FNC's Rita Cosby Closest on Sniper Profile

NewsMax.com ^ | 10/26/02 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[kattracks]

After weeks of uninformed speculation by a brigade of media "profilers" on what and whom the Beltway sniper might be, it turns out that Fox News Channel ace reporter Rita Cosby came the closest - by far.

Rather than interview any of the "experts," Cosby went straight to the horse's mouth, and interviewed convicted spree-killer David Berkowitz, aka "Son-of-Sam," now imprisoned in an upstate New York correctional facility.

We happened to run into the "Foxwire" host at a gathering at Elaine's on Monday, just hours after she established contact with Berkowitz. But at the time her lips were sealed.

However, Fox News sources have told the Hotline that Berkowitz predicted with dead-on accuracy that the sniper was probably a drifter who hated law enforcement and was sleeping in his car.

That was exactly what Beltway sniper John Muhammed and his partner were doing when they were apprehended by an army of FBI agents and state police Thursday morning.

Before details of Cosby's dead-on scoop became known, she took a fair amount of heat from some of her colleagues for courting the 1970's killer, including Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz.

"I myself am really looking forward to Rita Cosby's interview with David Berkowitz," Kurtz told radioman Don Imus in sarcastic tones while awaiting confirmation Thursday morning that the sniper had indeed been caught. "I really care what 'Son-of-Sam' thinks about all of this."

Kurtz went on to criticize Cosby for "kissing up to serial killers" and then announced, "I talked to Rita about it. She thinks that as a former crazed serial killer himself, he might have some insight into the case. (But) it turns out he's been sitting in prison for a quarter century and knows nothing and doesn't have anything particularly interesting to say."

We trust Mr. Kurtz's apology to Ms. Cosby is in the mail.

See Cosby's interview with Berkowitz on FNC's "Foxwire," Saturday at 10 p.m. EDT.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

Sniper Shootings

[TLBSHOW]

thats funny I thought it was me that had the closest profile back on Oct 4th.

tlbshow

posted 10-04-2002 06:14 PM

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Interesting that the sniper may be a terrorist and American born like these 3 terrorist below

[patriciaruth]

profiling does little to solve homicides and has led to few arrests.

So says retired New York police detective John Baeza, who
told the Washington Times that statistical theories on the
race, age and sex of a criminal are often groundless when
little evidence exists.

Charles Patrick Ewing, a forensic psychologist and
professor of law at the University at Buffalo, agreed.
"It's really too early to believe a psychological profile
is going to be useful," he told the Times.

"It's so dense a population that it really doesn't narrow
it down."

People could overlook a viable suspect if he does not fit
the description presented by profilers. Though speculation
that the sniper is a man is fairly safe, details such as
race and age are much more questionable, Ewing said.

[patriciaruth]

Well, you got the beard and the head covering wrong...;-)

[Crispy]

Yup. I remember a thead here where a bunch of freepers were getting all up in Rita's face about the interview. So sad.

[akron]

profiling is the biggest farce and merely used to promote the FBI's Behavioral Science slots. One time, we read in the Chronicle that the FBI profilers were coming down to Houston to help HPD and Harris County with some unsolved killings. We called the resident SAC and asked what the deal was because we didn't know anything about it. He said, "Oh yeah, they are gonna be in town and could you bring a couple of cases over for them to look at."

We took a couple of cases over, one a triple that we thought the wife did. We explained why we thought the wife fit and were asked to describe her. We said she was 46, college educated, etc. They said that they would study it. We asked them why they came down when nobody called and they said, "We still had money in the travel budget and it was the end of the fiscal year."

Two weeks later, their analysis of our killing was to look for "an educated middle-aged white female, probably with a degree, who was an organized offender since she brought the tools to the scene." Wow, frigging clairvoyant!

The best profile story is when they profiled the vampire killer in San Diego who was drinking the victims blood. After analysis, they decided that he "was a loner and possibly mentally ill". How many years do you have to go to school to decide that a killer drinking human blood is mentally ill?

[Boxsford]

TBL you're just not in the loop with 'ol Rita. But, consider yourself patted on the back. Good job!

[Trickyguy]

"Hi, Hannibal? Clarice. I've got a couple of questions for you..."

[Dante3]

I believe it was here on FR that one post predicted the sniper is named Mohammed.

[Fester Chugabrew]

The georgeous, whiney, preachy, six-questions-in-a-row, professional ditz got lucky. You know what they say about a blind chicken. Sheez. Wish that girl would either ask the questions and shut up, or do some reporting. As it is, she interjects her endless opinions into the questions to the point of exasperation.

[yoe]

Rita proved herself once again she is one smart woman. Her calm delivery about Muhammad and Malvo once captured was so calm and clear, about only what she knew to be true. Greta on the other hand was nerve wracking with her fast, harsh staccato delivery of mostly opinions and hypotheses of her own. Rita is a rarity among reporters, we really enjoy her.

[TankerKC]

Rita is a rarity among reporters, we really enjoy her.

This may be true, but she needs to stay away from breaking news. She makes mistakes in the heat of the moment. We all remember her on the steps of the Supreme Court calling the Court's decision a "obviously a big win for Vice President Al Gore.". The night before the sniper suspect was caught, she said that Marion, Alabama was near the Maryland border-twice.

[Ditter]

Maybe Rita Cosby was closest to being right on the snipers but she was so wrong when she interviewed a sniper victim's father. She asked the poor man how he "felt" when he got the news that his daughter was dead. That is *inexcusable*, I will turn off Fox when she shows up. Then she interviewed someone from the kitchen of the Ponderosa Steak House, she asked "what did you see or hear" about 15 times while getting the same answer 15 times. The answer was "I saw & heard nothing". That didn't stop Rita from badgering. What a desperate woman (Rita)! Fox can do better than this!

[TLBSHOW]

BTTT

[Hail Caesar]

Actually, several FReepers nailed the sniper's profile down on this thread started by GulliverSwift, first:

"This Guy Must Be Ex-Military"

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/767537/posts

[marajade]

Rita Cosby excels at the personal level reporting... That's where FNC should use her...

[FreedomPoster]

I say FReeper BlueCollarMan was even better than Rita/Sam, but they're certainly the best of the TV profilers.

Lurkers from Fox News Channel - Hire FReeper BlueCollarMan as Your Sniper Profiler!

[FreedomPoster]

FWIW, bluecollarman's profile post was 3 days before that one, and substantially more accurate.

[Hail Caesar]

Thanks for the thread link. However, bluecollarman did not get the branch of U.S. military service right. Several of my "former Marine" friends didn't like the implication that it may have been one of them instead of an Army guy. ;-)

[TexKat]

Chief Moose just got back at Wolf Blitzer in an interview on CNN. Moose asked Blitzer why CNN did not report to LE that the sniper had made a phone call to them. First time I have seen Moose smile.