CRIMINAL MINDED MEDIA: SUPER FEED

In today’s world across the globe, we read stories about journalists being killed in the Ukraine, or a headline of a Mexican reporter who was gunned down by a Mexican drug cartel.

Anytime a journalist is killed doing their job, it is an assault on the freedom of the press, it is an assault on the truth. In the world today via social media we have been desensitized to violence in many forms, our TV screens scream at us with mass shootings, and the belief in what is fact and what is actual truth in America is on shaky ground to say the least. The media we ingest as a country is fractured along political lines, and on both the right and the left we have come to accept our own insular version of events.

There was a time in America, where investigative journalists were conquering heroes, Ben Bradley, Walter Cronkite, Mike Wallace, Diane Sawyer, Barbara Walters,  Ed Bradley, they were news bastions, and in that circle of legends there was a journalist named Don Bolles that made the ultimate sacrifice………

Don Bolles is a 47-year old investigative reporter for The Arizona Republic. He's been working on a series about the mafia. Today as he attempted to start his car a bomb went off the night. Bolles is in critical condition, fighting for his life. Before he left into unconsciousness, he blamed the mafia and named a suspect. 

The assassination of an American Journalist on American soil is rare, bizarre and defies belief. A car bomb is the tactic of terrorists, a calculated and thought-out plan to maim or kill but even more to send a message, a message of fear and intimidation. The assassination of a journalist on American soil had to be the work of sophisticated and calculating individuals, who thought that they had enough power to get away with it, it was simply brazen. 

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Once-in-a-lifetime talent is a phrase seldomly used inside NBA circles; Lebron, Kobe, Luka, Durant — all players that have moved the needle on the basketball court and inside popular culture. The Prospect is an audio documentary series that will begin by tracking the story of what many call the best PROSPECT to ever play the game of basketball — a native of France — Victor Wembanyama. The Prospect will unfold, in real-time, the journey to NBA superstardom and the making of the NBA's first social media-aged billion-dollar superstar.

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Billy Chase could be killed at any moment.

He was arguably the finest Undercover Cop inside the War on Drugs in Connecticut. He produced big numbers and put away big-time dealers.

To them, Billy Chase is not just any undercover cop. He grew up in their neighborhood, went to school with them, and has had the audacity to infiltrate their drug world.

Billy Chase was also an outcast in his own racist police department. Many times undercover he has been mistaken for the very criminal element he seeks. The already perilous job of maneuvering in plain clothes takes on one more intense layer when the officer is black or Latino.

The story of Billy Chase undercover in the War on Drugs in the 1980s also is a defining tale about a City under siege, and how that time defined the future of politics, policing, and mass incarceration.

Executive produced by acclaimed journalist Lennie Grimaldi, Chased: The Story of Billy Chase is a 10 part limited series that delves deep into the crack-era and the slow mental decline of an officer who just went too deep.

Based on rare micro-cassette audio interviews of Billy Chase, Chased will be a franchise that delves into deeply personal narratives inside the guts of American Cities.

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I grew up in the confines of suburban Norwalk, Connecticut, a fan of the hip hop music of Public Enemy, KRS One and Rakim.

In 1994, at the age of 18, I left to pursue an interest in journalism and New York University. I was always fascinated by the rumors I heard surrounding hip hop culture, about murder, extortion, the laundering of drug money, the connection between criminal activity and the music.

Little did I know at the time, that fascination would eventually take me on a three year journey into a very complex relationship between hip hop, violence and the likes of the NYPD, LAPD, DEA and FBI.

Hip Hop vs The Cops is the story of a clandestine joint task force of law enforcement, that have been surveilling hip hop stars. I would soon learn that even A-list artists who claimed to be targets of the so called Hip Hop cops had no idea who these law enforcement officials really were or why they might exist.

Most officials questioned about the rumored secret unit refused to speak on or off camera may no comment are categorically denied knowledge of such a task force.

I would prove otherwise.

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