All language subtitles for Dark.Side.Of.The.90s.S02E06.1080p.WEB.h264-BAE

-At the start of the '90s,
TV news goes tabloid.

-That was the moment
John Bobbitt realized

his penis was cut off.

-Sex scandals, gruesome murders.

They saw themselves as kind
of like pirates and raiders.

-We changed the whole fabric
of network news.

-Rules are rewritten.

-Checkbook journalism.

They're paying for interviews.
- We were all pay.

-And that's when you struck your
deal with "A Current Affair?"

- Yes.
- Reporters go rogue.

-We have those nudes.

-[ Gasps ]

-No one was more despised
than Steve Dunleavy.

-The public sees a chance
to cash in.

-I was offered a lot of money
to do things.

Yes, I took the money.

-You've been accused
of being a pimp.

-Get that [bleep] cameras off.

-And television news
will never be the same.

-We'll do it live!
It!

♪♪

[ Dial-up modems screeching ]

♪♪

-Good evening.

-For decades, the nightly news
in America

is a serious affair.

...President Reagan's
-The White House releases

key documents.

-In the Persian Gulf today...

-But in the '90s,
it becomes a current affair.

-Cops say that instead
of preaching the gospel,

he was throwing panty parties.

-Beginning with
"A Current Affair,"

so-called serious news gives way

to a new kind
of television journalism.

-Get out of my face.

-And the story that will become
a watershed moment

in this transformation centers
on a violent love triangle

happening on Long Island,
New York.

-Watching the Buttafuocos
has become something

of a public spectacle.
- Joey Buttafuoco.

Joey Buttafuoco...

[ Indistinct talking ]

-Mary Jo says
she and her husband

are more recognized
than Charles and Diane.

-For this housewife,
tabloid news

will turn her personal tragedy
into a national spectacle.

♪♪

-It was just a normal, regular,
every single day of my life

type of a day.

I'm Mary Jo Buttafuoco,
and in May of 1992,

I became the fodder for tabloid
TV for years and years.

I was going to work
on my back yard.

I wanted to paint this bench.
[ Doorbell rings ]

And the doorbell rang.

I see a kid,
a teenager standing there.

And she said,
"Are you Mrs. Buttafuoco?"

I said, "Yes."

And she said,
"I need to tell you

that your husband
is having an affair."

-What happens next will turn
Mary Jo,

her husband and a young woman

nicknamed the
"Long Island Lolita"

into household names.

But the story of how
America's news goes from bookish

to Buttafuoco begins
with another familiar name,

Rupert Murdoch.

Back in the '80s,
Murdoch's tabloid newspapers

are filled with stories
just as juicy

and tantalizing as Mary Jo's.

-Murdoch inherited a paper
called Adelaide News

in Australia from his father,

and then from there he starts
to become extremely successful

turning papers into tabloids.

I'm Reece Peck. I'm the author
of "Fox Populism."

I'm a professor at the College
of Staten Island.

One of the keys
to Murdoch's success

was his introduction
of the Page 3 Girls,

nude models.

-These tactics helped Murdoch
build a tabloid empire

in Australia and the U.K.

-Then he has his sights
set on America.

-Murdoch buys the
"New York Post" for $30 million,

and quickly transforms it
into his kind of newspaper.

-Of course, it played on all
the classic tabloid themes,

you know, gruesome murders,
sex scandals,

bizarre events like UFOs.

I think the all time
tabloid headline

is "The New York Post's"
headless body in a topless bar

because that blends sex
with murder

In this punchy,
puny five-word statement.

-Murdoch's approach to
journalism is to publish

what sells... glossy pictures,
big print

and stories
about sex and violence.

But for him,
newspapers are not enough.

-Today, confirmation of the
largest single broadcast station

transaction in history.
It's part of an even...

-Murdoch decides to do something
that has never been done before,

inject his tabloid newspaper
sensibility into a TV news show.

-The deal calls for Murdoch
to pay some $2 billion

for all Metromedia television.

-You take the networks
news at the time,

legitimate, you know, mainstream
network, local news scene.

Everybody had to cover
the same stories.

If you had ideas,
if you wanted to be creative,

if you wanted to approach
a story

from a different direction,
you couldn't.

-I'm Burt Kearns.

I spent the greater part
of the 1990s

as a tabloid
television producer,

and I wrote a book called
"Tabloid Baby."

When Rupert Murdoch started
his television news operation,

he didn't bring in network
people from America.

He brought in newspaper people
from Australia.

Murdoch took the best
that he had and said,

Well, well, mate,
now I'm starting television.

Do your thing with television.

-They had a very
different philosophy

of journalism or outlook, right?

