The CBS news magazine 48 Hours will air a 6-part reality TV series on the Brooklyn DA beginning in May. The program won't he hard-hitting investigative news. Instead,
it will be reality fluff TV that largely whitewashes the real problems
of what could easily turn out to be the most corrupt DA in New York
City's recent history. The lead "characters" are the DA Charles Hynes himself and his thuggish and allegedly corrupt lead prosecutor Michael Vecchione.
Originally published at 9:45 pm CDT 3-27-2013
The CBS news magazine 48 Hours will air a 6-part reality TV series on the Brooklyn DA beginning in May.
The program won't he hard-hitting investigative news.
Instead, it will be reality fluff TV that largely whitewashes the real problems of what could easily turn out to be the most corrupt DA in New York City's recent history.
The lead "characters" are the DA Charles Hynes himself and his thuggish and allegedly corrupt lead prosecutor Michael Vecchione.
Why would CBS do this, especially during the middle of Hynes relection campaign?
It's hard to say.
One of the producers involved in the show allegedly is close to the DA.
The series, which will air during sweeps week, grants CBS unprecedented access, including knowledge of stings the DA's office has yet to carry out. This should make for good TV even if it is bad and unethical news reporting. And that should translate into significant money for CBS.
I don't believe CBS producers could ever have sold this piece of crap to CBS executives without Hynes having some cover for his bad actions.
That is probably what is behind Hynes courting of Jewish Community Watch (formerly Crown Heights Community Watch), which has repeatedly boosted Hynes even as Hynes continued to lie about child sexual abuse prosecutions.
It also probably has much to do with Hynes petition to release David Ranta from prison. There are other inmates who had and have cases as strong as Ranta's, but Hynes has fought the release of pretty much all them. Why not Ranta? Probably the timing, which coincides with the CBS producers' attempt to get the reality series approved.
Meanwhile, the Forward published a Thompson-Reuter's piece today on the Hynes' reality show that credits the Forward for reporting done by The Jewish Week, The Guardian, the New York Times and FailedMessiah.com – but not the Forward, which came to this part of the Hynes story belatedly:
In 2011, The Forward, an influential Jewish newspaper based in Brooklyn, said Hynes misled the public about the number of Orthodox Jewish sex offenders his office has prosecuted - itself a response to the newspaper’s earlier complaints that Hynes allowed rabbis to handle criminal accusations within their secretive rabbinical courts.