Articles - Insight on the News - March 17, 1997

A Murder in the Spotlight: spinning on top of tragedy

Crisis management consultant Pat Korten hired by parents in JonBenet Ramsey murder case.

by John Berlan

The death of 6-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey has sparked a worldwide media frenzy. A veteran "crisis-management consultant' has been hired by her parents to put out the worst of the fires.

Pat Korten is no stranger to putting out media fires. As a spokesmen for two Reagan-administration agencies, he frequently dealt with media feeding frenzies. But Kortan probably never has worked as hot a spot as he is this winter in the cool, colorful Colorado town of Boulder, where he is serving as media consultant to the family of 6-year-old murder victim JonBenet Ramsey.

Kortan began working for the Ramseys just a few days after JonBenet's body was found on December 26 in the basement of her home, tape over her mouth and a noose around her neck. Korten says that because the body was discovered in the home, the child's parents John and Patsy Ramsey were potential suspects. The Rocky Mountain News reported on Feb. 20 that court documents showed the Ramseys had not been eliminated from suspicion.

The Ramseys' Denver law firm hired Korten's employer, Rowan & Blewitt, a Washington "issue and crisis-management consulting firm," to handle press inquiries and Korten was assigned the case. "[The law firm] knew within 24 hours of taking the case that the intensity of the media coverage was going to be so great that they needed someone like us to help them."

Even so, Korten says he had no idea how great the impending media focus would be, and he sites to reasons: "One is that it happened during one of the two slowest news periods of the year - between Christmas and New Year's. Stories that otherwise would run on page 25 tend at that time of the year to run on page 1. What might have been a local Colorado murder mystery found its way on to page 1 across the nation because nothing else was happening."

But, he says, the critical point came when JonBenet's parents, unbeknownst to Korten, delivered a 30-minute interview on CNN. "That sealed it," he says. "Everybody's radar screen lit up."

Since then, Korten has shielded the Ramseys from the press and has handled all the inquires himself. He has taken up to 80 calls a day from reporters, and he flies to Colorado almost weekly. When Insight caught up with im at his Washington office around noon in mid-February, he held up 11 reporters' messages in a paper clip and added, "It's still early."

He says, without hesitating, that he has no questions about his clients' involvement: "I am absolutely convinced they are complete innocent." He adds that he wouldn't work for a client he believes to be guilty. He says he reached that conclusion after spending many hours talking with the Ramseys and their attorneys, who he says also believe in the parents' innocence.

Korten spends much of his time quelling rumors about the Ramseys that spread through the Internet and from callers to radio talk shows. "Some malicious SOB will decide, "Well, I think I'll pass a rumor today that [John] Ramsey has committed suicide. "It happened for weeks ago." Korten says, "It took me about an hour to dispose of the rumor, but by that time I was getting dozens of calls." And just about every week someone speculates that an arrest is imminent, which Korten says "was horse petootie a week ago, was horse petootie two weeks ago and will be horse petootie next week again."

A brochure for Korten's firm states: "our objective is simple: Help clients win the court of public opinion." Korten says he believes this other court often is overlooked in criminal investigations because law firms aren't equipped to address it. "There's not a law firm in the country...that has even one full-time media person," he says.

Regardless of his intent, Korten himself has become part of the story. His public role as spokesman for the family has cast light on the increasing use of media consultants to protect the reputations not just of celebrities and corporations but also of ordinary people involved in controversies. Gail Baker Woods, chairwoman of the public-relations department of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, tells Insight that although media consultants have played behind-the-scenes roles in other high-profile criminal trials such as that of O.J. Simpson, "This is the first time where people actually came out and admitted they hired a media consultant." She adds, "I think it's going to become a trend."

Some critics believe the art of hiring a media consultant means the Ramseys have something to hide. Fred R. Joseph, a Maryland attorney who practices both press and criminal law, tells Insight, "I have questions in my mind about the lawyers. If I'm a member of the general public, my gut reaction is, there must be something there."

