Kristallnacht Amanpour, CNN, Reporting from North Korea

CNN began flogging its weekend specials on North Korea this morning.

As someone born on Kristallnacht, and a former reporter, I was surprised to see Christiane Amanpour obediently pull a blue armband up her left arm at the instructions of her North Korean minders. The armband apparently had writing on it which identified her as a reporter. Was the design German?

Amanpour should have refused to doff the band and hightailed it back to the U.S. But what about all the time and dollars that had been invested up to then? We know.

Doesn't CNN hold a special place in Journalism by cooperating with Saddam Hussein in the run up to the war just to keep its Baghdad bureau? Now they can add the Amanpour Armband to their ethical successes.

Let's see what IRE, Sigma Delta Chi, The Columbia Journalism Review, Poynter, etc. have to say.

Seven-Month Hiatus Ends

A seven-month hiatus has ended.

Working two full-time jobs left no time for blogging. prPROpinion suffered. I managed to write a couple on-point OpEds for the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News, and occasionally had time to help out a reporter, but that was it.

Last year I knew I had to launch PRforLAW, LLC full-time. Over the preceding five years I've provided highly focused, professional legal media relations support for attorneys and law firms, some public, some will never be known. The invariably rare and always valuable MajorCase™ Milestone needs a more specialized plan than many in-house marketers, or conventional PR firms can provide.

I originally expected to make a move to full-time at the end of 2008, but an opportunity arose to advance the calendar and launch early.

Over the past years, for more times than I'd like to remember, I've been forced to decline challenging and interesting assignments: cases that would generate headlines, others needing long-term strategy and meetings with clients caught in federal or local criminal justice system crosshairs.

Each year, by mid-summer I had exhausted eligible vacation time at the previous, non-legal full-time communications position. And the nature of the job (usually 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.) made it impossible for me to guarantee media relations support that could be needed at any time for big cases.

I'll continue to blog here and also start blawging elsewhere. More on that later in the spring or early summer.

Starting today prPROpinion transitions into a grab bag of personal observations, media criticism, political observations, etc.

The new blawg will be designed for attorneys, legal marketers and public relations practitioners.

Additionally, a brand new http://www.prforlaw.com will be launched to explain and complement the national services that PRforLAW, LLC provides 24/7, including clients' MajorCase™ news. Finally, http://www.lavinthal.com will be revised, too.

2005 PA Crime Prevention Awardee's Home Searched By DHS-ICE Special Agents

One of 18 recipients of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's 23rd annual Citizen Crime Prevention Award, who was honored for, among other things, "accept[ing] the responsibility and challenges of ensuring the safety of the residents of their community and the commonwealth" has become a subject or target of a federal investigation.

Almost two years to the day after Gov. Ed Rendell announced the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime & Delinquency awards in 2005, Carl Pearson is getting an up front and personal look into the workings of federal law enforcement.

On October 9th, Special Agents of the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement executed a search warrant at Pearson' Bensalem, Pennsylvania home, during, of all things, Pennsylvania's Crime Prevention Month.

While Pearson was in Florida ICE executed its warrant, leaving a receipt, Pearson told The Bucks County Courier-Times, for a mirror of his computer hard drive, a box of "paperwork," two handguns and a submachine gun. "Pearson said he has a license for each weapon. The submachine gun, a MAC-10, had a flash suppressor, he said," according to the newspaper.

In 2005, when the governor's awards were announced, the newspaper called Pearson, "a town watch and civic association leader."

Owner of the center-city Philadelphia, Mako Bar and Grill who also operates a temporary employment agency based near his home, Pearson had no idea why he was the target of this action and promised to hire an attorney and accept ICE's invitation to meet with the investigators on Monday the 15th, according to the newspaper.

It's been almost a week and we've yet to read more about Pearson who also sits on Bensalem Township's advisory board for the new Philadelphia Park Casino. I wonder if his attorney allowed him to set foot near the federal building.

Pearson could have used a little Criminal Justice 101 and Legal Media Relations 101 before he talked to the newspaper reporter.

