Document Actions
UNC-TV, Alcoa, and "The Don"
posted at 2010-08-17 23:37 | Last modified 2010-08-18 08:47
First, a Confession
I spent a full week agonizing over whether to ask UNC-TV for the emails it was turning over to Alcoa. After blasting the Senate, Jim Goodmon, and Alcoa for treating UNC-TV as a public agency, I just couldn’t stomach doing the same thing.
Shouldn’t ethics trump the easy route? On the other hand, shouldn’t the public know what Alcoa has?
Then came Saturday’s N&O article, detailing how Vajda’s “researcher”/”producer”/”agent”/? Martin Sansone reeled in three grand from anti-Alcoa forces. That info was in the emails UNC-TV turned over to Alcoa. WRAL had the story, too. They rescinded their official records request, but I’m told they made a less official request for whatever records the station was giving Alcoa, and they got them.
In other words, it’s all out there at this point. How can I argue that UNC-TV’s records deserve protection when the station itself has handed them around to Alcoa, the N&O, and WRAL? So I got them, too. I know it’s the right news decision to make. But on ethical grounds, I really hate it.
Early Reactions
I can’t say too much because I’m working on a story on this. But I will say that, after reading through the 5000+ pages of emails, I take back my criticism of UNC-TV management’s compliance with the Senate J2 records request. What looked from the outside like “rolling over” was really nothing of the kind.
Internal emails show no one in station management ever wanted to obey the request -- they fully intended to fight it on journalistic grounds. But they got no backing on that from UNC President Bowles, from board members, or from the AG’s office, where they sought legal expertise.
I can also say that, despite rumors to the contrary, the emails make it clear that the station was NOT trying to kill the Alcoa story. In one email after another over several months, station managers asked Vajda to come up with a work schedule and proposed airdate(s) for her work. It wasn’t about whether to air the story. It was about how – as a documentary, or as segments on NC Now. Managers wanted the latter, while Vajda (and others) pushed for the former, even after she’d been told that wasn’t going to happen.
(Update: Lynn Bonner has a follow-up story here.)
Who is Martin Sansone?
I’ve had a lot of email interaction with Vajda’s agent/researcher/producer Martin Sansone over the past few weeks. He describes himself as Vajda’s longtime friend – and if the “babe,” “luv,” and other endearments in their UNC-TV emails are any indication, they’re still pretty close.
According to Sansone’s Facebook and LinkedIn profiles, he’s an expert in social media and public relations, “known as the Don Sansone for his input on the Internet.” (It takes about 5 seconds on Google to see that only Sansone is calling Sansone anything of the kind, a fact you might think a self-described "search engine optimization expert" would’ve noticed.)
Sansone's altruistic work is well-documented, especially that which involves exotic locales like Cape Verde. But if his Facebook profile is any indication, he spends most of his time having adventures. Skiing shirtless. Riding a camel in the Sahara. Rappelling in the UK. Driving nice cars. (He was also involved in a Rwandan orphanage project – amahora.org – but that site hasn’t been updated since 2008. Again, odd for a self-professed media guru.)
So how did Sansone come to be involved in the Alcoa project? As he explained it in an email to me in July, he came to visit Vajda and got interested in her research. It’s also perhaps germane that, at least as of 2008, Sansone’s profile on Filmaka.com indicates he was hoping to become a filmmaker. (He posted an animated film there, too, but warning: it’s NSFW, and pretty misogynistic to boot.)
When I asked Sansone about his involvement in the project, he said,
“Essentially I am the researcher and co-producer of the real story.. not the UNC-TV pantomime. An entrepreneur and Christian activist from England.”
Sansone says his ultimate goal is to produce a feature film for release around the globe. (That’s kind of a problem, given that UNC-TV owns the rights to all the footage Vajda shot using its cameras. )
Last weekend, the N&O’s Lynn Bonner reported that Sansone and Vajda solicited a $3000 payment to Sansone from anti-Alcoa strategist Richard Morgan and friends in early April. That revelation casts a long shadow on the credibility of all the work Vajda has done on this story.
Sansone told Charlotte NPR affiliate WFAE that he didn’t see why the payment was a big deal. “It wasn't even an issue to me. I haven't got a problem with it.”
He also told WFAE the money was meant to help him get back to the US in challenging circumstances:
“…The volcano eruption in Iceland last spring grounded him in London. Sansone says that's when Morgan helped him out. The $3,000 helped him afford the extra flights he needed to fly around the volcano debris that stranded many travelers in Europe.”
That would be a great story if it were true. But it isn't. According to the UNC-TV emails, Sansone and Morgan negotiated the payment on April 7th – a full week before April 14th, when the volcano actually erupted.
The most ironic moment of the story is when Sansone tells WFAE he’s certain UNC-TV will fire Vajda over the payment from Morgan.
"Take that to a bank," he says.
You already did, Mr. Sansone.
Comment? Drop me a line.