Yet the public also knows that the press can damage reputations of innocent people. the lack of evidence against alleged Olympic Park bomber Richard Jewell did not prevent his face from being splashed across the front page of almost every daily newspaper last summer. Jewell's attorney Wayne Grant tells Insight that it's a smart move for anyone caught up in a high-profile criminal investigation to hire a media consultant. "Look what happened to a man who didn't have good advice early on," says Grant of his client. "There's a lot of competition now in the media for sensational headlines, so if you're caught up in that, you do what you can."

One difference between Jewell and the Ramseys is that Jewell probably could not have afforded a media consultant such as Korten. The Denver Post reported that local attorneys and media consultants estimated John Ramsey, the multimillionaire owner of a computer-systems company, was paying Korten more than $1,000 a day; Korten says this figure is inaccurate. The University of Florida's Woods believes he probably makes more. What you hear a lot of people talk about is what a difference there is if you have money," says Lynn Bartels, a reporter covering the investigation for Denver's Rocky Mountain News.

But Suzette Heiman, a University of Missouri assistant professor of journalism who specializes in public relations, points out that costs will depend upon the number of services a client wants. She says a target could sit down for a one time session with a media consultant for a few hours for as little as $500.

Experts such as Heiman and Woods believe the Ramseys are getting their money's worth. Woods says Korten is "effective" because 'you haven't seen a lot about the people at all after the funeral." Woods says that although the function of public-relations consultants usually is to generate positive press for their clients, in this case the most important objective is to keep the Ramsey out of the public eye.

Media-relations experts and reporters credit Korten with preventing allegations printed in the tabloids about the Ramseys from finding their way onto the front pages of mainstream newspapers. How bad could it be? Globe - which has run headlines such as "Did Daddy do it?" - even caused a public backlash in which retail stores refused to stock the issue that had published a photo of the lifeless arm of JonBenet. Korten says he has a special strategy for handling scandal sheets. "I will not deal with the tabloids," he says firmly " I won't return their calls. They are the scum of the universe. I do not know how those people sleep at night."

Conversely, Terry Raskyn, a vice president of Globe's publisher, Globe Communications, declines comment on Korten, but makes it clear she does not hold him in high regard. "Mr. Korten has not been complimentary to us," she tells insight. "I don't want to get in a pissing match with him."

Some mainstream reporters, however, view Korten as a helpful resource as they attempt to sift fact from rumor. "Having someone say yea or nay is helpful to reporters who want to be accurate," says Valerie Richardson, a Denver-based reporter who covers the case for the Washington Times.

Korton, 48, knows reporters well because he used to work as one. During the seventies he anchored a morning radio program and hosted a talk show for Washington's all-news radio station, WTOP. When he speaks, the deep, resonant voice of a radio newsman still is evident. A staunch conservative, Korten even founded a conservative newspaper, the Badger Herald, as a University of Wisconsin student.

The family spokesmen also learned about reporters when he was public-affairs director at two government agencies during the Reagan administration. At the Office of Personnel Management, which coordinates employment policies to federal agencies, Korten calmed fears at press conferences about unsafe skies after President Reagon fired air traffic controllers who had broken their contracts by striking. He also defended agency director Donald Devine's cutbacks in federal jobs and reforms of health-care and retirement benefits. "We had public-relations problems every week," says Devine. "[Korten] was a real pro, and he's very imaginative."

Korten then moved to the Justice Department, where he defended Attorney General Ed Meese from a media feeding frenzy amid changes of financial improprieties (no legal action was taken and Korten says the charges were baseless and politically motivated). When Cuban prisoners rioted at a penitentiary near Atlanta during the late eighties, he dealt with questions from hundreds of reporters outside a fried-chicken restaurant near the prison.

"You're not really ready to do this kind of thing until you've had these kinds of experiences," says Korten. "[Reporters] have a very large bag of tricks that they can use to get you to cough up information, but they also behave in predicable patterns."

The ACandyRose© Internet Subculture Web site is an privately owned archive site for documentation on the history of the JonBenet Ramsey murder case investigation via the Internet. All information has been accessed from public domains and/or quotes following the rules under the "fair use rule of copyright law." This web site is non-profit. Donations are welcome via the PayPal donation button on the home page. God willing someday there will be justice for JonBenet Ramsey.
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