They looked at the American news
scene as very austere,

very boring, very drab.

And they saw themselves as kind
of like pirates and raiders.

You know, they brag about that,

like, they're going to conquer
the news market.

-The captain of Rupert Murdoch's
pirate invasion

is Peter Brennan,

a brash producer
born in Australia.

Brennan will become known

as the godfather
of American tabloid TV.

-God is the perfect word
for him.

I'm Jeremy Louwerse,
and I was a producer

for "Inside Edition"
in the early '90s.

No doubt about it,
Peter Brennan is the God.

He's the Messiah. He's the guy
that started the genre.

-Murdoch immediately hires
Peter Brennan,

another Australian to produce,

and they recruit a news anchor
called Maury Povich.

-Maury was the anchorman
at WTTG in Washington

and married to Connie Chung,

who would eventually go on
to anchor

the "CBS Nightly News."

-I wasn't your traditional
anchor reporter.

I was never satisfied with
a minute and a half stories.

I didn't have a great reputation

of being a cookie cutter
anchor man.

And that makes Maury
a key ingredient in the show

Rupert Murdoch and Peter Brennan
are cooking up.

♪♪

-An ex-porn palace
turns into a house of prayer,

and the community, instead of
being relieved, is angry.

-I definitely believe
this is a cult.

- "A Current Affair" debuts
in New York City

in the summer of 1986.

-It was an immediate
ratings hit.

The famous
"A Current Affair" graphic,

where the pyramid comes
in and you hear the kagang,

that was breaking the mold.

-Some experts are convinced

that this is truly
a home to demons.

But is it? We'll take
in our own exorcist tonight.

It became,
if they want to call it,

lightning in a jar
or a perfect storm.

We were off on a ride
that I'll never forget.

-This bloody Hollywood
murder scene...

-The show tells stories
that network news dismissed

as tabloid rubbish.

- Life and death of Adult movie

Super stud John Holmes.

Peter had this great vision
that all these stories

that regular newscasts
were putting in the trash can

were stories
that our viewers would want

to see,
those classic Shakespearean

themes of conflict
and lust and drama.

-While "A Current Affair"
recorded

in a New York City TV studio,

the stories that make it
on the air

are decided in a bar
across the street.

-It was called "The Racing Club,
and you have to understand.

The Australians, they can drink
beer from dawn to dusk.

I mean, a lot of the times
we would be across

the street early in the day
and Peter would get out his pen

and start writing down
the line up with the show.

And my wife used
to say all the time,

"Maury, you cannot keep up
with these people."

I said, "Why?"
She says, "Well, you would come

home around 8:00,
8:30 every night,

and you were trying
to open up a cabinet

and you missed the... you missed
the handle three times."

[ Laughs ]

I said, "Well, you're right."

Whoever had killed her
had left it cruelly exposed.

She was found naked
from the waist down.

- "A Current Affair"
quickly gains a reputation

for being able
to break new stories,

especially when those stories
are rife with sex and violence.

-The biggest early on story
was the Preppy Murder story

in early 1987
with Robert Chambers.

He had rough sex with this girl
in Central Park, and she died.

We owned that story.

-Things just weren't supposed
to end this way,

not for Jennifer Levin,
not for Robert Chambers.

-The crowning jewel
of that story was

one of our reporters,
Rafael Abramowitz,

had come across a tape

that Robert Chambers had made
right before his trial started.

And you saw the video
of Robert Chambers

tearing off the head of a doll.

-My name is the...!

Oops.

[ Laughter ]

I think I killed her.

-And "A Current Affair"
ran that tape.

As soon as that story came out,
the ratings were huge.

Rupert immediately syndicated
"A Current Affair"

throughout the country.

- "A Current Affair" took lessons
from Australia

and taught them to America.

They knew how it worked.

I don't think America knew
how tabloid TV worked.

-They definitely broke from
the news culture in the U.S.,

which was much more grounded on

these kind of professional
values of journalism.

-Sometime around four
in the morning,

they left Dorian's and made
their way into Central Park.

-Along with telling stories
ignored by traditional TV news,

"A Current Affair" doesn't look
or sound like those other shows.

It incorporates music,
sound effects and actors,

things that the mainstream news
networks consider off limits.

-They did reenactments.

I don't think you would ever see

the network news
at that time doing reenactments.

-But what really distinguishes
"A Current Affair"

is the performance
of its host, Maury Povich.

-We'll be talking live to
the irrepressible Zsa Zsa Gabor,

who, as you saw,
has just taken, rather,

married her eighth husband.

-Unlike network anchors,

Maury personally engages
in every story.

