The Press: Learning the Hard Way

What public relations operators on the edges of the newspaper business generally may not know is that in New York State it is a crime to offer or pay a bribe to a newsman, or for that matter, to any other sort of private-enterprise employee (including radio and TV workers). Last week in Manhattan, a pressagent named Robin (“Curly”) Harris found out the hard way about the New York law.

According to the charges filed, Harris, a good reporter-rewriteman (New York Daily News) turned public relations man, last month approached Long Island Newsday Reporter Robert W. Greene with a proposition. A Harris client—John J. O’Rourke, boss of the New York Teamsters—was up for trial on a charge of jukebox racketeering. Greene had already been assigned to cover the trial, and by his account, Curly Harris, who is also a press-agent for Jimmy Hoffa, suggested that it might be worth $5,000 to Greene if he wrote gently about O’Rourke.

Greene told Managing Editor Alan Hathway of the offer, was instructed to play along—under the surveillance of Nassau County police detectives. Greene reported that he collected a total of $230 from Harris on two occasions. After the second payment, Harris, who denied all, was arrested, released on $500 bond. Maximum penalty for violating a little-known law: $500 and a year’s jail term.