Learning the Hard Way

What public relations operators on the edges of the newspaper business generally may not know is that in New York State it is a crime to offer or pay a bribe to a newsman, or for that matter, to any other sort of private-enterprise employee (including radio and TV workers). Last week in Manhattan, a pressagent named Robin ("Curly") Harris found out the hard way about the New York law.

According to the charges filed, Harris, a good reporter-rewriteman (New York Daily News) turned public relations man, last month approached Long Island Newsday Reporter Robert W. Greene with a proposition. A Harris client--John J. O'Rourke, boss of the New York Teamsters--was up for trial on a charge of jukebox racketeering. Greene had already been assigned to cover the trial, and by his account, Curly Harris, who is also a press-agent for Jimmy Hoffa, suggested that it might be worth $5,000 to Greene if he wrote gently about O'Rourke.

Greene told Managing Editor Alan Hathway of the offer, was instructed to play along--under the surveillance of Nassau County police detectives. Greene reported that he collected a total of $230 from Harris on two occasions. After the second payment, Harris, who denied all, was arrested, released on $500 bond. Maximum penalty for violating a little-known law: $500 and a year's jail term.

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