Page 1 San Francisco Examiner 6/9/90 (left and Page 4 Boston Globe (right)
A 577 word AP new story that was page one in numerous papers, was chopped down to a 177 word article in the Globe. Including in the story spike was the part that stated that Ramsay’s last known contact with his fellow spy "Conrad came in January 1986 in Boston, when his former boss gave him a small cow bell and told him that anyone displaying a similar bell was involved in the spy ring." Stephen Kurkjian was the Boston Globe's Washington Bureau Chief at that time.
Page 1 San Francisco Examiner 6/9/90 (left and Page 1 Boston Globe (right)
Instead of the story of story of community significance and public safety, about one of the most prolific spies in American history and his meeting with Clyde Lee Conrad in Boston, where he then lived, the Boston Globe instead ran a story on page one —with photo— about the arrest, also in Florida, of a "record shop" owner, who had sold a copy of 2-Live Crew's, "As Nasty As They Wanna Be," to an undercover sheriff's officer. Among the items Ramsay admitted selling were plans for the defense of Central Europe, documents outling the location and use of NATO tactical nuclear weapons, and information about the alliance's military communications.

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