-If you've watched
"A Current Affair"

for any length of time,

you know, I hate,
I can't stand UFO stories.

I mean, I can't stand them.

A lot of anchor people,
network anchor people,

local anchor,
they would introduce a story.

"And Joe Smith
has a report from Dallas."

And they would... and you would

drop your head all of a sudden.

Why the hell would anchor people
drop their head

as they introduce the story?

Why don't you look
at the people?

Why don't you look
at the audience,

for crying out loud?

-Tabloid papers are known
for their visceral language

in writing, right?

And so the way you translate
that in a TV news program

is to have the host be much
more emotionally expressive.

And one thing about
Maury Povich, you know,

he was known to have
the most expressive

eyebrows in the industry.

-A physical training program
for cadets

so tough, they call it
aerobic death.

-Maury's honest expressiveness

is shocking to news
traditionalists

while being refreshing
to a new generation of viewers.

- Another major day...
- He's a complete departure

from the voice
of God-type anchors

who dominate the network news.

-Maury changed what
a television host could be.

-For three years,
"A Current Affair"

is the only tabloid
news alternative on TV.

And this is why
"A Current Affair"

is so important,
because it stands

as Murdoch's
first successful attempt

to apply this kind of British
tabloid style of the newsstand

in print that he was a master of

to the realm of television,
to the medium of television,

which is so important,
again, to American culture.

-Riding on that success,

two new tabloid shows
hit the airwaves...

-Tonight on "Hard Copy"...

- just in time for the first
big sex scandal of the '90s

-The rape trial
of William Kennedy Smith

begins tomorrow.

And as you can imagine,
Palm Beach is going crazy.

- "A Current Affair"
with Maury Povich.

-At the start of the decade,

"A Current Affair" is not
just changing the way news

is gathered and reported on TV,

but what's considered news
in the first place.

-This is a show
that does stories

about ordinary people

who are placed in
extraordinary circumstances.

-When it comes to turning
ordinary people

into extraordinary spectacles,
no one quite compares

to "A Current Affair's"
legendary reporter,

Steve Dunleavy.

-Steve Dunleavy was
the ultimate tabloid reporter.

He was known as
Rupert Murdoch's alter ego.

He had a pompadour,
bespoke pinstripe suits,

and he was hated and despised
by all of his competition

as this lowlife reporter who
would do anything for a story

but beloved by anyone
who worked with him.

-You have to understand,
Steve Dunleavy

was the kind of reporter
that when he was

16 years old
reporting in Australia,

his father,
who worked at a rival paper,

was able to get some information
before Steve got it.

Steve went outside and punctured
the tires of his father's car

so his father wouldn't
get to his paper

before Steve got to his.

Steve Dunleavy.

-As a former print reporter
for Rupert Murdoch's

"New York Post,"
Dunleavy knows how to deliver

the sensationalism
viewers crave,

and he's instrumental
in making "A Current Affair"

the most watched
news program on TV.

-In to 1990,
"A Current Affair's" ratings

were going through the roof.

-All of a sudden, we got bigger
and bigger and bigger.

-Two copycat programs

are now cashing in
on the tabloid market...

-Hello, I'm David Frost.

Welcome to the first edition
of "Inside Edition."

- the more respectable
"Inside Edition"

and "Hard Copy."

-The women who paid
for the gigolo

say they are worth
every penny of it.

-Hard Copy" was the dirtiest.

It was... it was fairly dirty.

"A Current Affair" not as dirty,

And "Inside"
was a little cleaner.

-As the competition among
tabloid TV heats up,

"A Current Affair" loses
some of its brightest stars.

Maury leaves to pursue a career
in daytime talk.

-Brian, you are not the father.

-Then the godfather
of tabloid TV, Peter Brennan

along with Burt Kearns,
go to work for "Hard Copy."

Steve Dunleavy remains
at "A Current Affair"

just as a huge scandal ignites
in April of 1991.

-I'm sitting in my office
at "Hard Copy

and I get a call
from a stringer,

a news stringer down in Florida.

He said, "Burt, I can't talk,

but there's been a rape at the
Kennedy mansion in Palm Beach

and word is that
the senator's involved."

Click.

♪♪

-William Kennedy Smith,
the nephew of JFK,

RFK and Ted Kennedy
is accused of raping a woman

at the family mansion
in Palm Beach, Florida.

- William Kennedy...
- "Hard Copy is first

to break the story, angering one
of it's competitors.

-Steve Dunleavy was going nuts

because he knew
what a story this was.

-Dunleavy goes to work.

-As the exploding scandal
goes into day seven,

reportedly the alleged victim
said the bastard raped me.

