Recording Phone Calls

Federal law allows recording of phone calls with the consent of one party on the call, meaning you can legally record any phone calls you're a part of. State laws vary, however: in some states you must have the consent of both parties (not New York, though). See here for a full guide.

You can record phone calls on normal handsets with a cheap recorder hookup, like this one from Radio Shack. You can also record calls onto your PC, either with an adapter, or, more simply, by using Skype. There are also services that will record your cell phone calls for you, and allow you to access them when you want.

Other Recording

A simple little digital recorder is a great device that can be slipped into a pocket or left in a corner and record ambient conversations for hours. For long-distance audio recording, you'll need something more powerful, like a parabolic microphone that can amplify sounds 300 yards away. Works great for hearing bird calls; if you're using it to listen in on people, you may be a creep.

For visuals, there are plenty of discreet, handheld digital camcorders that should meet most video recording needs. To secretly record what's happening in a room, you can buy camcorders that are hidden in everything from plants to smoke alarms. Again—if you are using these to be a creep, you will and should be locked up.

Researching People

Google! It's a wonderful tool. Nexis People search is a quick and efficient way to categorize your searching by what the person does, where they're from, their company name, etc. Paid search services like Intellius can take small bits of information about people and search for public records and contact info for a nominal fee. Names can be parlayed into phone numbers and email addresses, and vice versa.

Public records from these and other similar sources are broader than you think. Recent Nexis upgrades, for example, can give you everything from a person's cell phone number to info on their gun licenses. You never know what you might find.

The Freedom of Information Act is designed to give you access to government records that don't have a good reason to be private. This is largely political; under the current administration, lots of stupid things are private. Obama should be more open (one would think). Get your FBI file, why don't you? Better yet, get someone else's! A government guide to FOIA is here, and a citizen's guide to the process is here.

Also legal: searching through someone's trash, if it has been placed out for disposal in a public area. Although this may get your ass kicked.

Tracking Movement

A small GPS device like this placed in someone's car can help you track them for days. If you're not in law enforcement, this is probably illegal, so never do it.

Modern cell phones have built-in GPS devices, which would theoretically make them a great way to track the movement of individuals. But that's generally impossible without the assistance of the carrier, unless the person is using an opt-in tracker and posting their movements themselves on Dodgeball or something. So this one requires great hacking skills or a mole at the phone company, and is illegal besides. A useful overview to cell phone tracking is here.

For observation purposes, digital binoculars combine a camera, video recorder, and binoculars in one product.

Final Thoughts

Are you spying for a righteous cause? If not, give the world some privacy, why don't you? Either way, you might consider learning Krav Maga or carrying a Taser. Those being spied upon tend to object.

How Much Does It Cost?

Travel: Expedia is offering four-night packages to Beijing right now for $1570. The Olympics are two weeks long. Throw in an extra day on either end, and we'll call basic travel and housing costs $6,000 per reporter. Total: $192,000

Food and drinks: Plenty of the food will be free. The booze will be extra. And you know traveling reporters love to splurge on the expense account. We'll give a conservative estimate of $150 per day per reporter. Total: about $67,000

Security, guides and transportation: Americans are getting stabbed! Somebody has to keep an eye on these reporters' safety. Let's say $25k for protection. The Times needs handlers to show them around Beijing: we'll call that $50k over two weeks. Add in another $100 per day per reporter for taxis and whatnot. Total: about $80,000

Freelancers: Somebody has to cover the house fires, baseball games, political rallies, and whatever else the Times full-timers would have been writing about normally. Let's say each reporter at the Olympics would have written three stories per week that the paper had to freelance out at $300 each. Total: about $57,000

Miscellaneous: Laundry bills, souvenirs, pens, computer charges, phone bills, and other things reporters sneak onto expense accounts, legitimate or not. Call it an extra $500 per reporter. Total: $16,000

Total extra cost of sending reporters to Beijing, not including salaries, insurance, or bribe money: $412,000

What's It Worth?

Let's say, for ease of calculation, that each reporter writes one story per day on average for two weeks. That's 448 stories total for the Times' fancy Olympic section. Yes, some stories will be epic features and some will be throwaway coverage of particular events, but we figure that evens out. The total extra cost per story, then, is about $920.

Those better be some awesome stories, right? But divide it by a million papers per day, and it comes out to a total of less than three cents per day for the entire Olympic Times contingent. So the real question is: Would you pay three cents a day to read what the New York Times has to say about the Olympics?

It's a philosophical question.

[Any NYT people who'd like to correct our calculations, email us]

PRs - that mysterious and dark breed of fixers, stuntsters and arch media manipulators - have, for more than a century now, been as fundamental to the Tinseltown fantasy as the Hollywood sign itself. They are, according to Borkowski, in his new book The Fame Formula, the hidden gatekeepers of the Hollywood dream machine “who guard its formula, often to the death”

Even today, Borkowski, whose clients have included Michael Jackson, claims that movie publicists are part of a powerful cabal who mostly go unnoticed, who ruthlessly hold the media in their grasp and who “truly understand the dark Conradian soul of man” (ie, our baser instincts).

