Law And More

Transparency in Online Political Messaging - UK Proposes Labeling (Can that happen here in broadcast?)

From websites to podcasts, the UK is seeking for transparency in online political messaging.

Today, reports TechCrunch, the Cabinet Office issued a proposal for the public to review.

If enacted it would mandate labeling of all online political campaign communications.

What would be disclosed are both who or what is behind the promotion and who or what is ponying up the funding.

The public has until November 4, 2020 to respond to the proposal, which you can read here.

It is not unthinkable that a similar movement could catch fire in the U.S. The focus would be partisan broadcasting. Programming would be analyzed for how much content typically represents political campaign messaging. If a certain percentage is measured to be embedded in the daily broadcasting, then there would have to be disclaimer slapped on it. Such could read "Promoted by X and funded by Y." 

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NBC "Dateline" Documentary Featuring Lawyer Norm Pattis Nominated for Emmy Award

The disappearance of Connecticut Gold Coast wife, mother and writer Jennifer Dulos transfixed the world.

It had all the usual suspects in news grabbers: wealth, pedigree, beauty, divorce, a custody battle, a suicide and even a celebrity lawyer.

Jennifer was never found. The divorced husband, Fotis Dulos, was arrested and later committed suicide. Had Dominick Dunne still been alive he would have done a series on it for Vanity Fair. 

Instead, NBC's iconic "Dateline" parachuted in with an analysis of that piece of CT legal history. Of course, major questions still hover. Therefore, the "Dateline" documentary likely will be followed by othere deconstructions over the next centuries.

But that particular "Dateline" documentary - well, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has nominated for the 41st Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards. Here are the details.

When NBC received the good news of the nominations it notified that celebrity lawyer who had been in the loop - Norm Pattis. Since he had been the criminal defense attorney for Fotis, Pattis had been prominently featured in the documentary.

As is usual with Pattis' approach to how he represents his clients, the defense was no ordinary one.

In fact, Pattis proposed conducting a trial post the suicide to have Fotis acquitted and his name cleared for his family. In addition, in the days Fotis remained alive after the attempt, Pattis was on the scene, ministering to his needs.

Pattis' role in the documentary confirms that in the current era of fascination with legalities, the lawyer often becomes the story. That can overshadow the alleged crime, the defendant and the supposed victim.

No fools, those in the soup have it in their self-interest to hire a celebrity lawyer to represent them. That practically guarantees having their contentions covered in great detail and on a sustained basis in the court of public opinion. 

Pattis has extended his thought leadership beyond legal issues and causes.

For example, LinkedIn Updates has become one of his platforms for political and cultural analysis. His provocative observations have attracted a steady following. Their interest is so fierce that they will argue among themselves in the comment section of LinkedIn.

Frequently Pattis is on talk shows. His supporters are pushing him to get his own talk show and start podcasting. 

So, who does the judging for the Emmy Awards? The process consists of a review by a pool of 875 peer professionals. They are from the niches of television and streaming/digital in the News & Documentary Industry.

The actual Emmy Awards for documentaries will be presented on Tuesday, September 22nd, at 8 P.M. EDT. That will be streamed, including on mobile. 

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Language Lay-Low: Mike Pence Is "Disappointed"

Although this is a visual era, words still function as public relations workhorses.

One of those words is "disappointment."

It can damn whomever or whatever is discussed and, simultaneously, position and package the speaker as sophisticated. Yeah, wasn't it always a smart rhetorical move in upscale circles to understate.

As Law.com reports, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence labeled U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts a "disappointment."

Predictably, Roberts has been doing what so many approved for SCOTUS do: Surprise. He has turned out to be more a legal thinker than a one-dimensional conservative. 

The strategic use of language has even penetrated parts of society not considered sensitive to the power of words.

A blue-collar trucker who sometimes hires me for marketing communications for his wife's enterprises wasn't happy with the first draft of a mission statement. He indicated that by saying he was "disappointed." I have a hunch that cancel culture has forced everyone to pay extreme attention to rhetoric.

Meanwhile "cool" seems to be losing its cool. That could be because there still are so many COVID-19 hotspots around the world. Little seems cool if you anticipate you could become very sick, perhaps even die.

Observation: The gush hypermanic ethos of talk show hosts such as Ellen and Oprah could also be over. I call it "Language Lay-Low."

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Dick Wolf in the BLM Era

Those brilliant fictional characters in law enforcement producer Dick Wolf created don't fit well with the BLM ethos.

Wolf became a brandname and wealthy through catchy police crime shows, ranging from "Law and Order SVU" to "Chicago PD."

The best known part of the formula is, of course, having plots ripped from the headlines. For example, "Law and Order SVU" had two episodes anchored around the Harvey Weinstein saga of expecting career women to pony up sexual favors in order to stay in the game.

But another part is positioning and packaging members of law enforcement as heroes. Given that status, they can operate according to their own rules. For instance, to save the day, Hank Voigt from "Chicago PD" will rough up suspects. As Dawn Chmielewski hammers in FORBES, both of these Wolf stock tactics are being put under the microscope during this era of BLM.