-Dunleavy beats out "Hard Copy"

by hunting down
Michelle Cassone,

a woman claiming to have
witnessed Ted Kennedy

exposing himself at the mansion
on the same night

as the alleged rape.

Armed with explicit
photos of Cassone,

Dunleavy invites her to New York
for an interview

where he plans to use
the pictures to discredit her.

-She came to New York.
He brought her to the 21 Club.

They had lunch.
They had a liquid lunch.

They drank,
and they drank some more.

And he got her drunk.

And then he brought her up
to the "Current Affair" offices,

and they went to a conference
room where they had

two cameras waiting.

-You wouldn't posed nude
for anyone.

-I would not pose nude
for anybody.

That's not my character.

-Let me show you something.

You have posed nude.

-Where did you ever...

[ Gasps ]

-Her was a woman who was saying
that Senator Ted Kennedy

was walking around semi-naked.

She should be confronted
with her lie.

I showed a pictures
of her being nude.

In fact, pictures of her doing
a little bit more

than just being nude.

Oh, Michelle.

-Dunleavy's report raises doubts
about Cassone in the public eye.

-Turn those [bleep]
cameras off now.

More important
for Dunleavy's career,

the interview feels ratings

when Cassone attacks him
mid interview.

-Oww!

-And for those of you
who have been calling to ask,

his finger is healing nicely.

-The rules then were different.

I don't think Steve Dunleavy

could get away with
some of the things

that he did then now.

[ Indistinct talking ]

-For the privilege of being
humiliated on national TV,

Cassone is paid $1,000
by "A Current Affair."

But that she got paid
at all generates criticism

from traditional TV
news outlets.

-Checkbook journalism.

They're paying for interviews.

People couldn't believe that
we were paying for interviews.

And when that happened,

that's how you became
a true tabloid show.

-Of course, we got criticized
from all the media critics

that we were paying
for news and things.

"60 Minutes"
was paying for news.

They were all paying for news.

They would say,
"Oh, no, we didn't pay.

The entertainment division pay.
We didn't pay.

Not the news division.
The entertainment division pay."

We were all paying, you know,
but because we were tabloid,

you know, we were... we were
the poster child.

-Trading cash for an exclusive
interview soon becomes

more than just a question
of journalistic ethics.

Witnesses in high profile
court cases

begin having
their credibility attacked

for getting paid to first
tell their story on TV,

including at the trial
of William Kennedy Smith.

- Monday.
- And that's when you

struck your deal
with "A Current Affair,"

isn't that correct?
- Yes.

-Isn't it a fact, Ms. Mercer,
that this whole program

was created just to
embarrass the Kennedy family?

-Steve found the main witness
in the case,

a woman named Anne Mercer,

who had driven the victim home
after the rape.

"A Current Affair" paid her
$40,000 to tell her story.

-I turned to him and I said,

"Oh, you look like
you're having a good time."

And...
- Well, that was great

for ratings for
"A Current Affair."

But when it came time
for the trial

and Mercer's testimony
was stricken

because she had been paid
$40,000 for "A Current Affair,"

and when William Kennedy Smith
was acquitted,

his attorney
at the news conference

thanked Steve Dunleavy
for getting his client off.

-So you guys later.

[ Cheers and applause ]

-Cassone's $1,000
or even Mercer's $40,000

will soon seem almost quaint

when compared
to what "A Current Affair"

will spend turning
Mary Jo Buttafuoco

into a media spectacle.

-I never, ever, ever, in my
wildest dreams could imagine

that I would now become
the focus of the tabloids.

I never wanted to be famous.

I never wanted to be infamous.

-But that's exactly what happens
when a teenage girl

shows up at her door
claiming to be sleeping

with Mary Jo's husband.

-What? What?

I said, "Look, I'll.
I'll let Joe know

that you came by."

I turned my head
and to open my door,

and that's
when my head exploded.

♪♪

The first thing I remember
when I first was coming to

was a nurse was standing
right over my face.

"Mary Jo, Mary Jo.

You're at the Nassau County
Medical Center.

You've been shot. We're going
to take care of you."

And I'm like hearing this.

I've got tubes in me.
I can't talk. I don't know.

I didn't know it at the time,

but right then and there,
that life that I had was done.

Gone.

-Come on, guys.
Give me a little room here, huh?

-Before tabloid TV,

Mary Jo's story may have
only made the local newspaper.

Now it's being broadcast
around the world.

-Mary Jo made a miraculous
recovery Wednesday,

and provided police with
information about the shooting.

