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LETTER FROM AL

DOCUMENT EXTRACT:
 TRANSCRIPT 6/12-6/13: OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT

Telephone conversation 09:12 hrs:

VPOTUS: Rusty? Are you there?
(INAUDIBLE)
VPOTUS: Can you hear me? I had the Navy set up this AirLink. Rusty?
(INAUDIBLE)
VPOTUS: Rusty? 
(INAUDIBLE)

Transmission ceased 09:13 hrs.

Telephone conversation 09:17 hrs:

(RINGING)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE VOICE: Good morning, American Broadcasting 
Company.
VPOTUS: Robert Iger, please.
UFM: Certainly. 
(CLICKS. UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL SELECTION.)
UFM #2: Robert Iger's office.
VPOTUS: Is Mr. Iger in?
UFM #2: Whom shall I say is calling?
VPOTUS: Al Gore.
UFM #2: And you're with . . . ?
VPOTUS: Um . . . the executive branch.
UFM #2: Of . . . ?
VPOTUS: The federal government.
UFM #2: Please hold the line.
(CLICKS. UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL SELECTION.)
(ELAPSED TIME: 11 MINUTES, 23 SECONDS)
UFM #2: Go ahead, Mr. Iger.
ROBERT IGER, CEO -- ABC TELEVISION NETWORK: Newt?
VPOTUS: No, it's Al Gore.
RI: Al Gore? Al Gore? Oh! THAT Al Gore! Well, Mr. Vice President, this 
is indeed an honor. Hey, if you're calling about the nudity and 
violence on NYPD Blue you're too late -- Bob Dole already called! Ha 
ha! I'm kidding, of course. We here at the American Broadcasting 
Company -- and by extension our corporate parents at Capital Cities -- 
hold the nation's airwaves as a kind of a sacred trust. There's 
nothing more dear to use than the VHF band, as a viewing of, say, 
Family Matters or America's Goofiest Cops will attest to. And how may 
I help you, sir? 
VPOTUS: Well, I'm calling at the behest of the president. We're 
requesting thirty minutes of network airtime to present our budget 
plan.
RI: How many minutes?
VPOTUS: Thirty.
RI: Ouch. Mr. Veep, you're killing me! Thirty minutes which day?
VPOTUS: Tuesday.
RI: Tuesday? As in Roseanne? As in 33 share? 
VPOTUS: Wednesday, then?
RI: Oooh. Double ouch. Ellen. Grace Under Fire. 37 share. C'mon. Work 
with me, here. You know what I'm thinking? I'm thinking Thursday.
VPOTUS: Well, we tried that. NBC refused. 
RI: They did? Where's their sense of civic duty?
VPOTUS: Apparently, Seinfeld and Friends are pretty popular.
RI: I know, but by God! We're all Americans, after all. Hmmmm. I'm 
thinking here. I'm thinking here. 
VPOTUS: You know, in the past, it's been traditional for the networks 
to grant time to the president as a matter of course, without 
hesitation.
RI: Yeah, and with all due respect: A), in the past, the networks 
haven't had any competition; and 2) let's be totally honest, you're 
asking for thirty minutes now, but I remember a time when you folks 
down there told me to my face that the State of the Union wouldn't go 
past forty-five minutes, and I'm watching the thing go to an hour, 
then an hour and a half, eating up all of prime time on the east 
coast, taking a big chunk out of the west, and you guys are saying to 
me ``he's wrapping up, he's wrapping up,'' but hell, I KNOW when a 
guy's wrapping up and he wasn't even close -- and that's dollars down 
the drain, and don't quote me on this, but you didn't get the health 
care thing anyway, did you? 
VPOTUS: I hate to bring up the FCC here, but -- 
RI: Can I offer you a piece of advice? In my business, when a show 
isn't going as well as it should, or it's getting overlooked, or it 
needs re-tooling, we put it on something called ``hiatus.'' You guys 
should look into that option.
VPOTUS: You want us to put the executive branch of the federal 
government of the Unites States of America on ``hiatus?''
RI: Um . . . .yeah. Why? Is that bad?
VPOTUS: You know, CBS gave us the time with no argument.
RI: Of course they did! They're in fourth place! Their ratings are in 
the toilet! You offered them thirty minutes of free programming. What 
are they going to say? No? C'mon! They've got Murder, She Wrote, which 
skews way, way, way old, one of those really bad Linda Bloodworth-
Thomason shows -- hey, no offense -- and you! If I were them I'd offer 
you guys a whole series!
VPOTUS: This is unbelievable.
RI: Hey, if your guy just skewed a little younger. Not boomer, really, 
but younger. Somewhere between boomer and Gen-X. I can sell time for 
thirty minutes of that. 
VPOTUS: Sell time?
RI: Yeah, you know. Commercials? Pay the rent?
VPOTUS: The President of the United States doesn't ``break for a 
commercial.''
RI: Yeah yeah yeah. When he needs votes, he'll play the sax and talk 
about his underwear on MTV, but then suddenly it's all ``Mr. 
President'' this and ``Dignity of the Office'' that. I got news for 
you: you can't unscramble an egg, you know?
VPOTUS: Look, CBS and CNN and NBC said that they would give us the 
time. 
RI: Okay, okay. You twisted my arm. You win, okay! You win! We'll give 
you the time.
VPOTUS: Commercial free?
RI: You're killing me, here! Killing me! But, okay, commercial free.
VPOTUS: Thanks, Mr. Iger. Bill and I really appreciate it.
RI: Now there's something that you can do for me.
VPOTUS: What's that?
RI: You wanted thirty minutes, right?
VPOTUS: Right?
RI: Can you get it down to five? I've got a Circus of the Daytime 
Drama Stars special I just can't move.
VPOTUS: I'll see what I can do.
(CLICKS.)

Transmission ceased 09:23 hrs.