I just spotted this article on the Dallas Morning News. I was wondering what others think of it, both on its own and in light of previous threads on media privilege.

TV producer: Murder suspect talks if death penalty waived
Letter says Ronning admitted to Arlington, GP deaths

11:13 AM CST on Friday, December 9, 2005
Associated Press

AUSTIN - A producer for the television show Dateline NBC has offered the governors of Texas and Florida a deal: Waive the death penalty for a murder suspect, and he'll help solve three unsolved murders in their states.

Producer Shane Bishop offered the deal in a November 29 letter to Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. A copy of the letter was obtained by the Austin American-Statesman under Texas public record laws.

Bishop wrote that Michael Ronning has admitted to him seven murders. Bishop said he's "convinced" Ronning killed 20-year-old Annette Melia in Arlington in September 1982 and 16-year-old Melissa Jackson, who disappeared from a Grand Prairie apartment in August 1983.

A Perry spokesman said it would be improper for the governor to get involved in an investigation or punishment. An NBC spokeswoman said Bishop wrote the letter on his own, not on behalf of Dateline or the network.

Ronning is serving a life term without parole in Arkansas for a murder in that state.

Well, if the media is going to start acting like defense counsel, maybe they DO need a privilege.

So, can we file on the reporter for practicing law without a license?

How about just plain old obstruction of justice. Or maybe just turn his letter over to the victim's families. Sounds like a good tort (emotional distress) and no doubt there are deep pockets involved.

Could it perhaps be even more troubling that a media outlet/witness is taking advantage of their status/position to promote their own show? A witness that seeks publicity or profit from their knowledge of a crime is often impeached during trial for such behavior. Is the press immune from that criticism?

Dec. 20, 2005
Ft. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM

Two news media experts say a Dateline NBC producer, who wrote letters to two governors recommending leniency for a convict suspected of killing two area women, overstepped his boundaries as a journalist.

Producer Shane Bishop wrote Gov. Rick Perry and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush last month saying he could get a confession from an Arkansas convict if the governors waived the death penalty in their states. Bishop said in the letters that he believes Michael Ronning killed Annette Melia, 20, of Arlington and Melissa Jackson, 16, of Grand Prairie during the 1980s.

Bob Steele, who teaches ethics at the Poynter Institute for journalists in Florida, said the producer violated journalists' general rule of independence.

"Journalists should never become players in a story," Steele said. "Our job as journalists is to hold institutions and individuals accountable. Journalists should not be making deals with the same public officials we cover."

The producer's actions seem overly dramatic, said John Tisdale, who teaches a graduate class in ethics at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.

"I'm not saying he's doing anything wrong, but I always feel uncomfortable when journalists try to do police work," Tisdale said. "Journalists are to a certain degree detectives, but it gives me some unease when a journalist writes a letter to the governor on behalf of a murderer."

NBC has responded to the incident.

"Shane Bishop's actions in connection with two unsolved murders in the Fort Worth area in 1982 and 1983 do not reflect the views or opinions of NBC News or Dateline NBC," the network said in a statement released last week. "He took these actions without the knowledge or consent of NBC News officials. Given that Mr. Bishop's actions are in violation of NBC News policy, appropriate action has been taken."

Ronning was the subject of a 2002 Dateline NBC program during which he refused to answer questions about the two Texas killings. The Austin American-Statesman published excerpts of Bishop's letters last week. The Statesman also reported that investigators in Florida and Michigan had connected Ronning's DNA with unsolved killings in their states.

Melia's body was dumped in a wooded area in Bedford; her remains were found in 1985. Jackson's body was found in 1986, about half a mile away. Bedford police had suspected Ronning in the disappearance of Melia in 1982 and Jackson a year later.

Ronning, who is serving a life sentence for killing a 19-year-old woman from Jonesboro, Ark., had refused to talk to Texas and Florida authorities, reportedly because he would be eligible for the death penalty in those states.

The letter Bishop sent to Perry was forwarded to the Tarrant County district attorney's office. Prosecutor Alan Levy said the office has not attempted to contact Bishop or Ronning. Levy did not say whether contact will be made with either man. In Texas, the local district attorney's office would decide whether to grant Ronning leniency.

The families of both Texas women said they would support leniency for Ronning because a confession would give family members closure.
Jackson's mother, Laura Grubbs, and brother, Leslie "Bubba" Jackson, said a confession would help them heal.

For a peek at one version of journalism ethics rules, go to this link. So, which rules did the Dateline reporter violate?

Wow, thanks for the laughs, John! Are any of those guidelines actually followed by the media these days??

I found the part that made me chuckle the most at the end of the page:

Journalists should:

- Clarify and explain news coverage and invite dialogue with the public over journalistic conduct.
- Encourage the public to voice grievances against the news media.
- Admit mistakes and correct them promptly.
- Expose unethical practices of journalists and the news media.
- Abide by the same high standards to which they hold others.

They left out:

- Fabricate information if you're unable to prove something.
- Withhold information then claim the government is incompetent.

As Phillip noted, they left some things out. Since they did not say "You may not make things up", could Jayson Blair be a member of this group?

Or, along the line of the debacle when CBS claimed they had documents showing Bush cheated on his military service, "Well, OK, the documents might have been fabricated, but the story was fundamentally correct."

