Why NHPR Journalists Need To Worry About Censorship, Protecting the 4th Estate, and Getting Replaced by “Influencers” - Granite Grok

Why NHPR Journalists Need To Worry About Censorship, Protecting the 4th Estate, and Getting Replaced by “Influencers”

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Journalism has often been referred to as the Fourth Estate — critical to keeping the three branches of Government in check. But what happens when a State’s public interest journalists are no longer empowered to keep the three branches of Government in check? When they are replaced by “influencers” who act as agents for law enforcement?

Where they are censored completely or else given talking points or buzz terms by NGOs secretly working on behalf of and in collusion with elected officials, police, prosecutors, or the Federal Government itself?

Eight years ago, New Hampshire Public Radio sent Paige Sutherland to cover the criminal trial of New Hampshire v Owen Labrie. Like other journalists, Paige Sutherland tweeted live updates from the trial. Many years later, she was to discover that her tweets had been included as an exhibit for a motion to seek restrictions for media access. Other journalists attending the trial did not have their tweets included in the motion. She was singled out, and she was unaware.

Paige Sutherland wasn’t writing for a gossip magazine or an online publication reliant on clickbait and # engagement. She was reporting for New Hampshire’s Public Radio station — the one that New Hampshire’s citizens are supposed to be able to rely upon for truthful, unbiased reporting. The public has a right of access to criminal court proceedings. When members of the public can’t attend, they rely on journalists to report what’s going on, and they assume the journalists to be honest.

There was nothing harmful in Paige Sutherland’s tweets, nothing sensational. She was merely reporting live statements of the State’s witness, an anonymous Jane Doe (later known as Chessy Prout), whose legal team had brought attorneys, victims rights activists, media specialists and influencers to the trial after introductions and recommendations made by Concord Police.

The media restriction was backed by an elected public official for the City of Concord, whose non-profit had an unlawful interest in restricting the media for political and financial gain; to serve the interests in her organization’s partnership with the Department of Justice, Department of Education, Department of Defense, the White House “Not Alone” task force, Senator Jeanne Shaheen’s and Congresswoman Ann Kuster’s election campaigns.

I came across the motion and approval by Judge Larry Smukler in 2021/2022 in my research into the trial. A tweet from Paige Sutherland indicated that it was the first time she’d heard about it.

In an article in the Concord Monitor following this motion in August 2015, the following excerpts are noteworthy.

Amanda Grady Sexton, public policy director for the New Hampshire Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence, pointed to the dangers of live reporting, noting that reporters “don’t have that opportunity for editors to weigh in on important journalistic decisions.”

“It is very likely that things are being published that wouldn’t have otherwise made it to print because a discussion would have taken place about what is the fair thing to report,” she said, adding, “Victims are watching and seeing what this very courageous teen is being subjected to. And I’m afraid this is a deterrent, and that’s really heartbreaking.”

……

On Thursday, the judge in the case, Larry Smukler, issued an order limiting the number of reporters who can “broadcast” from the court.

Grady Sexton, who is attending the Labrie trial and keeping tabs on the reporting on it, said she hopes the attention starts a broader dialogue about how best to cover similar sensitive cases. …..

“We’re about to have the whole world’s eyes on New Hampshire during the Kibby trial, involving another juvenile sexual assault victim, and we as a community need to come together to have a discussion about best practices for the courts and the media,” Grady Sexton said. “We have an opportunity to set the tone for the national press about our expectations.”

Another document in the Merrimack County Superior Court records for the trial show an instruction granting exclusive TV access to WMUR.

Amanda Grady Sexton’s husband, Adam Sexton, is the political director of WMUR and the reporter who broadcast Owen Labrie’s mugshot following his arrest warrant on July 16, 2014, in the middle of the Dartmouth Sexual Assault Summit introduced by Congresswoman Ann Kuster.

On June 1, 2016, a lawsuit was filed against St Paul’s School: Does v St Paul’s (aka Prout/Does v St Paul’s School). The lawsuit, per an affidavit signed by Michael Delaney, who was legal counsel for St Paul’s School at the time, was given to Jeremy Blackman at the Concord Monitor, Susan Zalkind at Vice Media, and NBC Today Show. Jeremy Blackman had also tweeted from the criminal trial. Susan Zalkind had reported extensively from it.

These journalists were seeking comment from Michael Delaney on the suit against St Paul’s School, but he was unable to obtain a copy because the courts had closed. Jeremy Blackman of the Concord Monitor sent him his copy and said that he’d been given it by “a source.” The lawsuit was filed by Steven J Kelly Esq, Steven D Silverman Esq, and Chuck Douglas Esq.

