Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal News Blogs -> Lawbeat

Legal News

: Lawbeat

Mob gossip on the Times site

By Mark Obbie

Famed mob reporter Jerry Capeci is holding court this week on The New York Times' site to answer questions from readers. There's been no shortage of such questions, and Capeci has tackled a number of them in two takes (so far). Capeci, whose Gang Land News site adopted a paid-subscription model about four months ago, is getting some promotional mileage, and sharing some of his voluminous knowledge of New York's mafia families. Two thoughts: First, I'm in awe of Capeci's recall or research skills. As with his columns, he taps a vast database of names and dates to dish about who's allied with whom, who likely killed whom, and so on. It's a testament to decades of dedicated beat reporting and source development. But that leads to my second point. Capeci's sourcing sometimes is transparent, such as where he cites court records to lay blame for this murder or that drug deal. But just saying "court records" hardly seems enough. Are we talking about unsupported allegations by unnamed FBI sources that happened to make it into an affidavit? Or evidence-rich proof? Even worse, he will sometimes rattle off names and conclusions about criminal activity with no sources at all. Mob reporting -- of which I'm a longtime reader and fan, and occasional practitioner -- is infamous for such opaque sourcing. Even in the hands of such an experienced reporter as Capeci, the tactic is inherently untrustworthy. Final point: I don't see an explanation on the Times page for the Capeci-Times collaboration. But it strikes me as an interesting model: an entrepreneurial, independent, Web-based reporter drops by a high-traffic news site to share some content, and pull in new readers.

Full post as published by Lawbeat on October 10, 2008 (boomark / email).