Story Brokers

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LOL, Jeff. Story-tellers - Story-brokers<br><br><br>Fixer, Story Broker Larry Garrison Books Ramsey’s Non-Killer<br>He Receives Prison Call From JonBenét Nut, Who Requests Diane Sawyer <br> <br>By Rebecca Dana<br><br>When John Mark Karr got lonely during long nights in federal custody—when his thoughts turned to the media, to film and to book deals (and, it turns out, to Diane Sawyer)—the man he called was Larry Garrison, an independent television producer.<br> <br>“And he called collect,” Mr. Garrison said.<br> <br>Mr. Garrison said that his cell-phone bill from that month was more than $2,000. That included not just Mr. Karr’s jailhouse calls, but the cost of fielding calls from every major broadcast outlet, and a lot of the minor ones, too. All were looking to land the first television interview with Mr. Karr, the lissome, spooky-eyed man who had falsely confessed to killing JonBenét Ramsey.<br> <br>Mr. Garrison, who is based in Ventura County, Calif., specializes in packaging high-profile cases. In TV parlance, he is a “story broker.” When something bad happens, story brokers are the people who help criminals and victims monetize their villainy or grief. They place themselves as middlemen between the supply of human drama and the demand for it—so news organizations have to do business with them.<br> <br>And Mr. Garrison is the “king” of that business, according to multiple sources at ABC, the network that reached an initial agreement about interviewing Mr. Karr.<br> <br>“He finds a way for ordinary people to profit from extraordinary circumstances,” one ABC source said.<br> <br>Some brokers—the disreputable ones, in Mr. Garrison’s account—provide a means for news outlets to bid on big-get interviews without the ethically messy expedient of paying the subject. Instead, the winning network or tabloid will arrange to interview the subject for free, while paying a hefty “licensing fee” for home videos or personal photographs to accompany the story. (Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin’s widow chose this month to go with ABC and Barbara Walters; NBC offered $500,000 in licensing fees, according to a source with knowledge of the deal, but CBS and ABC offered between $750,000 and $1 million each.)<br> <br><br> <br><br> <br><br><br>The pejorative term for those brokers is “fixers.” Mr. Garrison views himself not as an auctioneer but as a consultant and advisor—and a professional journalist in his own right. What he sells to the networks is production assistance on the stories he helps set up.<br> <br>Mr. Garrison is also an author—his latest book, describing his work, is called The Newsbreaker—and he and the networks sometimes work out a promotional appearance for him as a quid pro quo.<br> <br>Mr. Garrison has handled media deals for two Michael Jackson jurors, the relatives of Robert Blake’s dead wife, the family of vanished-in-Aruba teen Natalee Holloway and Joran van der Sloot, the chief suspect in Ms. Holloway’s disappearance. He relies, he says, on a collection of “over 80 people out in the field that just bring me stories.”<br> <br>So when a celebrity trial is convened or a cheerleader vanishes, Mr. Garrison is often the first person at the principals’ side, offering comfort and media coaching. He shops their book proposals and produces their movies.<br> <br>Brokering remains, for some, an uncomfortable arrangement. “There’s a strong belief among people who work around and at [Good Morning America] that this is paying for interviews,” said one ABC source. “It goes back to what Lawrence Schiller did with Gary Gilmore during Executioner’s Song.”<br> <br>But thanks to Mr. Garrison and other brokers, it’s an arrangement that has to be made. “Larry, he’s certainly one of the most aggressive,” said another ABC source who has worked with him multiple times. “You can’t use the word ‘best.’ So, you know, we journalists sometimes look at it as interference. We’d rather get there, but he will get there, and you find out he has somebody’s story rights.”<br> <br>“Right now, I’m dealing with the woman who ingratiated herself with the B.T.K. killer,” Mr. Garrison said. He’s also dealing with Pamela Rogers, a schoolteacher convicted of sexual battery on one of her 13-year-old male students. For Ms. Rogers, Mr. Garrison is arranging a sweeps interview.<br> <br>CONTINUED<br>1 2 3 NEXT <br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.observer.com/20061016/20061016_Rebecca_Dana_pageone_nytv.asp">www.observer.com/20061016...e_nytv.asp</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br> <p></p><i></i>