Steven J Kelly Esq & Amanda Grady Sexton wrote this guide to Pretrial publicity (paid for with a grant from the DOJ) — documenting their work to influence the Associated Press; their work to train police, prosecutors, investigators, witnesses and to tailor a media strategy for these.

In their bios they list their work with lawmakers, including Governors, Senators, and members of Congress. Amanda Grady Sexton’s bio also includes praise she received in Politico Magazine in 2016 for being one of

“the most plugged-in activists and elected officials” in NH, and the Boston Globe called her one of NH’s “most desirable endorsements for candidates seeking the Presidency.”

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Steven J Kelly Esq had been introduced to NH v Owen Labrie by Laura L Dunn Esq, who’d been recommended to the Prout family by Concord Police Detective Julie Curtin several months before the criminal trial. Concord Police Detective Julie Curtin’s budget for the investigation was approved by the City of Concord Council. Amanda Grady Sexton is Chair of the City of Concord Council’s public safety committee to whom the Concord Police Chief reports. The city also approves payments to witnesses for Grand Jury.

Earlier in the year, in March 2016, Owen Labrie was put into solitary confinement for his own safety following a tweet from Susan Zalkind saying she’d run into New England’s most notorious sex offender, sparking police investigation of bus records. These revealed he’d missed his strict curfew of 5pm-8am on a handful of occasions due to commuting from Vermont to Boston for classes. Amanda Grady Sexton wrote a statement on the NHCADSV site to thank Judge Larry Smukler for revoking Owen Labrie’s bail. Susan Zalkind made TV appearances about her achievement.

Unlike Paige Sutherland, who was a journalist for public radio and had a duty to report honestly in the public interest, the question has to be asked as to whether Susan Zalkind qualified as a journalist at all.

Was she, in fact, an influencer or an agent for the police and the NHCADSV? Did she violate the Fourth Amendment? Was she sent by the NHCADSV, Concord Police or Prosecutors, upon suspicion by them that Owen Labrie had violated his curfew hours, to confirm this for them and thus allow them to revoke his bail?

“Finally, it calms down a bit, and there’s just the one man with the Rubik’s cube, screaming, and I introduce myself,” Zalkind said in an interview with Boston Public Radio. “I said hello, Owen, I kind of have to introduce myself, I’m a reporter, I’ve covered your trial for Vice [News]. I did that, and I kind of waited to see where it would go from there.”

Zalkind expected Labrie to recoil and dismiss her, but he didn’t. “He moved over very politely, so I could sit down, and so there I am sitting down next to him…and I asked him what he was up to, where is [was] going,” she said.

“At the time, he was worried, because the train was stopped, because of this guy with his arm stuck, so he was worried about making curfew, but at the time it was conceivable to me that he would make it on time. I didn’t report that he had broken his curfew, it didn’t raise eyebrows to me that he had, it might have been a tight call, but that’s not what my story was about.”

Zalkind tweeted out a few quotes from her interview, wrote up a piece for Vice News, and waited for reactions. One unexpected response came from a detective from the police force in New Hampshire, Julie Curtin. Curtin launched a full-scale investigation which revealed that Labrie had been making a habit of violating his curfew. After an expedited hearing, Labrie’s bail was revoked, and the 20-year-old was sent to jail.

The lady doth protest too much — “I didn’t report that he had broken his curfew……wrote up a piece for Vice News, and waited for reactions. One unexpected response came from a detective from the police force in New Hampshire, Julie Curtin.”

A couple of months later, Susan Zalkind was the lucky recipient of the leaked lawsuit against St Paul’s School, which led to a Grand Jury Criminal Investigation into St Paul’s School with Concord Police Detective Julie Curtin as the main investigator. It also led to a contract for the NHCADSV with St Paul’s School. Who paid Vice Media for Susan Zalkind’s coverage?

Who decided that it was OK for Susan Zalkind of Vice Media to cover the trial but had issues with NHPR’s Paige Sutherland’s live tweets?

In August 2016, Michael Delaney, acting as counsel for St Paul’s School, filed a response to the June 1 lawsuit in which he stated that Steven D Silverman Esq had been suspended by DC Bar in 2014 for using media to influence the judicial outcome in Doe v Cabrera.

Later in August 2016, NBC Today Show featured Chessy Prout and her family, who publicly revealed their names for the first time on national TV.

In March 2018, Susan Zalkind promoted a “memoir” by Chessy Prout and Boston Globe reporter Susan Zalkind with an introduction by Congresswoman Ann Kuster. She was effectively working for them all as their publicist while also working for the Concord Police and NHCADSV as an agent, a spy, and an informant.

