HollywoodOn Productions: Janet Donovan & Brendan Kownacki
Photo credit: Brendan Kownacki
“I really don’t have to explain who John Walsh is and what he means to American society,” said CEO of The Justice Network Steve Schiffman when introducing Walsh at a dinner in Washington, DC co-hosted by Michael Kosmides, proprietor of CITIES, and Janet Donovan, Editor-in-Chief Hollywood on the Potomac.
“He’s an example of the person that has taken tragedy and really made a difference, not only with his own family but with so many other families. He has been a crusader for justice and the protection of children. He’s an Emmy Award host. He was the founder and creator of one of the most successful broadcast programs in the history of television over twenty-five years of America’s Most Wanted. He now has the highest rated show on CNN (The Hunt) not withstanding the debate last night – but that was a one shot deal. He is the founder of the Center for Missing Exploited Children. And now, near and dear to my heart, he is the host and on-air face of The Justice Network. I can’t tell you how honored we are to have John be that person.”
Steve Schiffman and John Walsh
Adam John Walsh, then a six year old boy, was abducted from a Sears store at a mall in Hollywood, Florida and murdered on July 27th, 1981. His father John Walsh became the leading advocate for victim’s rights and channeled his grief into founding the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. On July 27, 2006, 25 years later, President George W. Bush signed the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act into law “which created a national database of convicted child sex offenders, strengthened federal penalties for crimes against children and provided funding and training for law enforcement to fight crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children via the Internet.” Nobody would ever want to be John Walsh, but if you were, this is the John Walsh you would want to be. His story was made into the 1983 television film Adam, seen by 38 million people in its original airing, according to reported statistics.
Co-hosts Michael Kosmides and Janet Donovan with John Walsh
“Several of you asked me about what am I doing,” responded Walsh in response to a question from one of the many journalists in attendance. “What about CNN? What about The Hunt? What about all the other things you’re doing? I did America’s Most Wanted for 25 years – you know that. When I tried to retire from that 51 weeks a year, a different city every week, a different country for 25 years, having missed more birthdays and high-school graduations job, I knew it was a great experience, but I said, ‘I can’t. I’m too old. I’m going to be 70 years old.’ Then I met Jeff Zucker who I got to know and love. He ran NBC and I had great respect for him. We always said we wanted to work together. Zucker (now head of CNN) said, ‘We want to have you. We’re re-branding CNN. You worked for Rupert Murdoch for most of your adult life. Would you like to host a show? Sign for a couple years, you do whatever you want to do?’ I said, ‘Jeff, maybe it’s time for me to ride off into the sunset. What’s the minimum order?’ He said, ‘Eight.’ I said, ‘Okay. I’ll try the eight.’ We started last July, last summer, July and August, ran the eight shows. I never wanted to be in television but … I caught almost 1,200 bad guys, 17 of them off of the FBI’s 10 Most wanted and the thing I’m the proudest of is we recovered 61 missing children alive because of the television program. The Hunt became a big success and I’m still doing it.”
John Walsh
“We caught four horrible guys,” Walsh added. “The first guy we caught was a pedophile, 310 pounds, cut off his ankle bracelet, skipped the trial. He had molested a seven and a four year old boy. Horrible guy. Threatened the father of one of the boys who testified against him that he would kill him and he took off. If you saw the news last June, couldn’t have happened in a better place to a better horrible guy. Got a tip he was in Greenwich Village. He shot three cops that came in together. They didn’t have their guns drawn. All three of them survived. Wrestled the bad guy to the ground and shot him 14 times. He died. Yes, we did catch some bad guys. I am back on the scene. I’m going to do 16 to 20 shows a year for them. The American public came back. The public I always believed in. I’m currently working on a piece of legislation that’s stuck in all the bullshit of congress. Do something about it. Whether it’s on CNN or FOX, here’s what you do. Don’t be a vigilante. Go to my website. Make that phone call and help me take a dangerous fugitive off the streets and let the criminal justice system be okay.”
Stacy LaRosa of NCMEC , John Ford, John Walsh, C-SPAN’s Greta Brawner of Washington Journal and best-selling author and investigative reporter Dan Moldea
Just when Walsh thought that was enough, along came John Ford and Steve Schiffman of The Justice Network who said: ‘Hey, we’ve got a great idea. We want to start a reboot network of crime and mystery shows. We’d like you to be the spokesperson.’ I said: ‘Not interested. Did it for 25 years. Tired of spending my life on the road. I don’t know.’ ‘Well, let’s think about it,’ Steve said. ‘What about doing something positive? What about if we show pictures of missing kids?’ That, of course was the clincher for Walsh. Ever since America’s Most Wanted stopped airing, nobody airs picture of missing kids anymore. “Seventy percent of missing kids are found by pictures, in newspapers. USA Today shows pictures of missing kids every week. I looked at it yesterday. People magazine shows a page of missing kids every month, but not my media,” Walsh explained. “Not the television media. I said, ‘Okay Steve, here’s the deal.’ There’s tons of parents of missing children who have … the not knowing is the worst……. have probably given up hope. Let’s show pictures of missing children, not once a day, but every hour on the hour.” He kept his word.
John Ford with John Walsh
Steve Schiffman describes The Justice Network this way: “We will be focusing on the most wanted fugitive, often customized in the local market that we serve. Second, we will focus on a missing child. We feature multiple missing children working with The Center for Missing Exploited Children. Third, we provide both local and national safety tips. We do this every ninety seconds of every hour on the hour. I want to tell you that after being on the air for only eight months, and this completely exceeds my own personal expectations, we have located twenty-five missing children and have returned them to their families, ones that have been featured on The Justice Network. Twenty-seven. On “Fugitives” we have featured hundreds of fugitives and we have apprehended thirty-seven, thirty-five, you see I got my seven and fives inverted, thirty-five fugitives that have been featured over the last eight months. Guess what? This is all because of the power of the media. We’re in forty percent of the United States now. We’re going to have some more announcements that’s going to increase that. For a broadcast network that is eight months old, reaching forty percent of the United States, that is a pretty good accomplishment.”
John Walsh with The Hill’s “In the Know” columnist Judy Kurtz
Hollywood on the Potomac sat down with John Walsh to discuss the relationship of his personal life with his work:
and how technology changed everything:
