June 2009 - Posts
Tonight, Dateline NBC Presents a remarkable and rarely seen interview with Michael Jackson. Journalist Martin Bashir was given unprecedented access to the singer, his Neverland estate, and his children.
Jackson talked more openly than ever before about his troubled childhood, his ever-changing appearance, and his questionable relationships with children. It was his most intimate, revealing, and, disturbing interview.
A second look at an extraordinary documentary - "Living with Michael Jackson," tonight at 10 p.m. ET, 9 p.m. CT on NBC.
The tributes are mounting tonight to legendary entertainer Michael Jackson... and so are the questions that continue to haunt his death. His family says they want answers about exactly what happened the afternoon he died. Police want answers, too. They've now interviewed the doctor who was there. Were drugs involved in Jackson's death? And what did investigators find in the house? Tonight, we bring you new information from inside the investigaton. Josh Mankiewicz reports.
Also: Scenes from the recession . Millions of Americans have been laid off, and alarming statistics continue to pile up. But some things are harder to track: What number do you put on having to move into a shelter? Or trying not to cry in front of your kids? Now, some jobless Americans allow us a very personal look inside their lives: their deepest fears, where they find inspiration -- and the lucky breaks that could turn it all around. Dateline's Ann Curry reports.
Plus: Parents will do whatever they can for their kids, when they're sick -- care for them, comfort them. But few parents could do what one mother did: When doctors told her that her twin girls had a rare fatal disease, she discovered a possible treatment -- then battled a drug company and the government to use it. Hoda Kotb with the inspirational story of one mom, fighting the establishment -- her daughter's lives on the line.
Join us Sunday at 7 p.m./ 6 Central for Dateline NBC.
A popular, well-connected businessman dies when his car explodes. Initially, speculation leads to the mob, but a big insurance payoff eventually sends this cold case to Europe, where one ex-wife resides. NBC's Josh Mankiewicz reports.
NBC's Hoda Kotb reports on a mother's desperate journey to save her children from a rare disease. Determined to find a cure, the woman takes matters into her own hands educating herself in pharmacology, medicine, and the law in hopes of developing a treatment. Watch "Mom's Quest" and more this Sunday from 7-8 p.m. ET.
On Thursday, June 25 at 10 p.m. ET, 9 p.m. CT, Dateline NBC will mark the tragic deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson with a very special two-hour tribute to them tonight from 9-11 p.m. ET. NBC News' Ann Curry and Meredith Vieira will anchor the tribute.
On Friday, June 26, at 9 p.m. ET, 8 p.m. CT, NBC will re-air "Farrah's Story," a two-hour documentary about Fawcett's battle with cancer that she shot with her own video camera over the past two and a half years. The special, which first aired last month on NBC, is intensely intimate and emotional. It is Farrah's story in her own words as she explains her battle and her journey with cancer, and it is her narration that tells this story.
In January, Dateline NBC ran a report on Rachel Hoffman, a 23-year-old middle-class college grad who, after getting caught with marijuana for a second time, became a confidential informant for the Tallahassee, Fla. police department to avoid charges that could land her behind bars. Her story ended in tragedy: Police sent Hoffman out on a secret drug sting, and she was shot to death. Her parents, heartbroken, demanded to know where the officers who swore to protect her were at the time of the shooting. They got no answers.
On May 7, 2009, the one-year anniversary of Hoffman's death, Gov. Charlie Crist, R-Fla., signed Rachel's Law, which requires law enforcement to make safety the highest priority when conducting operations involving the use of confidential informants, and to have policies and procedures that consider a person's age and maturity and the potential of physical harm before having someone become a confidential informant.
To watch the full Dateline hour on Hoffman's case, "Deadly Dealing," click below:
Investigators called it one of the most unusual and bizarre cases they'd ever seen: A man seemingly killed in a fire in his garage. It certainly looked like an accident, but police would soon uncover evidence of something far more disturbing: A deadly plot, that would involve a switched identity, millions of dollars, and a heartbroken family, miles away.
See it Monday night on Dateline NBC at 10 p.m. ET, 9 p.m. CT.
Watch a preview of the show here.
NBC's Keith Morrison reports on a mother's mysterious disappearance and her two daughters determined to find answers. Did she run off with another man like their father claimed? Or was he covering for himself? Sixteen years later, the truth is revealed.
