Network Page #10

in charge of programming.

This afternoon, you all saw some of

the stuff she's set up for the new season.

You all know that she is the woman

behind the Howard Beale Show.

We all know she's beautiful.

We all know she's brainy.

I was thinking, before we start digging

into our Chateaubriands...

...let's show her how we feel about her.

We have the number-one show

in television!

At next year's affiliates' meeting...

...I'll be standing here telling you

we've got the top five.

Last year, we were

the number-four network...

...next year we're number one!

We're number one! We're number one!

We're number one!

We're number one!

We're number one!

We're number one!

It is exactly 7:
00 here in Los Angeles.

And right now, over a million homes

using television in this city...

...are turning their dials to Channel 3

and that's our channel!

Howard Beale!

Stop it, stop it!

Now you listen to me.

And listen carefully because this is your

goddamn life I'm talking about today.

In this country, when one company wants

to take over another company...

...they buy up a controlling share

of the stock...

...but first they have to file notice

with the government.

That's how CCA took over the company

that owns this network.

But now, somebody's buying up CCA.

Somebody called

the Western World Funding Corporation.

They filed the notice this morning.

Well, just who in the hell is

the Western World Funding Corporation?

It is a consortium of banks

and insurance companies...

...who are not buying CCA for themselves,

but as agents for somebody else.

Who is this somebody else?

They won't tell you.

They won't tell you,

they won't tell the Senate...

...they won't tell the SEC, the FTC,

they won't tell the Justice Department....

This is Mr. Hackett.

Do you have a New York call for me?

The hell it ain't!

-Do you wanna turn that down, please?

I will tell you

who they're buying CCA for.

They're buying it for the Saudi Arabian

Investment Corporation.

They're buying it for the Arabs!

Clarence? Frank Hackett here.

How's everything back in New York?

How's the good lady?

All right, Clarence, take it easy.

I don't know what you're talking about.

When? Tonight's show?

Clarence, take it easy.

The Howard Beale Show

is just going on out here.

You guys get it three hours earlier

in New York. Clarence, take it easy.

How the hell could I see it?

It's just going on now!

And there's not a single law

in the books to stop them.

When did Mr. Jensen call?

We all know that the Arabs control

$16 billion in this country.

They own a chunk of 5th Avenue...

...twenty downtown pieces of Boston.

A part of the port of New Orleans.

An industrial park in Salt Lake City.

They own big hunks of the Atlanta Hilton,

the Arizona Land and Cattle Company...

...part of a bank in California...

...the Bank of the Commonwealth

in Detroit.

They control Aramco, so that puts

them into Exxon, Texaco and Mobil Oil.

They're all over! New Jersey,

Louisville, St. Louis, Missouri...

...and that's only what we know about.

There's a hell of a lot more

we don't know about.

Because all of those Arab petrol dollars...

...are washed through

Switzerland and Canada...

...and the biggest banks in this country.

For example, what we don't know

about is this CCA deal...

...and all the other CCA deals.

Right now the Arabs have screwed us

out of enough American dollars...

...to come right back and, with our

own money, buy General Motors...

...IBM, ITT, AT&T, Dupont, U.S. Steel...

...and 20 other American companies.

Hell, they already own half of England.

So listen to me.

Listen to me, goddamn it.

The Arabs are simply buying us.

There's only one thing

that can stop them. You!

You!

So I want you to get up now.

I want you to get up out of your chairs.

I want you to get up right now

and go to the phone.

I want you to get up from your chairs,

go to the phone, get in your cars...

...drive into the Western Union

offices in town.

I want you to send a telegram

to the White House.

-Oh, my God.

-By midnight tonight...

...I want a million telegrams

in the White House.

I want them wading knee-deep

in telegrams at the White House.

I want you to get up right now and write

a telegram to President Ford saying:

"I'm as mad as hell

and I'm not gonna take this anymore.

I don't want the banks

selling my country to the Arabs.

I want the CCA deal stopped now.

I want the CCA deal stopped now.

Come on.

I want the CCA deal stopped now!

I want the CCA deal stopped now!

I want the CCA deal stopped now!

I want the CCA deal stopped now!

-Look, could we have the room?

Sure.

Well, I'd like to see a typescript

and run through a couple more times.

But as for this whole CCA deal

with the Saudis...

...you'd know a lot more

about that, Frank, than I would.

Is it true?

The CCA has 2 billion in loans

with the Saudis...

...and they hold every pledge we've got.

We need that Saudi money bad.

Disaster. The show is a disaster.

Unmitigated disaster. The death knell.

I'm ruined. I'm dead. Finished.

Maybe we're overstating

Beale's clout with the public.

An hour ago, Clarence McElheny

called me from New York.

It was 10:
00 in the east and our people

in the White House report...

...they were already knee-deep in telegrams.

By tomorrow morning,

they'll be suffocating in telegrams.

-Can the government stop the deal?

-They can hold it up.

The SEC could hold this deal up

for 20 years, if they wanted to.

I'm finished.

Any second that phone's gonna ring

and Clarence McElheny is gonna tell me...

...Mr. Jensen wants me in his office

tomorrow morning...

...so he can personally chop my head off.

Four hours ago,

I was the sun god at CCA.

Mr. Jensen's hand-picked golden boy,

the heir apparent.

Now, ha, ha,

I'm a man without a corporation.

Let's get back to Howard Beale.

You're not seriously gonna pull Beale

off the air?

Mr. Jensen's unhappy with Howard Beale

and wants him discontinued.

But he may be unhappy,

but he isn't stupid enough...

...to withdraw the number-one show

on television out of pique.

Two billion dollars isn't pique!

That's the wrath of God!

And the wrath of God

wants Howard Beale fired!

Every other network will grab him

the minute he walks.

He'll be back on the air for ABC

and we'll lose 20 points--

I'm gonna impale the son of a b*tch

with a sharp stick!

Forty million loss in revenues.

-I'll take out a contract.

-Let's not discount federal action....

-I'll hire professional killers.

No, I'll do it myself.

I'll strangle him with a sash cord!

--and a breach of the consent decree.

I don't think Jensen's gonna fire anybody.

Hackett.

Yes, Clarence.

I've already booked my flight.

Uh, well, can you give me

a little more time than that?

I've got the red-eye flight,

I won't be back in New York...

...till 6 tomorrow morning.

That'll be just fine.

I'll see you then.

Mr. Jensen wants to meet

Howard Beale personally.

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