From 1979 through 1986, Lichtenstein reported and produced investigative reports for ABC News "&lt;a href="20/20%20%28U.S.%20TV%20program%29"&gt;20/20&lt;/a&gt;", "Nightline", and "World News Tonight". He was part of the Emmy-winning team with Sylvia Chase and Jeff Diamond that uncovered a fatal flaw in the VW Beetle, and along with Stanhope Gould, Bob Sirkin, and Steve Tello, broke the story of the Atlanta Child Murders in 1979. He collaborated with producers Lowell Bergman and Andrew Cockburn on "COINTELPRO: The Secret War", the first network news report on the FBI's covert program of dirty tricks used to disrupt and neutralize political activists, including actress Jean Seberg, and Black Panther Geronimo Pratt. He worked on "American Held Hostage: The Secret Negotiations", a three-hour prime time ABC News special hosted by Pierre Salinger, that chronicled the previously unreported, extensive efforts by President Jimmy Carter to gain the release of the American hostages in Iran.