Plus: Tom and Jackie Hawks were killed as they tried to sell their boat in Newport Beach, California in 2004. NBC's Josh Mankiewicz reports on the latest in the case and talks to the young man who pretended to be an interested buyer and turned out to be a killer.
See it all on Dateline NBC this Friday from 9-11 p.m. ET.
This is an update to a 2005 Dateline NBC story on the disappearance of a missing young woman whose case received very little media attention at the time she vanished. You can read the original story here, and a column written by NBC correspondent Josh Mankiewicz on racial profiling in the media here. Below is the video of the original report, followed by an update on the case.
By Josh Mankiewicz, NBC News Correspondent
Tamika Huston was only 24 when she vanished. And at the time, pretty much no one paid any attention.
Her family sounded the alarm, of course, and the police in Spartanburg, S.C. went to work. At her home, officers found her cell phone, drivers license, and some uncashed paychecks. It didn't seem that Tamika had just taken off without telling anyone. They found her car on the other side of town.
Tamika's family did all they could to find her. And the sad truth is that she was probably killed before anyone started looking. Her murder was eventually solved and the killer led police to her remains.
But just as sad was what followed her disappearance. In a journalistic world seemingly obsessed with Laci, Natalee, Madeleine, and countless others, Tamika's family couldn't persuade any national news media to cover her story. Her aunt, Rebkah Howard, is a professional public-relations executive who contacted all the cable news networks and all the broadcast networks, and no one would even call her back. She called the TODAY show and Good Morning America. Yes, she tried Dateline NBC specifically. We didn't get back to her, either.
At that time, hours of airtime had been spent, both at NBC and our competitors, dissecting the smallest incremental developments in the search for other missing women, but Tamika Huston remained invisible.
And why was that? Maybe because those other missing women were white and Tamika was black. That's what Rebkah Howard believes, and she has a powerful case.
Most of the missing people in the United States are men, according to the FBI. Minorities represent a much higher percentage of the missing than of the population at large. But if you watch TV news, you'll get the impression that the only people missing in this country are female, attractive, and white.
It's not that my bosses --or their opposite numbers at other networks-- are racists. They're not. What they are interested in is building an audience, and the data pretty clearly show that stories like Natalee Holloway or Laci Peterson work with viewers, meaning people tune in and stay tuned in. And one of the sad truths of television --in news and elsewhere-- is that what works is what you, the viewer, will see more of.
In 2005, Dateline Producer Lai Ling Jew and I assembled a story about the disparity in news coverage of missing people, and focused on Tamika's case. We received quite a response, both from inside and outside the news business. And I think we changed the culture a little, particularly here at NBC.
Now Tamika's aunt Rebkah has started The Tamika Huston Foundation for the Missing, designed to help other families who find themselves living a similar horror: someone near and dear to them is missing, and the mainstream electronic media doesn't seem to care, or at the very least, won't take notice.
The Foundation will help families with media outreach, web-page development, and offer tips on how to deal with law enforcement. It's already helped with the case of William Van Croft, a 17-year-old with Asperger's Syndrome who disappeared in Washington, DC in January 2009.
Rebkah is working within the system that once shut her out. As it was with victim's advocacy groups, progress won't be quick or easy. Making people think differently never is.
For 30 years, Clark Rockefeller lived a life of deceit. He has now been convicted of abducting his seven-year-old daughter. NBC's Mike Taibbi has the latest this Sunday from 7-8 p.m. ET.
Click here for the latest news on this case.
Click here to read a transcript of the last update Dateline did on this story.
In an NBC News exclusive, Chris Hansen will show viewers a side of Sin City never seen before with "Vegas Undercover" premiering on "Dateline NBC" on Monday, June 15 at 10 p.m. on NBC. In this gritty, one-hour hidden camera investigation, Hansen goes off the strip to the dark corners of Las Vegas to watch police 'catch' auto thieves, pimps, even a man producing counterfeit hundred dollar bills. See web-exclusive clips from the show here.
Hansen and his team spent just under a year undercover with one of the most proactive police departments in the country, the Las Vegas Metropolitan P.D. He was granted exclusive access to several specialized units trained in investigating specific areas of crime.
He joins Vegas detectives from the "Pimp Investigation Team" and watches as an undercover detective pretends to try prostitution for the first time. A man attempting to become her pimp quickly approaches her and after police move in, Hansen talks with the man who was arrested for pandering. He also watches as an auto theft unit called "The Viper Squad," puts so-called "bait cars" on the street, only to be stolen.
