The Midas-Touch TV Producer Behind the January 6 Hearings

By J. Max Robins, June 9, 2022

James Goldston, the savvy producer brought in to produce the “Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol,” comes to this megawatt TV news event with quite the CV. And he’ll need every bona fide he’s got. Tonight, starting at 8 PM ET, we’ll see if the ex-ABC News president truly has the chops to create, as the New York Times described it, “six tight episodes” of live television, designed to capture the hearts and minds of a nation. That’s all hearts and minds, including the ones watching on Fox Business.

Apart from Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels, Goldston might be the one guy who can do the improbable on live TV. Perhaps most notably, Goldston executive produced Living with Michael Jackson, the eye-popping 2003 documentary that played a pivotal role in child molestation charges being brought against Jackson, effectively ending his reign as the undisputed King of Pop. The Jackson doc he made, in partnership with fellow controversial British journo Martin Bashir, heralded Goldston’s Midas-touch run at ABC News, which included a seven-year saddle ride as boss of the entire division. He spun gold for his Disney corporate masters with such franchises as Good Morning America, ABC World News and This Week until his departure in January 2021.

No wonder Democrats knighted Goldston to produce the January 6 insurrection broadcast. The further question is: With midterm elections scant months away, will this broadcast help turnaround the fortunes of a beleaguered party badly in need of a media win?

It will be a herculean task. A giant slice of the Beltway chattering class believes it’s pie-in-the-sky that these prime time hearings will have anything close to Watergate’s power. (We can’t even get a “-gate” phrase out of it.) The GOP political machine and its in-house media arm FOX News have been pushing the narrative 24/7 that Americans should be far more concerned with soaring inflation and scarce baby formula. The Trump turbo-fueled Jan. 6 violent assault on democracy? To quote the Right’s party line on guns, Now is not the time to talk about that.

The dominating view from D.C. pundits is that if the Kavanaugh hearings, two Trump impeachments sans conviction and a looming Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v Wade can’t wake up the silent majority, the House Insurrection miniseries will be a big nothing burger—with extra cheese—to voters on the bubble.

All of which puts Goldston on the hottest of hot seats in this moment of media history. Having closely observed his years at ABC, I’m sure the Oxford-educated journalist, who has a distinct sense of what will and won’t grab an audience’s attention, feels some trepidation. Still, this is a guy who embraces an uphill battle. [Remember that early in his ABC career, he resurrected the legendary nightly newscast Nightline when it was all but canceled.] I’m sure he’s sold Democrats on the idea that he can transform the House hearings into something that will bring a bump to both the Nielsens and left-leaning poll numbers. He may even believe he’s got the goods to pull it off.

Admirers and detractors alike agree Goldston is a superb producer, albeit one with sharply arrogant elbows. More than one person who has worked with him at ABC News suggested his favorite exclamation was: “Boring!” Goldston has been known to bellow that kiss-of-death “B” word when pitched an idea or watching a rough cut he’s deemed destined to send viewers surfing away, like an all-too-cliché boss in a Hollywood romcom. It’s easy to imagine Goldston in the company of Democratic operatives, reviewing Trump’s Impeachment hearings and offering that single-word critique.

So don’t expect to see anything yawn-worthy in the trove of video Goldston will use in his political miniseries. After all, there are plenty of boldface names to work with. When Mike Allen broke the news about Goldston working with the House committee, the Axios scoop-meister noted that the former ABC News prez would have visual treasure chest available to sculpt into a “blockbuster investigative special.” Certainly, Goldston believes the potential is there, especially since the hearings may include appearances by doted-upon Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner. After leaving ABC News early in 2021, Goldston formed a production company, and among his first high-profile projects, announced last April, was the scripted miniseries Kushner Inc. Based on the tome of the same name by Vicky Ward, the book’s cover features a photo of the former first-daughter and son-in-law alongside the subhead: “Greed. Ambition. Corruption.” It ain’t subtle, but subtle won’t cut it.

That said, how much can even the savviest producer do to create a narrative so powerful that it changes the course of a nation? Before you squint, recall that some 68 years ago, Edward R. Murrow’s See it Now broadcast put an end to Sen. Joe McCarthy and his cohorts’ witch-hunting days. Since then, we have seen how a brazen TV genius can do the seemingly impossible. Roger Ailes transformed Richard Nixon’s loser image and put him on the hit comedy show Laugh-In two months before his victorious 1968 election night socked it to the nation.

I know; that’s all ancient media history. But that same Roger Ailes. then ruling the Fox News empire, played a major role in Trump’s 2016 White House win. And Trump had inadvertent help from another ratings-at-all-cost producer, ex-CNN supremo Jeff Zucker. Famously, during his NBC days, it was Zucker who made the 2020 loser-in-chief a household word when he put The Apprentice on primetime. In the run-up to Trump’s White House residency, Zucker greenlighted enough Trump CNN appearances to sway some voters.

Granted, no matter how compelling the material he has to work with, or how masterful a producer he might be, it would be foolhardy to predict Goldston can turn the Jan. 6 insurrection hearings into a primetime powerhouse. Squid Game it is not. And realistically, no one is expecting this to awaken the sleeping masses. However, I will gamble this much on James Goldston – the hearings won’t be “Boring!”

J. Max Robins (@jmaxrobins) is  executive director of the Center for Communication. The former editor-in-chief of Broadcasting & Cable, he has contributed to publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Columbia Journalism Review and Forbes. 

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