This evening, I read a blog post by former talk radio host Colin McEnroe about Providence, RI’s “NBC 10’s Jim Taricani’s interview with alleged cyberstalker Ann Bruno.” It is a great example of a failed television interview and perhaps says something about what is happening to media today. In the interview, Ms. Bruno dons a bunny costume and runs circles around Jim Taricani. Yet it seemed like there was more to the story, so I decided to follow Ms. Bruno down the rabbit hole to see where it leads.

First, I found information about the nature of the ongoing hostilities between Ms. Bruno and Tracy Sisson. The best description of the conflict is probably in this article, and the best understatement about the Ms. Bruno comes from WPRI, “Bruno refused to answer questions about the charges.”

Yet, somehow, it seemed that there was more to the story. So, I thought I’d see what I could find out about Mr. Taricani, who attempted to interview Ms. Bruno. This is where things got much more interesting. Back in 2001, about the same time that the hostilities between Ms. Bruno and Ms. Sisson appear to have started, WJAR, also known as NBC 10 aired a portion of a videotape showing a Providence city official accepting a bribe from an undercover FBI informant. The tape was sealed evidence as part of a Federal investigation into corruption of Providence officials. Mr. Taricani was subpoenaed to reveal the source of the tape, which he refused to do. He was fined $1000 a day for 85 days, which NBC picked up the tab on. Then, he was convicted on criminal contempt charges for not revealing the source.

The next day, Sen. Chris Dodd introduced a Federal Shield law for reporters. One of the questions people argued about after the bill was introduced is whether it would apply to bloggers. Two years, to the day, before Colin put up his blog post about Mr.Taricani’s attempted interview with Ms. Bruno, I wrote a blog post about shield laws, Chris Dodd and Jim Taricani.

Now, you might think that the only talk radio tie-in is that Colin is a former talk radio host. However, he isn’t the only former talk radio host involved in this story. The investigation led to the conviction of Providence Mayor Vincent Albert "Buddy" Cianci, Jr. on corruption charges. This resulted in the second resignation by Mr. Cianci. After his first resignation, in 1984 after pleading no contest to a charge that he assaulted Rhode Island contractor with a lit cigarette, he worked as a talk radio host on WHJJ in Providence.

So, who are the reporters? A former mayor who becomes a talk radio host, mayor again and then gets convicted of corruption? A television reporter who gets convicted of criminal contempt for not revealing sources, and then later gets pwned in an interview? A former talk radio host who wrote the blog post that got my attention? Me? You? What does it tell us about shield laws, reporters, and the state of the media?