CJ 101: Pearson complained that the search warrant came out of the blue. Duh! Imagine how many shredders would be sold if warrants were mailed one week in advance so recipients could "get ready?"

“It's humiliating that they can come and search your house without warning,” he told the newspaper.

(Searches always are secret, conducted pursuant to affidavits that are under seal unless and until cases go somewhere. And sometimes they go nowhere, which is why they are secret, to protect those who are never charged with wrongdoing as well as allow investigations to proceed as secretly as possible.)

LMR 101: Somewhere in the story Pearson should have insited on being quoted as stating while he has not idea what agents were seeking he understands that he could simply be a subject of a probe focused on a different target.

Here's what he also should have said:

"As we all wait to see what develops from this investigation I've offered authorities any help they need. I can assure residents of Bensalem Township and Pennsylvania that I've committed no crimes, nor have I knowingly permitted illegal activity in my home or in connection with either of my businesses."

But the Courier-Times, had an idea as to where the investigation is heading, stating that, "Law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation said the search is part of an investigation into the re-entry of several previously deported illegal immigrants. They confirmed Pearson has not been charged."

Is a flash suppressor for a MAC-10 legal?

NBC's Superbug Supergoof

The continuing demise of network television news was front and center last night when the NBC Nightly News made an astounding error in the frequently teased "Superbug deaths could surpass AIDS" report that led the half-hour Brian Williams-anchored broadcast.

The "superbug," Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus ("MRSA"), was reported by Robert Bazell and chyroned on the TV screen transposed into "MSRA."

Every high school athlete (where the infection is reportedly rampant) knows what every physician knows; its initials are "MRSA."

Williams, in the "Nightly News Links and Extras" has admitted the error. Bazell fell on the sword stating that he, "transposed the letters to get them wrong. Sometimes the most simple mistakes are the ones you miss. My apologies."

Now that news has become a commodity ("Get me the ROI on last night's broadcast Jones)" have fact checkers, desk people, editors and others disappeared? Didn't anyone see the tape being edited, read the script, etc. and say, "Hey, this is wrong?" Or did NBC realize too late and decide to run the package anyway?

One day will we see a stand-up by a reporter in front of Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters with"BFI" on the screen? Did I watch the news on NCB last night?

If I remember to watch the NBC broadcast tonight (marking the second time in six months I will have watched network TV news) will the correction lead the broadcast? Will the boo-boo even make it onto the airways or is the Williams blog the broadcast journalism equivalent of hiding a correction back on page 74?

The Truth About The OJ Case:Hide The Ball, Hide The Assets

The O.J. case is this simple: Hide the ball, hide the assets.

Read between the lines and it's easy to see why O.J. Simpson failed to call the police after he found what he claimed to be his stolen personal properly being sold by "memorabilia" dealers.

What Simpson feared would happen did happen, and I don't mean his arrest.

Orenthal spun a nice yarn for the media, giving the AP a quasi-plausible explanation why he took the law in his own hands. "'The police, since my trouble, have not worked out for me,' he said, noting that whenever he has called the police 'It just becomes a story about O.J.' 'I'm at the point where I don't rely on the police and this is not a police issue anyway,' he said, expressing hope that it will soon be resolved."

Simpson knew he was going to "re-rob" the property, including his "absolutely, positively acquitted suit," and would never call police. This is a man who got away with a double homicide. Pulling off a small heist would be small potatoes.

Were he to have called police the authorities would have secured the scene and seized the property, pending disposition. He knew the Goldman and/or Brown families surely would have moved to seize the material pursuant to the $33.5 million outstanding civil judgment against the former football player.

Instead of calling police Simpson's next call would have been to a fence. (My hunch is that memorabilia dealers exist in a netherworld and O.J. assumed that the robbed would have kept quiet.)

As proof of my theory I present an AP report moved a couple of hours ago. Simpson's worst fear has already taken hold. The Goldman family is expected to file today to eventually take possession of O.J.'s "stuff."

