations. One hell of a resume, according to CIA
dot gov. His tenure at the CIA lasted just short
of a year, but he's credited with restoring the credibility
(23:15):
and morale of the agency, leading reforms that earned the
respect of both political parties. So when he became Vice
president under Reagan, he was probably the most experienced person
to ever hold that position, and he already knew where
all the bodies were buried.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
This is a brilliant guy, and I'm not detracting from
Reagan's intelligence, but by this time he was compromised mentally.
Nobody knew that because Nancy and George H. W were
running the show, they came after us.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
So do you think the Reagan administration was onto you?
Speaker 2 (23:49):
We didn't even know what we were onto yet.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
I wanted to talk to you about something that I
found just researching your life. As you know, it's hard
to find things because one your cookie hood. You're not
Courtney hood to me.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
And I was always on the DL.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
For obvious reasons. Yeah, but I found a couple of
articles that are totally trashing not only you, but other
women who were working in the CBS office in Managua.
Do you remember that.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Yeah, that's what in the business we called hit pieces,
where out of the blue character assassination articles would be written.
We did not realize it. A wannabe shows up in Nicarai.
We're trying to pass himself off as a left leaning
journalist from Maryland or Virginia for a little known I
(24:41):
don't know if he told us it was a newspaper
or a magazine.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
I can't even remember.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
And unbeknownst to all of us, he was a plant
sent in by the US government, right wing publication. Let's
go blow the whistle on these kami journalists working against
us in in America. He ingratiated himself with a bunch
of us, you know, hung out with us, went on
(25:08):
junkets with us, not into the jungles, because he was
obviously a coward and not a real journalist, would hang
out at our get together as our parties and avail
himself of anything that myself and other journalists could help
him with. I go on a vacation, a really really
(25:29):
necessary R and R with Domingo and Azis, my other
favorite camera crew, and we were in Mexico. I get
a call from CBS New York. Now they knew I
was on vacation. That's the big boys, that's the big boys.
They knew I was on vacation, so them calling me
was a big deal. So I got a little nervous,
(25:51):
as did Domingo and Asi's because you never know what's
going on. I get this call from the Foreign desk
in New York telling me that I was on page
six of the New York Post.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Over the last forty years, page six has ruled the
world of gossip about the famous, and the powerful and
the notorious. Being mentioned there can make you or break you.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Page six.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
They trying to reach me for comment on a story
that was just published in Washington, but they can't reach
me because I'm too busy vacationing in Acapulca. So it
just made it sound like cavalier cavalier, I'm on vacation.
She's not a war correspondent. So here I am on
page six and I'm like, for what it was making
(26:38):
reference to an article that had been written for a
right wing publication that was I think actually even just
made up and made up for this one article.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
I think you know the name of the publication.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
The National Interest Magazine. The article was entitled Reporting Nicaragua,
written by Gary Moore, wrote this about our press conference
he attended given by Humberta Ortega, Santinista defense Minister.
Speaker 6 (27:06):
Just in front of me sat Courtney cookie Hood, Monogua
bureau producer for CBS News. Surrounded by the trappings of
military might, she rose from her chair and began to
weave back and forth to the music to dance a
little to boogie. As the producer danced, she raised her
hand in the air, saying loudly with apparent exultation, you know,
(27:26):
this is the youngest government that's ever been in power.
It's our generation that's running this government. While waiting for
Artega's arrival in the hall, the reporters were entertained with
rock music from the nineteen sixties and with cookie Hood's
impromptu dance and tribute to the Sandinista regime.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
In another hit piece in the right wing newsletter The
Aim Report, writer Daniel James estimated that ninety percent of
the US media were Sandinisa sympathizers and described the methods
used by the Sandinisis to cultivate these reporters, including the
use of sex. I even recall there was a specific
reference that some housekeeper had said that you were entertaining
(28:06):
the Minister of the Interior.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
In my private hotel room, and.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Then quoted you was saying, yeah, it was always weird
when he was sneaking in with.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
His bodyguards and everything, and that I would dance on
the tables of the offices.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
And all that was bullshit.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
It was all a lie.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
And I get a call from New York CBS New
York Foreign Desk saying your vacation is over. We need
you to fly in right away. We've got a problem.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
So the shit has hit the fan. The accusations are
flying fast and furious. The big question is is she
sleeping with Santainista generals and politicians to get all these
amazing stories that have made her such a threat to
the Reagan administration. Cookies in trouble, big trouble. We'll be
right back. Welcome back. Cookie thinks she's heading to another
(29:07):
firing squad, but this time it's in front of the
big whigs at CBS. But first, let's meet the Sandinista
man at the center of all the accusations. Minister of
the Interior to Moss Borge. In his obituary, The Guardian
wrote this to Moss Borge was one of the founders
(29:27):
of the Sandinista guerrilla movement that overthrew the Samosa family
dictatorship in Nicaragua. Revered by his followers, hated and feared
by his opponents, Borgey embodied many of the contradictions at
the heart of the Sandinista Revolution. A skilled poet and writer,
he was capable of attaining great lyrical and emotional heights
even while penning what was essentially propaganda. As Interior Minister
(29:49):
and secret police chief in the Sandinista government, he could
appear cynical and ruthless, as implacable with his enemies as
he was self sacrificing in the cause for which he
several times came close to giving his life.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
We were friends, we were acquaintances.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
I don't think that I ever really realized or thought
about how ruthless and cold blooded these guys were. They
were completely and one hundred percent capable of torture, killing,
slow death, the worst of the worst.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
And he was in charge of all of that, all
of it. He's a scary motherfucker.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
He's a scary motherfucker.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Had you known him prior.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
I knew him when they overthrew the Samosa regime and
he became one of the nine comandante's in charge.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
He genuinely liked you.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
He did because I was pretty, I was fun. He
was not a very good looking man. He was short,
he was stocky, he was ugly. Still did well with
the ladies because of He was very, very very powerful.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
If you remember back in episode five down in Dirty
Borge had the hots for Jane Wallace, Center flowers and everything.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
We just enjoyed what each of us represented to the other.