The author/researcher of that story is out selling a book, now, talking about how she was sold out by CBS. She is not in the least bit sorry and still claims no one has proven the documents were forged. (She does not accept the principle that she shouldn't be using them unless she can prove they were authentic.)

What a double standard.

"Bishop wrote that Michael Ronning has admitted to him seven murders. Bishop said he's "convinced" Ronning killed 20-year-old Annette Melia in Arlington in September 1982 and 16-year-old Melissa Jackson, who disappeared from a Grand Prairie apartment in August 1983."

Maybe its time Bishop (and cameraman/crew) get to meet 12 citizens, good and true, behind closed doors, provide to them his unedited raw audio/video/notes, and narrate his "investigative findings" just like criminal investigators do every day (and for a decidedly lower monetary compensation, too).

A confession to officers/prosecutors in exchange for leniency would bring no more "closure" for the victim's families than would a guilty verdict followed by the death penalty.

Ex-prosecutor begins inquiry of leak in police shooting

About a dozen people on list to be questioned.

By Asher Price
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, December 22, 2005

A former prosecutor began interviews this week in his quest to find out who leaked a citizen panel's recommendation to fire the Austin police officer who fatally shot 18-year-old Daniel Rocha.

On Nov. 16, the Austin American-Statesman, citing unnamed sources, reported that the citizen review panel voted Oct. 31 to recommend that officer Julie Schroeder be fired. The panel's vote was not public. Police Chief Stan Knee later fired Schroeder, saying that she demonstrated questionable judgment and that the June shooting was avoidable.

In early November, the Austin Police Association filed a grievance with the city, claiming that under its contract with the city, a fact-finder should be appointed to investigate the leak.

"The process balances the community's need and desire to have input with the chief over decision-making with preventing it from becoming a public lynching or a mob mentality," said Tom Stribling, a lawyer for the police union. "If the process breaks down in any one case, we won't have confidence it will be followed in the future."

The city hired Charles Noll, who retired this year as an assistant district attorney in Harris County. He is expected to turn in a report to City Manager Toby Futrell in mid-January. He is being paid $250 an hour, with a maximum payment of $12,000.

"The purpose is to give her information," city spokeswoman Kristen Vassallo said. "She will determine if action needs to be taken, an employee action or otherwise."

Vassallo said there are about a dozen names on the interview list, including members of the citizen review panel, attorneys present during deliberations and members of the city's police monitor's office. The interviews are being conducted at the office of the police monitor.

Noll does not have subpoena power. The city asked Tony Plohetski, the reporter who broke the story for the American-Statesman, to discuss the issue, but Plohetski declined.

"We're not going to participate," American-Statesman Managing Editor Fred Zipp said. "The story conveyed information of high public interest in a responsible way."

Vassallo said Noll's work "is not an investigation; it's a fact-finder. An investigation is trying to come to a conclusion. This might not have an answer. He's not trying to point a finger. It may or may not draw a conclusion."

"The city can call it whatever term they want to give it," Stribling said. "What the person is tasked to do is find the facts and determine who was responsible for releasing information at a time when it was confidential."

Celia Israel, a member of the citizens panel, described her interview, which lasted less than an hour, as "very cordial."

"He just asks questions point blank: 'Were you the leak or not?' " she said. "I just hope that someone steps forth and says 'Sorry, it was me.' "

For breaching the journalist's ethical code, the penalty is.......? Nothing. Last time I checked Jayson Blair's book had been taken up by a major publishing house.

ON THE FLIP SIDE

We here in Fort Worth are very fortunate in our courthouse beat repeorters. They are fair, concsiencious and trustworthy.

See he got fined:

Jayson Blair sells tell-all book

From Rose Arce
CNN

NEW YORK (CNN) --Former New York Times reporter Jayson Blair, who was dismissed earlier this year for plagiarism and fabrication, has sold his story to a Los Angeles-based publishing house.

The New Millennium Press will release Blair's book on March 9 with the title "Burning Down My Master's House: My Life at the New York Times."

A source involved with the deal said the book will cover Blair's entire life, culminating in his editors' discovery that many of his articles used stolen material or were partial works of fiction. The book will also focus on Blair's post-scandal experiences, as well as delving briefly into family history.

His demise at the newspaper led to a lengthy internal investigation of standards and the downfall of the Times' two top editors.

The Blair scandal raised questions of how the Times editors had overlooked clear signs that Blair was faltering and whether race played a role in excusing his mistakes. The book will talk about the role race did and did not play in his time there, said Blair, who is black.

Blair also told CNN he was recently diagnosed with manic-depressive mental illness -- also called bipolar disorder -- and the book will focus heavily on how that condition, when coupled with a high-pressure newsroom and heavy substance abuse, led to what he now considers a shameful period of his life.

"So many people get themselves into trouble and they take their shame and they run and hide," he said. "And when they hide we're robbed of the opportunity to learn from this. I feel a lot of shame. But I think it would be a disservice to not give people the opportunity to learn from this."

The source said Blair's advance was well into six figures. More than 200,000 books will be printed for the initial run.

[Wait a minute, that wasn't a fine. He got a six-figure advance on the book about his lies.]

So Mr. Blair publishes his book to point out to other journalists that one should not MAKE UP the stories he submits for publication? And here old cynical me thought filthy lucre
helped him to overcome his crushing shame and enticed him to pen his ouvre.