In July 2019, Amanda Grady Sexton, the NHCADSV, and elected officials in New Hampshire, including Congresswoman Ann Kuster, launched a social media and phone campaign to block ABC/GMA from airing an interview with Owen Labrie upon his release from jail.

“Why is ABC giving convicted rapist Owen Labrie a platform to claim his innocence? As the judge in his case stated, Owen is ‘a very good liar.’ As Owen stated himself: ‘You deny until you die.’ #MeToo #NOMORE #OwenLabrie #IHaveARightTo,” a portion of the coalition’s tweet read.

That tweet and a series of other social media posts began a conversation that quickly caught the attention of national victims rights groups to include Promoting Awareness Victim Empowerment (PAVE), National Network to End Domestic Violence, End Rape On Campus, National Sexual Violence Resource Center, NO MORE, and Love is Respect. In addition to those organizations, coalitions in Mississippi, Montana and Colorado; several New Hampshire survivors; U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster and state representatives continue to weigh in with their own posts and calls for the network to rethink its decision.

How odd — Amanda Grady Sexton and the NHCADSV were only too happy for Susan Zalkind of Vice Media, their agent & spy, to sidle up to him on a subway and report her conversation with him so they could get him arrested for curfew violations. They were also very happy to plaster his face all over the news but complained that they shouldn’t have to see it unless it was under their terms — where they could get away with comparing their Harlequin Romance-style fantasy rapist to an Isis terrorist, Brett Kavanaugh or Donald Trump.

Even convicted felons have first amendment rights, except in New Hampshire, where neither the first amendment nor the fourth amendment is respected by publicly elected officials, police, prosecutors or even judges. They do not respect independent public interest journalism. It’s a pity because one day, they might need honest Fourth Estate reporting for themselves.

What are the consequences?

In October 2019, Professor David Bucci of Dartmouth College committed suicide.

His wife cited the media coverage in Rapuano & Does v Dartmouth in which he was named 31 times, as a possible cause of his downward spiral. He’d been accused, in a lawsuit filed by Steven J Kelly & Chuck Douglas, of knowing of sexual misconduct in his department and failing to report it. He claimed he had no knowledge but was denied the right to speak for himself. A media grant from Times Up Legal Defense Fund/National Women’s Legal Center paid for the pretrial coverage.

In May 2023, Michael Delaney formally withdrew his application for a lifetime judicial position on the First Circuit Court of Appeals.

His withdrawal followed criticism of his representation of St Paul’s School and allegedly forcing Chessy Prout to reveal her identity behind her “Doe” status in her family’s civil suit against St Paul’s School. Despite Michael Delaney’s explanations, he was effectively canceled by the Prout family with Republican Senators Ted Cruz and Mitch McConnell behind them — publicly shamed in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee now have records from New Hampshire’s State Witness & erstwhile “survivor” mascot, Chessy Prout, alleging Delaney (a former AG) tampered with witnesses for the State and that Amanda Grady Sexton informed Prosecutor Catherine Ruffle of this tampering and that Prosecutor Catherine Ruffle allowed the witnesses to give testimony anyway (one of them, Andrew Thomson, being the son of Governor Maggie Hassan’s legal counsel, Lucy Hodder who teaches at UNH).

Had the Merrimack County Superior Court not restricted access to the trial of NH v Owen Labrie; had Amanda Grady Sexton not been involved in making editorial decisions; had WMUR not been the only TV station allowed access; had Susan Zalkind of Vice Media not been favored over Paige Sutherland for NHPR then:

Perhaps Michael Delaney’s judicial nomination wouldn’t have fallen foul — it might never have made it to the starting gate if an honest reporter from NHPR had been allowed to report on the prosecutor’s interference with the cross-examination of Andrew Thomson.

Perhaps the judicial outcome of NH v Owen Labrie would have been different.

Perhaps Owen Labrie would not have been put in solitary confinement for his own safety.

Perhaps the lawsuit against St Paul’s School would have had a different outcome or not even be filed at all.

Perhaps the NHCADSV would not have got a contract with the school.

Perhaps Owen Labrie’s appeals might not have been denied.

Perhaps AG Gordon MacDonald wouldn’t have found the need to hide files of corrupt police officers.

Perhaps there wouldn’t have been a Grand Jury Criminal Investigation into the School with a decision made behind closed doors to keep it private from the public who paid for it.

Perhaps Concord Police Detective Julie Curtin wouldn’t have been transferred to Epping Police Department.

Perhaps Amanda Grady Sexton and Congresswoman Ann Kuster wouldn’t have needed to violate the first amendment to shut down a citizen’s right to speak for himself on TV.

Perhaps Professor David Bucci might not have been driven to suicide.

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