He represented inside scoop. Powerful pretty girl with power in
the news business was probably very attractive to him as well.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
And they had to know that you were a left
leaning journalist.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
They knew, as were most of the journalists based in Nicaragua.
I hate to say it, and I'm sure that many
of us don't even want to admit it now, but we.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Were all leaning left.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Not that we were socialists, not that we were communists,
but we were more humanists. I always remember saying.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
So you're getting these stories, You're getting a lot of
inside information from him and other people.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
You're getting dibbs, You're getting of the best.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
That's right, of the best.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
Remember I told you a little while back. Everybody was
a contact for me, from the gardener to the prostitute
to the president. Everyone was a contact for me. And
I always found behind every story there was true, some truth.
It could be a bullshit story, but there was some
(32:10):
truth to it.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Why was he so willing to give you leads? And
because he.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
Knew that I'd put it out there. I put the
story out there.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Did he think you would be fair?
Speaker 2 (32:22):
He thought I'd be fair.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
He might have just been using me one hundred percent
like I used him and many others. Sort of scratch
my back, I'll scratch your back.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Did you ever party with him in any way?
Speaker 3 (32:36):
Not really, not drugs or anything. Cocktails, yeah, but no,
not drugs.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Was he the kind of guy that you could have
a drink with?
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Was he fine in those situations?
Speaker 2 (32:47):
He was interesting, not fun.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
He wasn't a fun guy, but he was interesting, and
the fact that he found me completely enthralling that I
was a journalist, also that I came from the elite
part of society that he probably never really had an
entrance into.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
I think I was intriguing to him.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
He probably knew everything about you.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
That absolutely I found out later there was a big,
big file on me.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Wow. Yeah, I would like to have seen that.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
I would too, I would have liked to have seen
that as well.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
So he became a source for you.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
He did, And I don't think he was a source
for many people because of what he did, but he
became a source for me.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
He liked me immediately. I liked him.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
He was a very kind of flirty, dirty old man
kind of thing, which I was well versed in that language.
We just hit it off, you know, got to know
each other. I think he gave me his card, told me,
you ever need anything, you call me. I'm thinking in
terms of if I ever get arrested or do something bad,
(34:03):
but he meant it in the terms of, you know,
if I can ever help you in a story.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
I'm available.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
And did that happen?
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Both things happened in different levels. I would get calls
from his people alerting me to maybe go track this
thing down or go look at to this person, sort
of breadcrumbs leading me to a bigger story without telling
me what that story was.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
And why do you think he chose you for that?
Speaker 2 (34:34):
I'm not sure.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
Maybe he found I don't want to say, a kindred spirit,
but maybe he found someone that could quite possibly be
open minded to what he was selling. I don't want
to say a comrade, because I'm a journalist. I'm not
supposed to be anybody's comrade.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
Maybe he just felt that I would be somebody that
could be helpful, and that he could be helpful too.
I'm sort of not ashamed, but a little embarrassed about
that I would help them.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
So you find out down the road that he was
more involved in your life than you thought, looking out
for you, protecting.
Speaker 6 (35:19):
You, right.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
I found that out years later.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
I find that fascinating.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
I found out that on every junket that I ever
made out of the city, any dangerous near death situations
that I found myself in, I did not know at
the time, but he always had one or two guys
whose job was you die before she gets a scratch,
(35:46):
not just when I would leave the city in search
of Bang Bang or the war, but also in the city,
he always made sure that I was safe.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
That's crazy. Rookie and Timos boor Hey were friends that
needed each other. But did she have sex with him
to get her stories? Let's find out.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
I get this call.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
It's from one of the old guard, old school tough journalists,
David Bucks Bob. Anybody at CBS from that era knew
exactly who Bucks was.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
He was of the ilk of.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
Cronkite Morrow, and this was a kind of guy that
still referred to women as Broad's and he wasn't always
very keen on women.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
But I had met him a few times and he
liked me.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
He's calling me, and he's furious. I was scared I
was going to lose my job.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
So they call you in, So they call me in.
