Setting the Record Straight:
Decoded on Bohemian Grove
by Mary K. Moore

First of all, thanks to the kind messages left on my voice mail last night, most warning me to lower my expectations that Brad Meltzers's Decoded would actually get the "truth" out about Bohemian Grove as they claimed they would. Those warnings helped when I finally watched the episode around 4 this morning as I at least had the good sense not to stay up until 10PM last night to watch it in real time. (A girl needs her sleep so it was best to view it after getting some). A few of those messages actually thought it was a good show but they were probably being kind and here is why I disagree with them.

The inaccuracies started immediately when, in the opening, Meltzer listed Bill Clinton as a member. Since he claims to have obtained a membership list which he could have easily checked that didn't bode well for his attention to detail. (not that Clinton wouldn't fit in but he is NOT a member). They quickly dispatched with the only actual serious information used from the interviews with Peter and me. (maybe 3 minutes each out of 3 hours of interviewing) and proceeded into Alex Jones fantasyland. It is not true that Alex is the only person to successfully infiltrate the Grove over the years; in fact he is very late to that claim although that has never stopped him from making it.

We got Rick Clogher in there in 1980, the first year we protested through the help of a union steward with a raised consciousness whom we quickly dubbed our "deep throat." Rick's extensive and serious article appeared in MOTHER JONES the following year. Then in 1982, Michael Dressler and Garrett Connelly from TIME MAG went in with help from our guide and watched Kissinger give a Lakeside Talk on the "Challenges of the '80s." They wrote a story that got killed by some editors who happened to be in attendance.

Then in 1986 we helped reporter Phillip Weiss get inside and he wrote an excellent article for SPY MAGAZINE that is to this day one of the best ever pieces of reporting on Bohemian Grove. In between and after those three examples many other national, regional and local reporting happened, some superficial and some serious, by journalists who were able to get the word out through research and hard work without setting foot in the place.

It is simply not necessary to "get inside" in order to figure out that the Lakeside Talks are public policy speeches floated without any public scrutiny to the elite of the corporate, military, financial and government circles. The main emphasis of this Decoded show was on "getting inside" the Grove so they could find out the "real truth" like it would all be laid out for them amidst the rustic camps in the middle of winter. I mean, what in the world did they expect to discover? Yet two thirds of the show was taken up with the adventures of these three fools who call themselves the "decoders" and couldn't decode their way out of a paper bag. So they were quickly arrested after floating down the river (with the help of Alex Jones) and somehow our local newspaper forgot to check the Sheriff files that day so their arrest was never reported. Decoded bailed them out.

And while I don't disagree with the conclusion of the show's sage, Brad Meltzer, that the secrecy of the place drives people's curiousity, that isn't the final answer when it comes to the Grove. We've known that answer since the first year we protested there and anyone actually paying attention knows it too. Like the WikiLeaks cables, the content of the ideas floated each year at the summer encampment (many of which play out in subsequent years) affect you and me and our lives. Caspar Weinberger's 1981 speech on Rearming America is only one example that got mentioned in this show. There are so many more with implications for the rest of us so yes, the secrecy is appalling but more important are the topics and the power of the men who talk about them behind closed doors. Decoded did nothing to lift that cover and in fact left the impression that if the secrecy ended all would be cool.