NDAA and the media.

• Author: Burns, Scott
• Position: National District Attorneys Ass'n

As MANY OF YOU KNOW, NDAA is charged by the Board of Directors with conducting training (FY11 resulted in 19,271 people attending 206 courses in 47 states and the District of Columbia), being a loud voice for America's Prosecutors (Congressional Hearings, meetings, Capital Conference and lobbying for our interests) and responding to requests for Technical Assistance (over 4,000 responses in 2011 by NDAA staff, attorneys and interns). What many of you might not realize is that NDAA also responds to, literally, hundreds of media requests each year.

On a daily basis, I receive at least two or three media calls from across the country. I just got off the phone, while writing this piece, with a reporter from The Daily in New York who wanted to know if there has been an increase in "prosecution of people associated with a death related to prescription drugs" and was particularly interested in West Virginia and Kentucky. Earlier today I was asked by a reporter to comment on "why is it that prosecutors are sanctioned far less than civil attorneys in every state?" That one was easy to answer.

In the past month I have been interviewed by PBS on issues related to the National Academy of Sciences Report and the state of forensics in the criminal justice system, the BBC in response to Amnesty International's claims that America is alone in the world by still sentencing some juveniles to life without parole, and NPR on a number of issues; moreover, we have been in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and dozens of statewide and small town newspapers across the country. NDAA, in addition to responding to media calls, has also decided to go on the offensive by contacting major media outlets and letting them know that far too often they put forth the...