And the most incredible line of all:

Here, increasingly, the job of the publicist is to tread the fine line between matching a “suitable” journalist with the talent and choosing a craven sycophantic hack who will play the promotional game.

That would be you, Times reporter Kevin Maher! Flack-turned-author Mark Borkowski thanks you for being enough of a sycophantic hack to make his book sound interesting!

Remember, a "Hollywood publicist" is often a guy like this.

[Times UK]

I saw two options. Either start snapping the shutter and pressing the flesh and risk the old "Who the fuck are you?" treatment, or attempt to be above-board and identify myself as a freelance photographer and writer, which I am. In the sweltering jungles of Cambodia, where I received my baptism by fire as a journalist and aspiring heroin addict, I learned that, as a reporter, you play it straight with your subjects, and that's exactly what I did with Ronn (sic) Torossian.

BAD FUCKING IDEA!

I walked up to him and said, "Hey there, I'm a freelance writer and photographer, you mind if I start taking some shots?"

He asked me who I write for, and I told him I've written for the New York Times, the New York Post, and Time Out, all of which is true. But then he asked me if I was there on an assignment, and I hesitantly replied in the affirmative.

"Who assigned you," Mr. Grammar (sic) Torossian pressed.

It was like the world went dark, and I heard the cries of a thousand anguished souls burning and writhing in the Spirit World.

"Gawker."

I honestly thought he might serve me an ass-kicking right on the spot, but at first all he did was tell me not to take any pictures. He then disappeared from the conference room, though, and I had a feeling he was about to affect my ejection, which he did.

"Nothing personal, but do you read Gawker's posts on me?"

I did not say, "Yes, and they're just delicious!"

I did not say, "Yes, it's really refreshing to see an asshole actually being held accountable for his ineptitude, meanness of spirit, and thuggish behavior."

I tried to reason with him, to explain I was just there to ask questions, not do a back-alley hatchet job. That I wrote for the Times in 1958 once, and that I have my reputation as a failed journalist to protect.

"You could tell CNN that I am God, but I'm not going to let you cover this event. You'll get a good story out of this about how you were bounced." (I hadn't considered that angle until he suggested it.)

"There's no discussion about this," a security guy in a bad blazer chimed in.

So, I left, disoriented. I looked at my hand and saw I still had a water bottle from 5W's kitchen.

I walked down 6th Avenue feeling like I had let the readers of Gawker down, that they now had to pay the price for my naïve, mid-western inclination – an inclination burnished in the sweltering jungles of Cambodia – to speak Truth to Publicists, and in particular to a publicist named Ronn (sic) Torossian.

Journalism!

[A legal expert] said that generally speaking, it’s OK to take aerial photos of objects that are readily visible to the naked eye, since they’re taken from public airspace.

The possibility of trouble arises when people use high-powered telephoto lenses. If a photo reveals a home’s security operations or shows close-ups of people, there could be an argument for an invasion of privacy claim. She said that “capturing someone sitting on their patio sunbathing nude” could create a legal challenge, but added that “if you’re just showing that someone has this lovely home, I’m not sure that would be a compelling argument for a claim.”

You heard it straight from the WSJ: you are well within your rights to try to "incidentally" snap a photo of Bill Gates in the buff. Because you like his lovely home. And thank god for that. Without these rights, the media would never get jealousy-producing shots like these:

Rodney Propp's $40 million Hamptons spread, from Vanity Fair:

A mere glimpse of Abigail Johnson's hideously valuable Massachusetts manse:

You get the idea, plebe.

[WSJ]

For "a digital magazine aimed at women 35+." Could it be....THIS?

"They're the only owners who could make you wish for Murdoch."

"It seemed to show a lack of respect and a lack of desire to be helpful to your new property."

"People are so beaten down here there's not much of anything that could cause much of a reaction."

"Everything is different," said one. "The parking lot is half-empty, the cafeteria is half-empty. It's unbelievable. I remember when I couldn't get a space! You get to work after 10 a.m. or so, and the lines at the cafeteria used to be long. Now there's nothing. There's no one there."

Sounds like fun!

[NYO]

I guess if you want to get technical about it, Julia Allison is employed by a magazine. But her main occupation is fameball. So when I saw her, in a white dress, dramatically posing for photos as if she was getting married, it made me question whether these magazine awards were supposed to be some sort of society event. Apparently so! The following people showed up to present awards, for no discernible reason whatsoever:

• Anderson Cooper. Who did not say anything gay.
• Former New Yorker editor and current Clinton family stalker Tina Brown. "She looks like Hillary," someone whispered loudly when she appeared.
• The aforementioned Padma Lakshmi. She said some stuff about her food show, too.
• Former baseball star turned investor turned magazine publisher Lenny Dykstra. Though he can't be 50 years old yet, he shuffled, mumbled, and spoke with his mouth an inch from the mike in a disquieting impression of Muhammad Ali in the throes of Parkinson's disease. Or maybe it wasn't an impression.
• Obama girl.
• New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. Who, after the ceremony, was deep in conversation with New Yorker editor David Remnick. A conversation I imagine going like this:

  KELLY: Congratulations on the award.

  REMNICK: Thanks. Coincidentally, we're going to be doing an investigative piece on the NYPD soon.