Consequently, Wolf will have to rethink how his writers put together plot lines, put boundaries on characters' behavior, and present the flaws of the law-enforcement system.

The elephant in the room on that one is if Wolf can function in that new box and still produce hot entertainment?

He could find himself too boxed in.

The history of success is filled with players who operated brilliantly in one context. Then things changed. And they fell off a cliff. The well known example had been Henry Ford. His rigid approach in stylistics initially had been part of his strategic model. Then competitor GM went beyond that. It took a while for Ford's business to recover.

Both Wolf's supporters and his critics (currently they are growing in number) will be monitoring all his creations. Those include the newest one which brings back Christopher Meloni.

Can Wolf change and still get, hold, and grow audiences?

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"Jennifer Eckhart and Cathy Areu v. Fox, et al." - Ed Henry Is Already Gone, Who Will Be Left Standing at the Conservative Network?

"Bombshell" is an understatement for the possible fallout from a sexual harassment/assault lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court Southern New York.

Its allegations, reports Bloomberg Law, have already ended the employment of Ed Henry at Fox News.

Who could also get the boot include Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and Howard Kurtz. In addition, others in the loop could find themselves unemployed. 

The lawsuit is "Jennifer Eckhart and Cathy Areu v. Fox, et al." Here is a copy of the 39-page complaint.

Incidentally, it comes with warning that the complaint contains disturbing descriptions of behavior. Count on it being widely read. 

Plaintiff former associate producer at Fox Jennifer Eckhart contends rape by Henry in 2017. The Bloomberg Law article reports it was her outing of the misconduct to Fox that resulted in Henry's termination on July 1, 2020. In addition, he will now have to deal with litigation. 

The other plaintiff on-air analyst at Fox Cathy Areu contends such incidents as Carlson informing her that he was alone in his hotel room after her presentation. In addition, she claims that Hannity put a $100 bill on a desk and asked what man would take her out.

Of course, after Roger Ailes and Bill O'Reilly were forced out for alleged sexual misconduct, the owners of Fox are sensitive to more recent reports of such kinds of behavior.

It's not unthinkable that the suit will be settled for big money, along with a confidentiality agreement, and the firing of some or all of the defendants. Bigger names - think Matt Lauer - have lost their careers because of alleged sexual misconduct. 

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Barbara Fedida - ABC's Karen

Leave it to David Muir, the news anchor on whose shoulders has been placed the mantle of Walter Cronkite.

Tonight on the ABC News, it was Muir's mission to position and package in a professional manner the exit of its version of Karen. That is, ABC News Senior Vice President Barbara Fedida. 

After an investigation by a third party, it was confirmed that Fedida had made racially insensitive comments and would no longer be part of the ABC family, reports the New York Post. 

Muir handled that by presenting the text of the decision. His face was on neutral. And then he went on to the next news segment.

Among the language Fedida used in association with black employees had been terms such as "cotton" and "lowlife." Since she was employed in the communications industry, of course, she should have known better. 

But, obviously, she didn't or she figured, like most Karens, that she was entitled to a free pass from conformity with language norms. After all network television remains a conservative medium.

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America's Romance with Contract Killing - From "Have Gun, Will Travel" Through "The Godfather" to Fascination with Accusations about Steven Williams

America had been founded by a bunch of misfits.

They were outliers in the proper ways of the old country. Most couldn't make a living, never mind just not fit in.

Their oddball mindsets and behavior had been documented by psychologist John D. Gartner in the best-seller "The Hypomanic Edge." It was that out of the box ethos, showed Gartner, which helped created the most powerful economy in the world.

So, it's no surprise that the cult of the criminal has taken hold. The criminal as outlier.

A subcategory of that is the contract killer.

On network television during its golden age there had been from 1957 through 1963 the western "Have Gun, Will Travel."

In "The Godfather," contract killers were a necessary moving part of keeping the family business going.

And, now, reports Daily Mail, there could be the possible phenomenon of a 25-year-old in Philadelphia: Steven Williams. Allegedly he could have been contracted to murder four or more people. 

Not that a nation where the vestiges of Puritanism still dominate condones contract killing. It is wrong to take a life (even, some believe, by the state).

But …

Contract killers can make a good buck. That's important in capitalism. Success tends to be measured in money.

In addition, contract killers require a very different kind of mindset than is socialized in Americana. That fascinates.

That's why programming such as "Criminal Minds" which explores aberrant thinking is so engaging. On that series, which is no longer producing new episodes, David Rossi's books on deviant behavior are best-sellers. Youth is drawn to join the FBI because of Rossi's publications. Serial killers read them to find out more about themselves. 

No surprise either, watchers of the legal sector spend lots of time analyzing why ultra successful law partners go rogue. That includes everything from embezzling to sexual misconduct. Why didn't they simply treasure and protect their conventional success?

Likely, real-life researchers of criminal brain wiring, much like the fictional Rossi, are already working on how to interview Williams. So much can be learned. New brandnames can be made.