Hansen also witnesses a man demonstrating for undercover cops from the Vegas "Intelligence Unit," his method for producing fake money. The man explains how he sells the bogus bills and even claims that some of his counterfeit money goes into circulation at a Vegas casino. After he's taken into police custody for forgery, Hansen confronts the man face-to-face in jail and shows him video of himself demonstrating his technique.
See more clips at TheHansenFiles.com.
By Luz Villarreal, Dateline NBC Producer
When I first saw this story in a local newspaper, I couldn’t believe what I was reading - two people killed over a small strip of land in Carmel Valley. All those involved were active in their community and well-liked. What drove them to this point? Why was that strip of land so important? Why couldn’t the neighbors settle this matter in court?
We set out to answer these questions in our report, and discover how this could have happened in a town known more for its rustic and serene wilderness, than murder. One lingering question remains: Did anyone have the legal right to cross this land owned by John F. Kenney?
It’s about 4 feet by 10 feet in size and right in front of a carport belonging to Mel and Elizabeth Grimes. Prosecutor Berkley Brannon’s team did a title search before the trial got underway to find out. It turns out the Grimes had an easement over the land in question.
The error that could have cost lives
“Kenney had absolutely no right to place a boulder there,” Berkley Brannon told us in an interview. “There's a lot more to say about it. Number one, we weren't allowed to bring it in, because we couldn't show that either side knew that this existed.”
The reason, Brannon said, that nobody knew about it was due to a scrivener’s error on the Grimes' deed. It was left off the deed by mistake. But it was on every prior deed and conveyance of the land up until Mel Grimes bought his property. A simple title search would have revealed that.
This all kind of makes you wonder: What if both neighbors knew? What we do know is this: When John Kenney decided to place a one-ton boulder on this small patch of dirt, it came to represent the line drawn in the sand between these neighbors. And the course of action that followed forever changed their lives and those in their community. Even the jurors involved said this case changed them. It changed the way they feel about neighbors and how they deal with neighborly disputes.
Almost everyone can relate to having issues with their neighbors. I know when my neighbors make a lot of noise in the wee hours of the morning, I think of John Kenney and the Grimes and I let it roll off my sleeve. I’m annoyed at times, but I don’t allow myself to get angry. Not anymore.
Click here to read the "Trouble on the Hill" transcript.
Click here to see a slideshow of the people involved in this case.
On a quiet road among the canyons lived three feuding neighbors, all of whom were loved and well-accomplished. Who could imagine what these neighbors were capable of? See it this Monday from 10-11 p.m. ET.
Friday, June 5, 10-11 p.m. ET: While honeymooning in Australia, a newly wedded bride drowns while diving the Great Barrier Reef. Was this an accident by a novice scuba diver, or was her husband to blame? NBC's Dennis Murphy has the latest on this story.
Sunday, June 7, 7-9 p.m. ET: NBC's Ann Curry explores a side of Iran unknown to most Americans with an exclusive look at the politics, people, and history of the controversial country.
Plus, David Goldman has been fighting for custody of his son, Sean, since his mother took him to Brazil in 2004. After five years, will this father and son finally be reunited? See the latest developments in the case and exclusive video of Goldman in Brazil, and get our last report on David's fight here.
Also, a wife is trapped in her husband's mysterious and secretive life, a world of deception and intrigue that would take her a decade to escape from. NBC's Dennis Murphy reports.
NBC News' Ann Curry presents an exclusive look at one of the world's most controversial countries, Iran this Sunday, June 7 at 7 p.m. ET.
Curry reports from Iran's capital, Tehran, and Esfahan to explore a side of Iran unknown to most Americans.
As Iran's June 12 presidential election approaches, Curry talks with the people of Iran to learn about the country's shifting attitudes on important issues that are impacting the election, including the economy, nuclear energy, and civil rights. She attends a presidential campaign rally and interviews leading politicians, including former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, as well as the first wife of a candidate ever to hit the campaign trail.
Curry discovers that Iran also has a rapidly changing culture with evolving opinions on women's rights, health, and religion. Curry profiles a women's rights lawyer, a top female filmmaker, a groundbreaking AIDS doctor, a leader in the Iranian Jewish community, and young Iranians seeking social change. She also explores Iran's transgender community and talks with a more conservative family wary of changes to social traditions.