-The Perpetrator,
-Amy Fisher,

who shot Mary Jo Buttafuoco
in the head

after she developed
a near-fatal attraction

for her husband,
Joey Buttafuoco.

-Mary Jo, who still had
a bullet in her head,

would not believe
that her husband had an affair.

-Along with Amy Fisher,
only they know

what really
triggered the shooting.

-The story, with its
oblivious wife, sleazy husband

and attractive
teenage seductress

is blood in the water
for the sharks on tabloid shows

who quickly dub Amy
the Long Island Lolita.

-All of a sudden the news trucks
start showing up

and the vans and the reporters
and the and lookie loos.

-And with the tabloid shows
parked out front,

checkbooks at the ready,

Mary Jo eventually names
her price.

-Yes, I was offered
a lot of money to do things.

And yes, I took the money.

-In the quest for ratings,

the three tabloid TV shows
of the early '90s

are locked in fierce
competition...

-The end of Jimmy Swaggart.

-I have sinned against you,
My Lord.

-New questions about
Michael Jackson's

drug treatment.

- This morning...
- with Sex scandals

and celebrity gossip leading
their nightly news lineups.

-Hugh Grant was seen
picking up a known prostitute.

- "A Current Affair's"
star reporter Steve Dunleavy

has built a reputation
for doing anything

to out scoop his rivals

and becomes a key weapon
in the tabloid wars.

Soon, his old friends
at "Hard Copy,

Burt Kearns and Peter Brennan,
will learn for themselves

how far Dunleavy will go to win.

-October 1991, the big story
out of Hollywood

was that Elizabeth Taylor
was marrying Larry Fortensky

at Michael Jackson's
Neverland Ranch.

-It's just 24 hours
before Elizabeth Taylor

walks down the aisle once again.

-It was occurring on a Saturday.

On Friday morning
I'm at my desk around 11:30 A.M.

[ Knocks on chair ]

Brennan knocks on the door.

"Hey, Dunleavy's in town.

Come on. We're gonna
meet him for lunch.

-Kearns and Brennan
meet Dunleavy

at a Los Angeles eatery
for drinks where Dunleavy

starts complaining about work.

-He said "Oh, this is terrible.

You know, I really...
I wanted to cover

this Liz Taylor story,
but they're not making

a big deal out of it
at 'A Current Affair.'

These people don't know
what a story is.

They don't know
what they're doing.

This is just terrible."

So we continue to drink.

And about 8:00, we had been
drinking for about eight hours.

Steve said, "Look,
I'm not feeling very well.

I've got to head back
to my hotel."

Now we continue to drink
through the evening.

-The next morning,
tired and hung over.

The two aren't
in top form to cover

Elizabeth Taylor's wedding,
just as Dunleavy had planned.

-All the media was at the gates
to the Neverland Ranch.

We had a producer there.
We didn't have a reporter.

And then on Monday,
we, of course,

we're sitting there
and we wanted to see

what "A Current Affair" had.

And the show opens
with Steve Dunleavy

hanging out of a helicopter

over the Neverland Ranch
covering the Liz Taylor wedding.

-[ Screaming ]

-I don't know whether
you can say to that right now,

but that appears to be
Liz Taylor in the yellow dress.

She's approaching the gazebo,
and that is where

the ceremony will take place.

-Our old pal came to Los Angeles
from New York

to get us drunk
and neutralize us

so he could get the scoop
and beat us on the story.

All's fair in love,
war and news gathering.

-And that will certainly prove
true as the tabloids battle

over the story
of the Long Island Lolita,

Amy Fisher shooting
Mary Jo Buttafuoco in the head.

- "Hard Copy" was covering
this story on a daily basis

throughout the month of May.

Then we get word that
"A Current Affair"

had scooped us unbelievably.

"A Current Affair" purchases
a tape of what is

purportedly Amy Fisher
in an act of prostitution.

To promote their
exclusive sex tape,

"A Current Affair" teases
the upcoming segment

by leaking images to the tabloid
newspapers the day

before the show is to air.

But by announcing
the story early,

"A Current Affair"
opens the door for "Hard Copy"

to play some hardball.

-The light went off over
Peter Brennan's head,

and he kind of had the idea.

Syndicated shows at the time

with record their shows earlier
in the day

and then feed it out
over the satellite

to the affiliates
around the country.

So we just directed
our control room

to steal the satellite feed
from "A Current Affair."

We took our 10 seconds or
whatever they allowed us to use,

the lawyers allowed us to use,
and then we hired

a couple of actors,
got them onto a bed,

and we recreate it
in black and white fuzzy video.