Conventional thinking is not only boring. As Gartner hammers in the book: It doesn't get a society or individuals very far financially. A popular current show on network television is dark comedy "Good Girls." There traditional Detroit housewives go rogue. Their lives become interesting. They can pay their bills. 

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Network TV in Post-George Floyd Era - Recasting Hank Voight

"The crime genre glorifies police violence, but should we ban such shows, or reappraise them with a critical eye?" - Elias Rodriques, The Guardian, June 12, 2020.

Already, Dick Wolf's longest running series "Law & Order SVU" has announced it will work into plot lines police brutality issues. Fans recall how even St. Olivia lost her cool with a bad guy who had taken her hostage. She beat the hell out of him. Later he resurfaced and made a little girl suffer for that. 

But, such is small potatoes with the kind of Police-Know-Best ethos Wolf has created.

More to the point is the character of Hank Voigt on "Chicago PD." His signature is the old way of dealing with suspects, especially to get information in time to save a situation or an innocent person.

So embedded is his law-breaking brutality that, on a high-profile case, Olivia pleads with him "to go by the book, Hank." Of course Hank is positioned and packaged as a hero. Much-loved Trudy on the "Chicago P.D." series indicates that it's Hank she would choose to manage any of her personal crime whatevers. 

Now, Wolf has to go back to the drawing board and give audiences another kind of Hank. Both the material has to be different and the messaging has to indicate police can't set their own rules. The latter equips audiences with new perspectives to experience the dramas. Yes, Hank's decision-making and actual behavior have to be questioned.

Meanwhile, there has already been a shift in how law enforcement is presented on television. The oddball dark comedy "Good Girls" has the rouge Detroit suburban housewives and a gang head outfoxing the FBI. One agent on their trail gets offed. He's way too trusting. The most recent one probing their funny-money operation seems doomed to also be punished for her naïve earnestness. 

The bottom line on the issue of how television portrays law enforcement is that pop culture is influential. Those characters stay with audiences in some kind of collective memory bank. Although "Without a Trace" hasn't been producing new programming in years, the flawed persona of FBI agent Jack Malone continues to get a lot of attention. Now and then he has resurfaced on crime shows to assist with a case - yes, as the old-line FBI agent Malone. Fiction is emotional reality.

The very sophisticated crime-stopper programming "Criminal Minds" has wrapped for good. But on Mondays and Tuesdays on ION there are re-runs. The agents are always portrayed as on target in figuring out why a horrific crime unfolded. They get their man or woman. There is no ambiguity. But, as we know, there is plenty of ambiguity. Otherwise society would have figured out and implemented ways to prevent crime. 

Network television will be disrupted in the Post-George Floyd era. Wolf will be held accountable for his crime programming franchise. And audiences will be handed over new perceptual lenses on how to view the values being played out. There has to be a redo on both fronts.

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Beyond Raw Power: Seems Like Crime Didn't Pay for Tony Soprano

An alternative to the diner scene as the finale to "The Sopranos" could have been a trip Tony Soprano makes to Manhattan. It's via a Lincoln Tunnel and it's for a meeting with Johnny Sack.

Then, on the way which was supposed to represent Soprano's heading back home to New Jersey, the scene was to go black. The visual message was that Soprano got whacked at the meeting.

However, instead there was the diner scene. Then the screen also goes black. That could then be interpreted that a hitman gunned down Soprano there. 

"The Sopranos" creator David Chase let that slip in an interview about his book "The Soprano Sessions." According to The Independent, what could then be concluded is that the diner scene also was meant to be Soprano's last supper. 

Some would push back on that since mobsters aren't to be whacked in front of their family. But the gunning-down could have happened when Soprano went out and brought the car around or in another way when he was separated from his family. Recall that a turf war was going on at the time. A hit wouldn't have been surprising.

So, one wonders: Is the real meme of "The Sopranos" that crime doesn't pay? Chase might at his core be a kind of Boy Scout.

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Camelot Residue - Joe Kennedy III Has Edge in MA U.S. Senate Race

Media focus is back on the high-profile Massachusetts U.S. Senate race. That had gone off the radar during the initial shock of the pandemic.

Now, The Wall Street Journal looks at how challenger U.S. House member Joe Kennedy III, 39, is doing against incumbent Ed Markey, 73. 

In this digital age, youth has a distinct edge over age. Joe has leveraged his comfort with digital through lots of online outreach. 

In addition, there is the Kennedy brand. So far the magic still seems there. When he first announced his run polls showed he was in the lead. That was up to 14 points. The lead has continued. But it is narrowing. 

Funding is also on his side. He has made it an issue that he won't take PAC funds. But he isn't hurting for money. That has allowed him to buy television advertising, which Markey hasn't as yet.

Another advantage - and he used it in last week's debate with Markey - is that he can attack the long long track record of the incumbent. That has included being critical of Markey's support for the North America Free Trade Agreement and military forces against Iraq. Today there will be another debate.

Old-line liberals such as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are supporting Markey. So is the newer breed - AOC.

The primary is September 1st. In these volatile days of the coronavirus fallout on the economy and the heightened consciousness about police brutality against blacks, any kind of development could unravel the positions of the two in this race. The outcome is uncertain.

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