  KELLY: You are under arrest.

• Judah Friedlander and two other people from 30 Rock. They also made awkward, jokey attempts to somehow tie their show to the magazine industry. Not their fault, though. My guess is they were just as mystified that they were there as anyone else.
• Charlie Rose

The "Nick Denton Could Make This A Metaphor" moment of the night: Portfolio editor Joanne Lipman, after receiving an award, tried to walk off stage the wrong way, and had to turn around and double back.

And here, the night in poor pictures. I'm having some trouble aligning them correctly, so I will put the captions here, and the pictures below. 1. The view from the ballroom, and also what this crowd of media honchos controls: the world. 2. Here, Anderson Cooper, live on stage! It's really him, I promise! 3. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly walks away from me in fear after I challenge him to a debate on media consolidation laws. 4. Fameball Julia Allison and New York Magazine writer Vanessa Grigoriadis, whose article about this site was nominated for an award last night. They're both very personable!

That's about it.

Lester's first advantage is that, like Paris, she is "a fellow blond and lover of bedazzled cell phones." Add to that her own little bit of stealthy undercover work!

Adopting my undercover persona, I introduced myself to the casting director as a Swedish bikini waxer who loves Yorkies and Chace Crawford (that part is true). The director was tickled pink that I had such a "sexy profession" and quickly asked me back for a second audition.

She meets some interesting people!

Vanessa, a sassy brunette who works in finance, said that although she emulates Paris, she isn't willing to sacrifice her self-respect for reality television. "I always think about that show with the Italian guy, "That's Amore," and how he made the girls roll around in a pool of meatballs and sauce. It just turned my stomach. I would never do that, not for anyone or anything."

Vanessa hopes Hilton's intentions are pure. "If this show is solely for entertainment, just tell me! But I really hope Paris wants to find a true friend."

She also worries about a house full of very strong personalities. "If there's a queen in there, I will fight with him."

Lester will find out in a month whether she made the cut. Such an exciting time in the Daily News newsroom for the next 30 days! What was her interview strategy to impress the TV scouts? "I answered as ridiculously as possible, downplayed my college degree and emphasized any encounter I've ever had with tequila." Sounds like most reporters I know!

On the front page of last Sunday's St. Louis Post-Dispatch, we published the story of a woman identified as Virginia Gillis. She was featured in an Easter story in which she described in detail a past of victimization, homelessness and despair followed by recovery and repair.

We have since learned that a number of the details in that story were inaccurate. Further, our verification procedures were not followed during the reporting and editing process. In short, this story did not meet our standards for publication.

We apologize for this journalistic breakdown. We value the trust you place in us every time you pick up the Post-Dispatch or log onto STLtoday.com, and we understand that incidents such as this put that trust at risk.

Last Monday morning, we were contacted by someone who told us that information provided by the woman in the story was inaccurate. We immediately began a review of our reporting. We conducted extensive records searches and interviewed sources to check the details provided by the woman. We have learned:

* The woman's name is Pamala Brown, according to police, her mother and other people who know her. She also has used the spelling Pamela.

* Law enforcement officials in Crawford, Gasconade and Franklin counties have active warrants for Brown for violating probation on felony bad check and forgery charges. Crystal City has a warrant for Brown for failure to appear on DWI and other traffic charges.

* The Missouri Department of Revenue has no record of the drivers license number that appears on the license the woman provided us during this review.

* Law enforcement and fire officials in Jefferson County have no records of the violence the woman described in the story. She said her husband burned down her house in 2005 and a few weeks later slashed her throat. She said the attack left the long scar across her neck.

"I think we would have recognized the offense even under a different name," said Jefferson County Circuit Judge Robert Wilkins, who was the county prosecutor at the time. Wilkins said authorities checked the name the woman provided the newspaper for her ex-husband, as well as variations.

* Pamala Brown is 51 years old, not 42, according to public documents.

* Pamala Brown attended Parkway West High School but did not graduate, according to school officials.

* Other information in the story about the woman's marriage and children conflicts with information we have since obtained from public documents and family members.

We have spoken with the woman twice since the article ran, and she insists that everything she told us was accurate and that she is not Pamala Brown. Pastors at Centenary United Methodist Church, who had obtained identification documents from her shortly after they hired her in March 2007 to work in the church's homeless program, said they had had no reason to question her identity. They said she has been a model employee.

Our review showed that Pamala Brown was mentioned and pictured in a May 2000 story. We have been unable to verify some of the details about the woman that were included in that story, which was about the Mark Twain Hotel.

The Post-Dispatch has strict standards for gathering and verifying information. As a story is reported and prepared for publication, a number of journalists scrutinize it. As part of our internal review of how this story was handled, we have learned that during that process some questions were raised about the woman's account that should have been pursued more aggressively. We take this lapse very seriously, and we are taking steps to reinforce the standards to which we normally adhere. In our profession there is nothing more important than our credibility, and that is why we have tried to address this situation with you as fully and directly as possible. We hope you will accept our apology.

Arnie Robbins, Editor
Pam Maples, Managing Editor

[pic via STLToday.com; "Gillis" on the right]