So we had a package that
included a bit of a sex tape,

a bit of the still photos
in the newspapers,

which we shook
and moved in from the cameras

that looked like it was video
and our reenactment,

and we said tonight, exclusive
the Amy Fisher sex tape.

-Because "Hard Copy"
airs a half hour

earlier than "A Current Affair,"

they managed
to steal the exclusive.

-There was bedlam.

It made headlines
that "Hard Copy" had committed

an act of piracy unseen
in the history of television,

stealing a satellite signal.

They were calling me
from "A Current Affair"

saying, your dead,
your career is over.

The executive producer
started screaming

and running around in circles.

Somebody was punching holes
in the wall,

and in the back
standing against the wall,

they tell us, Steve Dunleavy
just nodding,

saying, "Touché."

-The original sex tape
was reportedly sold

to "A Current Affair"
for over $10,000.

And soon, nearly everyone in the
Amy Fisher-Buttafuoco circle

will try and cash in
by selling stories.

-I really had no time to recover
because of the media.

We were a cash cow.

We even had
one of my housekeepers,

who was not working for us
at the time I got shot,

She went on "Donahue"
and lied and said,

Joey chased her
all around the house.

And I got furious because
she never met him.

He was at work.
He never...

And people were doing that.

People were coming out of
the woodwork

and telling stories,

and there was no verification.

-The old saying, you know,
never let the facts

get in the way of a good story.

And I think too often
this checkbook journalism

breeds a type of news
that's based on rumors

and not necessarily facts,
because if someone's

incentivized to give you
something so juicy,

it's such a great story,
it's, possibly,

it's not true.

-Nervous parents remain silent
as they arrive

to hear the fate of their
teenage daughter Amy Fisher.

-The tabloid coverage of their
story is relentless,

and it seems like
everyone is watching,

including the judge
in Fisher's criminal trial

who sets the teenager's bail
at $2 million

persuaded by speculation
and tabloid TV

that she's a flight risk.

-These production companies
put up the money

for this in some way.

Now, I specifically asked
her yesterday.

-Fisher isn't the only
one fielding offers

to make a deal with the devil
in the City of Angels.

-I started getting letters,

and there were
letters back there,

not emails, from
production companies.

If I do this, I get to tell
my side of the story

because it up to now
it's been Joey and Amy,

Joey and Amy, Joey and Amy.

I was lost in this whole thing.

-Wow.

You really did it
when you were 12?

-Just eight months after Mary Jo
was shot in the head,

ABC, CBS and NBC each released
their own made-for-TV movie.

- Ever been with an older guy?
- Unstoppable.

-Whatever Amy wants, Amy gets.

-Insatiable.

-Alright.
Hey, look.

Come on.

Give me a smile.
Come on.

-In the CBS version,

which was our version,
of course,

Joey didn't have an affair.

It was... he was just a nice guy
who knew her.

The dopey wife believed
everything he said

because he told me
he had nothing to do with her.

He swore to me
on our children's lives,

and I believed him.

-While the CBS movie helps pay

for some of
Mary Jo's legal bills,

mostly it brings
more unwanted media attention.

Mary Jo begins to feel like
nothing can cut off interest

in her story, but she's wrong.

-I sprung up in a silent scream,
and holding myself

and I couldn't stop bleeding.

-That's when
John Bobbitt discovered

his penis had been severed.

-By the summer of 1993,

"A Current Affair"
and other tabloid shows

have turned the Buttafuocos
into international celebrities.

But it's becoming obvious
that Joey is enjoying

the limelight more than Mary Jo.

-He's definitely a celebrity.

He's a character,
and a celebrity.

-Joey is liking
all this attention.

I'm not understanding this,

but I'm too ill and just trying
to get through each day.

- It's my half brother.
- And when I would say to him,

"Stop talking to them.
Shut up!"

I get the they've done this to
us, Mary Jo. They did this.

So I'm going to do
everything I can.

We're going to monetize on this.

I'm just giving them
what they want.

-Surely the Guinness Book
of Records one day

will list the name Buttafuoco.

-But then a news story
temporarily severs

the tabloids fascination
with Joey Buttafuoco.

-The four-year marriage of John
and his South American wife

Lorena was rocky,
to say the least.

I sprung up in silent scream
and holding myself,

and I couldn't stop bleeding.

-Lorena Bobbitt
cut off her husband's penis

while he slept.

-On January 23, 1993,
John and Lorena Bobbitt

make headlines
after Lorena amputates

part of his genitals
in retaliation

for years
of alleged rape and abuse.

-I think the first story
to be on air

that really made me raise my
eyebrows was John Wayne Bobbitt,

a man who had
his manhood cut off.

That's when I realized
nothing was off limits.