Speaker 3 (36:48):
They fly me out of Mexico. This is after the
page six story hit.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
Sometimes it's good to be on.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
Page six, Sometimes it's great. This time it wasn't. I
explained to him exactly what had happened, that this was
obviously an ambush. None of those things were true. If
they had been true, he would have heard about it
long ago from other journalists. Plus they knew the reputation
(37:15):
of one of the other female journalists. I was in
good company in other words, for them to believe that
it was all.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
False, and even if there was some truth.
Speaker 3 (37:25):
To any of it CPS at that point, they were
getting what they wanted and what they needed, which was
the stories, breaking news exclusives. We were getting them and
that was because of me.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
So did they literally look at you and say, Cookie,
is this true?
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Yeah? And I said, there's no truth to it.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
I am friends with these people, but I'm not sleeping
with them to get the story.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
I don't need to.
Speaker 3 (37:51):
We're friends, they're my contacts, They're in my rolodex.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
As soon as I set him at ease.
Speaker 3 (37:58):
I did not know this, but Bucks wrote a very
threatening letter not only to that publication, the Right Way publication,
but also to the fake wanna be journalist Gary Moore
and just basically cease and desist.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
Stop all of this.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
We want a retraction and if there is none, you
will have the wrath and the power that is CBS
on your ass.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
Bucksbom wrote this to Irving Crystal, the editor of the
National Interest magazine, the man behind the bullshit smear on
Cookie and the women of CBS Monagua.
Speaker 7 (38:36):
Dear mister Crystal, an article in the current summer issue
by freelance writer Gary Moore, deals with issues of journalistic
access to the news. In addition to a number of
faulty assumptions, it contains a series of allegations and innuendos
about the conduct of CBS News personnel working in Nicaragua.
Our investigation of the substance of those allegations and innuendos
has convinced us that they are false. In addition to falsity,
(38:58):
they have every appearance being malicious, an unjustifiable attempt to
taint both the professional reputations and the personal lives of
responsible news journalists. Your writer and your magazine owe them
an apology. Sincerely, David Bucksbaum, CBS News, Vice President News
Coverage and Operations.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Basically, cease and assist, fuck around and find out. Esquire
Magazine called Irving Crystal the godfather of the most powerful
new political force in America, neo Conservatism. George W. Bush
awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. You might know
his son, Bill Crystal, neo Conservative founder of The Weekly
(39:37):
Standard and now editor at large of the bulwark and
popular pundit on numerous cable news programs. He held various
positions in the Reagan and Bush administrations and was a
leading advocate of the misguided invasion of Iraq. He's a
proud Republican, but now an outspoken critic of the former
President Trump.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
Here's Nobodies, Gary Moore and Nobody the publication, which I
think was just invented to do that piece. Realize, Yeah,
we fucked him. Now we're finding out they retracted it.
I will forever be grateful to Bucks. I loved that man.
That letter would have been as if Walter Cronkite had
(40:16):
signed it himself. I cried, I've kept it all these years.
It was a badge of honor for me. We cleared everything.
He showed me the letter defending me and my honor
because he was that kind of old school guy and
defending the honor of CBS that we are always on
the up and up, even though sometimes we weren't. But
(40:39):
you gotta do what you gotta do to get the story.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
So you are saying categorically that you did not sleep
with generals for.
Speaker 3 (40:46):
Stories or dance on tables, saying I love revolutions and No,
that did not happen.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
I see you dancing on tables.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
Correct, But not for that, not for that.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
Cookie die a bullet. She's on top of the world,
master of her domain, but there is one unstoppable enemy
that's about to take her down. Someone she's been battling
her whole life herself. Next time on Journalista.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
We were in a very remote part of the country.
I was with Subsandinista soldiers. One of them realized that
I'd been smoking weed. We get back to the barracks,
he ratch me out. The next thing I know, the
commander and I guess what they call their MPs grab
me by both arms and they're going to lead me
(41:39):
away to I don't know jail.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
The Journalista podcast features the stories and voice of Cookie Hood,
narrated by Steven Esteb, Produced by Sean J. Donnelly, Executive
producers Jason Wagensback, Roy Laughlin and Ellen k Heart. Executive
producer Tyler Klang, Written and edited by Steven Esteb, Music
by Jay Weigel, Associate producer in sound design Stephen Tonti,
(42:09):
Sound mixing by Jesse Sollen Snyder. Special guests Lloyd Sherr,
Stephen Tonti, and Casey Groves. Special musical appearance by Rhythm
Collision with Sean J. Donnelly on drums. This is a
production of Journalista podcast LLC and iHeartRadio
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