Nate Thayer, a journalist who works for Far Eastern Review, had spent ten years of his working career waiting for one story: Pol Pot. Then he was given the chance to take cameraman David McKaige. He had made over 40 trips into the jungles of Cambodia to cover the Khmer Rouge and now it seemed the holy grail would be his. The U.S.-based ABC News learned of his scoop and Washington-based Nightline offered to pay $350,000 for worldwide exclusive rights to his footage. ABC then chartered a DC-10 to fly Ted Koppel and his crew to present the story. On the way out the airport was shut down and Koppel's assistant called DP to get him out. We did and the final words as the small plane left the ground were, "If they think that pilot is going to get $23,000 he's crazy." They said they owed us big, and naturally nothing has ever transpired.
Thayer went public with his nonpayment and ABC finally coughed up the check... after they had won a Peabody using Thayer's dramatic film.
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