-The organ
was miraculously reattached,

and ever since, John has become
a cottage industry of T-shirts,

movie deals
and media appearances.

-Bobbit turned his infamy
into profit

making TV appearances

and acting in pornographic
films.

-The Bobbitts get paid
for exclusive interviews

to the tabloid news shows,

which are now paying out
big money to anyone with a story

they hope
will boost their ratings.

-I want to tell people
exactly what happened.

You know, I'm not the bad guy.

I didn't rape my wife
and I didn't beat my wife.

-My bosses, that's all they
cared about was ratings.

There's nothing bigger
than ratings,

especially in the world
of tabloid television.

-Exclusives with the Bobbitts
give "Inside Edition"

a boost in their numbers.

- just how turbulent it was.

-But finding stories
that will deliver

blockbuster ratings night
after night,

five nights a week becomes
an increasingly difficult task.

-Alan Masters was a big shot
in Willow Springs,

a town where men
ruled everything.

-The self-confessed nymphomaniac
charged with prostitution.

-When "A Current Affairs"
ratings hit an all time low,

they decided to return to
a story that always worked,

the Long Island Lolita.

-Just when you thought
you'd heard the last

from Amy Fisher
and Joe Buttafuoco,

the latest bombshell in the
case against the alleged lover

of the Long Island Lolita,
Joey and the jury.

Joey Buttafuocoa
is back in the news

when he gets charged with the
statutory rape of Amy Fisher.

-The media had gotten so crazy
with us

that they became
a demand for Joey

to be held accountable
for what happened.

-Peter and I were working back
at "A Current Affair."

We had taken over
"A Current Affair,"

working with Steve Dunleavy
again.

We were brought in
because Rupert Murdoch knew

that we needed to do something
to get the ratings

back up for "A Current Affair."

And the only way to do that
was to infuse a lot of money.

So we paid $500,000
for an interview in which

Joey would finally admit
on camera to his wife

that he had had an affair
with Amy Fisher

and Mary Jo would say,
I know, I forgive you.

-But there's only one problem
with their plan.

Despite agreeing to plead guilty
to the rape charges,

Joey's still telling Mary Jo

that he never had sex
with Amy Fisher.

He claims he only plea bargain
to spare the family a trial.

-He won't come to terms
with the fact

that he did have an affair.

-Says who?

-And at this point, Mary Jo
still believes him.

-Shortly before the interview
began, Joey Buttafuoco

admitted that he had never
actually let his wife know

that he did have an affair
with Amy Fisher.

He still had been
denying it to her.

The Fox attorneys got on with
with Mary Jo

and Joey's attorneys and said,
look, this is $500,000.

You've got to say this.

So we reconvened

at Steven Dunleavy's house

and redid the interview.

-As I recall, he's going to say
I have the affair

and I'm going to say
and I forgive you.

That was the stipulation.

Again, I didn't believe it.

I still didn't believe it,
but I... I had to say it.

-A lot of women with bullets
in their head

wouldn't forgive Joey
Buttafuoco.

But what's your reaction?

-I love him. I forgive him.
He's my husband.

-With those nine words,
the Buttafuocos

collect the $500,000.

At the time, it's the highest
payout by a tabloid show

and a new low
for checkbook journalism.

-It wasn't easy, but I did it.
I did it.

I sold out. I sold out
hoping they'd all go away.

They didn't.
[ Chuckles ]

-For the crime of rape
in the third degree,

you're to serve six months
in a county jail

as conditions
are going to concur

with a five-year
probationary term.

-Within minutes
of being sentenced,

Joey Buttafuoco was a prisoner
at the Nassau County Jail.

-Even after both Amy Fisher
and Joey get sent to prison,

the Buttafuocos remain
in the spotlight,

not just on tabloid shows,
but also as punchlines

on late night comedy shows.

-Mary Jo, I see you have a hell
of a bald spot there.

It must have been some accident.
- Oh, yeah.

I'll tell you, a crazy
teenage bitch tried to kill me.

-When I would see myself
portrayed on "SNL"

or "In Living Color,"

it bothered me because I was
a victim of a violent crime.

It wasn't funny.
They made fun of my face.

Well, my face looks like that
because I got shot.

It bothered the hell out of me
for a long time

because it's what they did.

It was... we were ripe for
anything, any parody, any joke.

-Hey, Joey, what are you kissing
that whore for?

-Hey, Mary Jo.

I wasn't kissing her.

I was, uh,
giving her CPR over here.

[ Cheers and applause ]

-The media's appetite for the
Buttafuoco-Fisher debacle

is insatiable, until...

Yeah, well...