"...the family plans to file request in Superior Court to obtain ownership of the sports memorabilia seized. David Cook, an attorney for Goldman's father, Fred Goldman, said he believed Nevada authorities would turn over the items with a court order after Simpson's criminal case finishes."

The latest O.J. case is that simple. Hide the ball, hide the assets.

Rider University AlcoholHazing Death Prosecutor Now Feels Sorry For Two"Uncharged" Administrators

The AP today moved a story about Mercer County Prosecutor Joseph L. Bocchini Jr.'s handling of the Rider University administrators indictment/unindictment containing the admission (approximately five weeks too late) that he feels sorry for the two administrators. Bocchini's office, I maintain, helped cause the damage for which he now feels sorry.

According to the AP, Bocchini said, "the system left him no choice [to indict]." Then Bocchini amazingly added (if the quote is accurate) that he was "unsure from the beginning whether the charges would stick."

My primary focus and that of prPROpinion is the media and legal edia relations. But former prosecutors with whom I have spoken all along (who have practiced before New Jersey county grand juries and would not want to be identified by me for all the tea in China since they are lawyers and have to play in the same sandbox) consistently have told me otherwise.

A cardinal rule, I have been told, is that a prosecutor seeking justice should never indict when he knows there is no chance of conviction and no probable cause. Does Bocchini's quote confirm that this, in fact, happened? I'll leave that up to the attorneys.

I also was told that the assistant prosecutor supervising the panel could have explained the law, cautioned the grand jury that a conviction of the administrators would have been impossible, and asked them to postpone their vote for a week. During that time the prosecutor could have met with the assignment judge, even reached out to experts in the Attorney General's Office just down the street, to determine a more sensible/legal course of action. (Indictments are typed up by the prosecutor's office. No grand juror is asked to bring in his personal laptop, printer and paper on the day of a vote.)

Or, after being advised that indicting the two administrators would not be proper the grand jury could have been told that it did have the power to issue a scathing peroration about the university and its administrators (which still would have to go to the assignment judge for approval before being released). Would a caustic presentment have sated the grand jury's anger but not forced the two administrators to endure indictment?

I also was told that a prosecutor could refuse to sign the indictment and, instead, suggest to the the grand jury that it meet, in camera and ex-parte, with the assignment judge to see what the next step could be.

Whether or not the prosecutor did wrong by the legal system or just in the media relations arena I'm betting that grand juries will be watched a little more closely in Mercer County from now on.

Former N.J. Attorney General John Farmer Jr., a former Assistant U.S. Attorney and son of a renowned columnist for the Newark Star-Ledger by the same name, is quoted in the AP article that three weeks may have been too long to wait before moving to dismiss the indictment against the administrators. "Being accused is irreparable damage to someone' life and you need to resolve this as quickly as possible," Farmer said.

My point all along.

Mercer Prosecutor Punts Again

The sad saga of two university administrators whose indictment was trumpeted and exploited in the media only to see charges dismissed just three weeks later because they never could have been convicted just reached a new, cynical denouement.

Yesterday, Mercer County, NJ, Prosecutor Joseph L. Bocchini Jr. quietly posted a PDF of the filed August 28th dismissal in the news section of his Web site.

If ever one wanted proof that a media drive-by occurred for these two administrators, the prosecutor's quiet posting of this document 23 days too late is proof.

There's no statement or explanation accompanying the notice. And the underlying motion also was not posted.

This is a legal media relations horror story for the two indicted/unindicted victims -- and while it may be legal, it stinks.

I just checked the Times of Trenton in which my OpEd criticizing the woefully lacking media treatment of the dismissal first alerted the public to this mess. There's not even a one-paragraph mention of the dismissal's sudden appearance on the prosecutor's Web site.

So, for now, and forever, these two (whom I do not know) know that the prosecutor's office may have covered its rear end for possible civil litigation. But they also know that it really didn't care about giving the two administrators a fair shake.

And, perhaps to annoy the former defendants the dismissal notice was scanned on a weird angle. And, at least as far as the prosecutor's 2007 news page is concerned, this document appears to be the only PDF and the only filed document. This, too, I find significant.

My media relations verdict: media justice denied.