Welcome back from wherever you were. May your transition to the harsh realities of September be as pleasant as possible. So, Diana aired this past weekend and no one is suing us (yet) so it couldn't have been all bad. Actually spent most of August with a really nasty piece of work: Charles Manson. Think I mentioned earlier that I was working on an hour about Manson based on a 1987 interview he did for the Today Show.
We brought in former FBI Profiler, Candice DeLong to watch the interview and she gave our correspondent, Keith Morrison, her unique perspective on Manson. Candice inspired the Clarice Starling character in Silence of The Lambs, and I thought she did a great job for us. If you're interested you can check out The Mind of Manson on MSNBC this Wednesday September 5 at 10p. You should also read Helter Skelter by Manson Prosecutor, Vincent Bugliosi. In the tradition of Cold Blood, Helter Skelter gives a thorough and vivid account of some of the most bizarre and heinous murders in American history.
When the Manson interview first aired a lot of people at NBC thought it shouldn't have, and I was skeptical about my assignment. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that giving people like Manson airtime is only justified if one makes an effort to learn from and understand how these monsters work. I think that's what we did.
Not sure what my next assignmnent will be and in the meantime I'm getting ready to go see my mom in San Miguel De Allende, Mexico for a week with my wife and little baby Clyde Felsen pictured below.
Somehow I've managed to put snaps of my son and Charles Manson in the same blog. It's all about balance!
Hasta La Proxima
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Hasta La Victoria Siempre
