Freedom of Information Act Request # 2006-0543- F filed at the Clinton Library deals with the Sci-Fi channel being installed at Camp David. It was originally scheduled to be installed on June 24, 1996 but President Clinton insisted that it be installed by June 15th.
As with other UFO FOIA requests made at the Clinton Library this Sci-Fi request was based on previous evidence. In this case the evidence was a Variety article which was published at the time.
PRESIDENT STAYS CURRENT WATCHING THE SCI-FI CHANNEL
Variety Magazine, written by Ray Richmond.
HOLLYWOOD - Forget CNN, C-SPAN and CNBC. What President Clinton really wants is the Sci-Fi Channel. That became clear Friday [June 14], when a White House official contacted Dick Ross, a VP with USA Networks Inc., parent company of cable's Sci-Fi Channel. The official wanted to know how the president could receive the cable network at the White House, as well as his retreat at Camp David in Frederick, Md. Ross told the unnamed official that it just so happened that District Cablevision of Washington is set to add Sci-Fi Channel to its basic package June 24. Camp David, however, was another matter. The area surrounding the presidential spread has yet to be wired for cable. Ross got the OK to descramble the channel's signal to Camp David so it can be received by the property's satellite dish as of Monday. "We're really pretty flattered," Sci-Fi spokeswoman Karen Reynolds said.
The only document released by the Clinton Library that relates to this story is an E-mail from Patricia F. Lewis to Mary Ellen Glenn and Virginia M. Terzano dated June 14, 1996.
Lewis wrote:
Text:
A reporter from the Hollywood Reporter wants to know why the White House is so insistent that the Sci-Fi channel be hooked up to Camp David by this weekend...instead of waiting until the scheduled June 24 installation. (I know we're not going to talk about it, but it's one of the better questions I've heard in a while and I wanted to share.)
In a strange sideline to this story in 2004 the Sci-Fi channel went on a campaign to do serious UFO documentaries "focusing attention on the serious, factual side of the issue, and that scientists have not had a chance to thoroughly examine it." One of the key backers of the Sci-Fi initiative was President Clinton's former chief of staff John Podesta.