-...O.J. Simpson and the crime
of the century.

-This just culminates a series
of unbelievable events

that took place today.

-When the O.J. Simpson
story happened,

I remember saying to Joey
we're free.

We're free.
They're done with us from.

-From the L.A. County
Courthouse,

the site of the trial
of the century.

Good evening.
I'm Barry Nolan.

-The O.J. Simpson trial
was probably

the craziest media event
I've ever seen in my lifetime,

and I don't think I'll ever see
anything like it again.

-O.J. Simpson is wanted,
but he's been charged

in the two murders
that took place Sunday night.

-Heading into 1994,

tabloid television
was out of control.

Everything was leading up
to what happened

when Nicole Brown Simpson and
Ron Goldman were slaughtered.

-In the summer of 1994,

the manhunt for
the former running back

and Hertz rental car
pitchman O.J. Simpson

mesmerizes the nation.

-Prosecutors said O.J.
had the motive.

They painted him
as a jealous wife abuser.

-Once the trial gets underway,
150 million viewers

watched the trial
like a daily soap opera,

turning the judge, attorneys and
witnesses into mini celebrities.

-The nation was absolutely
gripped by that story.

They could not get enough of it.

-Experts put the former football
star's voice to the test.

-It's called a psychological
stress evaluator,

and it analyzes a person's...

-It's a classic tabloid story.

It has everything in it.
It has murder.

It has sex.
It has celebrity.

-It also has the power
to obliterate the line

between network
and tabloid news.

With the tabloid shows regularly

outreporting
the mainstream press.

-Secret bank account.

"Hard Copy"
gets to the bottom line

about how much money O.J.
really has.

-The networks saw that
we were out scooping them

on everything O.J.,
and that viewers

were watching "Current Affair,"
"Hard Copy"

and "Inside Edition"

instead of their
nightly news programs.

-After a decade looking down

their noses
at the tabloid news...

-Another amazing day
in Los Angeles.

...mainstream networks
start looking a lot

like the thing they once
despised and criticized.

-NBC News and other media
reported that Caitlyn

told law enforcement
that Simpson was not at home

when a limo arrived
and take him to the airport.

-I really think the momentum
shifted during

the O.J. Simpson trial.

I see it as the time
where the networks said,

we can't beat them,
we got to join them.

And that's what they did.
- Good evening.

Tonya Harding is still insisting

she was never in on the plan
to attack Nancy Kerrigan.

-But for the first time today,
Harding admitted she did not

go to the authorities
immediately.

-For Mary Jo Buttafuoco,

the media's fascination
with O.J. gives her enough

time away from the spotlight
to get her life together.

In 2003,
she finally divorces Joey.

-Joey never, ever, ever, ever
to this day said,

"Mary Jo, I did something really
horrible and really wrong,

and I'm so sorry.

Because he continued on
with his crazy life.

-Both Joey and Amy continue
to bask in the limelight

a little bit longer.

For Joey, its stints on
"Judge Judy"

and "Celebrity Boxing."

For Amy Fisher,
it's a string of more sex tapes.

But by the end of the decade,
the tabloid TV shows

that made them famous
are essentially dead.

-The tabloid shows kind of lost
their relevance.

The networks took over.

They started covering stories
like O.J. Simpson.

They started covering
the stories

they wouldn't have touched.

"A Current Affair" was canceled.

"Hard Copy" was canceled
by the end of the decade.

-Even the host of the last show
standing, "Inside Edition,"

seems to be feeling the strain.

-That's tomorrow,
and that is it for us today.

And we will leave you with a...
I can't do it.

We'll do it live.
- Okay,

We'll do it live!
It!

Do it live!

-In 2019, Steve Dunleavy,
the man who best

epitomizes tabloid journalism
in the '90s,

dies at the age of 81.

But the legacy of what
he helped create lives on.

♪♪

-I think you can find
any sort of form of tabloid

you want on the Internet,

whether it be "TMZ"
for your gossip,

TikTok for some piece of video
that everybody wants to see.

-Police are still searching
for 22-year-old Gabby Petito.

She disappeared while
on a cross-country road trip.

-You can get whatever you want,
and that's where tabloid is.

-We thought with
"A Current Affair"

that we were democratizing
newstelling.

Only certain people
were allowed to tell the news

in the early '90s.

But once the Internet
came along,

look at where we are now.

The world tabloid really
doesn't even matter anymore.

-Let me interrupt you,
Congresswoman.

Let me interrupt you
just for a moment.

We've got some breaking news
out of Miami.

Stand by, if you will.

Justin Bieber has been arrested
on a number of charges.

-Everything is tabloid today.

♪♪