He's in the Race -- And Under The Microscope

By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 10, 2007

At first, the media were giving non-candidate Fred Thompson one heck of a ride.

While the former senator rarely ventured beyond the friendly confines of Fox News and conservative Web sites, he was widely portrayed by the press as having such vast reserves of charisma and "Law & Order" star power that he would shake up the Republican presidential race. He was running without running, avoiding such annoyances as having to answer reporters' questions.

But the act wore thin as summer wore on, and news organizations started picking apart Thompson's record as a lawmaker and lobbyist. By the time he kicked off his bid Wednesday with Jay Leno -- and followed with his seventh sit-down with Fox's Sean Hannity -- Thompson had accumulated his share of journalistically inflicted scars. And as the new kid on the block, he now faces a fierce level of scrutiny.

In the space of a few weeks, the Los Angeles Times reported that Thompson had once lobbied for a family-planning group trying to ease abortion restrictions -- a stint that Thompson had initially denied. The Washington Post said Thompson's wife, Jeri, had court judgments rendered against her for unpaid bills in the 1990s. The New York Times, reporting on how Thompson leaked to the Nixon White House when he was the Senate Watergate panel's minority counsel, noted that Richard Nixon once called him "dumb as hell." The Washington Times said he was soft on illegal immigration. And a Newsweek cover story last week questioned whether he is lazy.

By clinging to his undeclared status, the part-time actor took a high-stakes risk: allowing news organizations to tell his life story without his participation. News stories have frequently noted that he married his girlfriend at 17 after getting her pregnant, that he accomplished little in the Senate and didn't particularly like the job. His second wife, Jeri -- dubbed a "trophy wife" in one New York Times feature -- has been portrayed as a divisive force in the Thompson organization, who, according to the Los Angeles Times, once conducted a spot check at the campaign office and chided those who were AWOL. And the fledgling Thompson venture has been depicted as a turnover-plagued mess and fundraising disappointment.

Had Thompson been out doing more interviews, or chatting up Barbara Walters with his wife, he could have helped shape the narrative. The question now -- in light of his "Tonight" show debut and online video -- is whether the Tennessean will continue to run an alternative campaign that minimizes direct engagement with mainstream journalists.

Thompson told Hannity on Thursday that while press inquiries were "aggravations" and "unfair," "you can't bypass the media. That's part of the game. I understand that. . . . This process is probably pretty good training for being a president."

Thompson did submit to questioning by Diane Sawyer on the next day's "Good Morning America." She asked about his health (he is a cancer survivor), whether it says anything about him "that you have a younger wife" (24 years his junior) and about reports "that she's running the campaign." The candidate said he had asked Jeri to help and that she is "an easy target." Thompson also talked to CNN and chatted with a half-dozen print reporters.

Circumventing the press is not exactly a novel concept. Ross Perot tried it in 1992 (though it was in a "60 Minutes" interview that he ultimately self-destructed, charging that the first President Bush's campaign had secretly plotted to disrupt his daughter's wedding). Some clueless commentators argued at the time that it was unpresidential for Bill Clinton to play his saxophone on Arsenio Hall's talk show.

Now, of course, such stunts are embedded in the campaign landscape. Even George W. Bush shared his feelings on "Oprah," as did Clinton last week, when he was pushing his new book on volunteerism but also promoting his wife's candidacy. Hillary Clinton was on Ellen DeGeneres's show, joking about the host's being gay, and earlier did shtick with David Letterman ("We will finally have a president who doesn't mind pulling over and asking for directions"). Barack Obama and John McCain are among the presidential contenders who have flocked to Jon Stewart's couch.

Still, actually launching a White House campaign on a late-night comedy show might seem a tad frivolous -- except that Arnold Schwarzenegger blazed the trail by announcing for California governor at Leno's side.

When Thompson aides talk about their man communicating directly with the public, they really mean avoiding the "filter" of skeptical journalists. That strategy might have an outside shot at succeeding because of the power of the Internet, a magnet for such buzz-generating videos as the Clintons' "Sopranos" spoof.

For all his performance skills, Thompson may find that the game still requires him to hit big-league pitching from established journalists. And even with his late entry, there are still plenty of innings to go.

To Catch a Network

ABC's Brian Ross, who exposed Mark Foley's X-rated correspondence with House pages, is again looking into sexual exploitation of youngsters. But this time he has taken aim at his former network, NBC.

In a "20/20" segment Friday, Ross questioned the role of NBC's "Dateline" in a sting against child predators in Murphy, Tex. The controversy surrounding the program's "To Catch a Predator" series reached critical mass after a Texas prosecutor dropped charges last spring against 23 men arrested in the probe, and another suspect committed suicide.

District Attorney John Roach told ABC the evidence was too flawed for him to prosecute, in part because of mistakes by Perverted Justice, an organization hired by "Dateline" to lure predators to meeting places by having decoys pose online as teenagers. As in past episodes, police made arrests after correspondent Chris Hansen confronted the men with the cameras rolling.

In an interview, Ross rejected criticism from NBC executives that he is just trying to tarnish a competitor. The Texas tale, he says, "just really seemed like a good and important story. . . .

"What is the role of the media? Are they agents of the police?" asks Ross, who left NBC in 1994. While he regularly works with law enforcement, Ross says, in this case "the thing I was struck by was how the police and media roles seemed to have merged."

The Texas case marks the first time that charges have been dropped in the two years of the "Dateline" series. In 10 other stings, more than 200 men have been indicted and 120 convicted.

Louis Conradt Jr., a prosecutor from another county who was caught in the sting, shot himself to death last year when arresting officers broke his door down at home as Hansen and his crew stood nearby. Former detectives told Ross that such tactics were used to accommodate "Dateline." Conradt's sister has filed a lawsuit against NBC.

In a follow-up segment last week, Hansen cited a police report in saying Conradt may have been worried about "something possibly more damning" -- child pornography found on his computers. Hansen also contended that Roach could have made a case against the other suspects despite the fact that the Murphy police arrested them without warrants. NBC says warrants are not required under Texas law.

In an interview, Hansen calls it "preposterous to suggest we tried to influence police to execute an arrest warrant at the home of Louis Conradt Jr. It just didn't happen, and that's the truth."

"Dateline" Executive Producer David Corvo says ABC used "merely recycled, unfounded accusations from discredited sources." He did not explain how Roach had been discredited, other than to criticize his prosecutorial judgment.

Citing previous articles, Corvo says, "There was not a single new solitary fact or interview in the whole piece. I wonder what their motive was." Asked why NBC did not grant "20/20" an on-camera interview, Corvo says: "We're not going to help another program with ratings."

Ross acknowledges that "Dateline" deserves credit for having "made us all realize there is a serious national problem" with child predators. But he questions whether Hansen misleads the suspects into thinking he is a police officer by not initially identifying himself as a reporter. (One asked Hansen, "Am I under arrest?") Hansen has said he always identifies himself if asked.

Rival network or not, Ross says, "I tried to make it a very straight report."