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Remember when Morton claimed to have been attacked at the San Fransisco airport by skinheads? Rumor has it that the writer of the show, yours truly, Jim Langan had a part in orchestrating the entire incident.
Morton says the following, 'Later I took things too far. It got out of control because the producers wanted me to top myself every night. If I did something outlandish on Monday night, on Tuesday night we'd have to think of something even more outlandish. And after awhile, you work yourself toward the edge of the trampoline and you fall off. I fell off a number of times and found it displeasing.' The effort to top himself every night perhaps led to the biggest embarrassment of his career when he claims neo-Nazi skinheads attacked him in San Francisco, cutting off his hair and painting a swastika on his head. Authorities could never verify the attack and Downey's critics pounced, calling it a publicity stunt. Just days later his show was cancelled. http://mortondowneyjr.com/mortondowney.html

In the April 28, 1989 edition of the USA Today paper it states, 'Thursday wasn't a good day for Morton Downey Jr., but it was an award-winner for Grant Tinker.

San Francisco International Airport police concluded Thursday that Downey's alleged assault by neo-Nazis ''did nothappen'' as reported, said spokesman Ron Wilson.

And Downey's former producer, Jim Langan, now says Downey told him three weeks ago he was going to stage a ratings-boosting stunt.

*We now that Jim Langan was actually the writer, not a producer and he admitted that he had prior knowledge of the incident three weeks before it occured.

From reading the headlines on the cover stories on the HV News, I can see where the extravagance of having to top yourself every night or every week in the case of the HV News would be a brainchild of Jim Langan in order to receive attention (and your dollar).  And the usage of neo-Nazi skinheads is suiting considering he also used the term 'nazi' to describe the town board members in one of his articles.