Kasowitz P.R. Guy Describes Himself As Mob Fixer In Official Bio

This bio seems like bad public relations.

Michael Sitrick (via Sitrick and Company website)

When you search the online bios of public relations professionals, you usually read about their serious “commitment to reputation management” or their “corporate positioning strategy.” All the routine stuffy words that appeal to clients who want paid spin but don’t want anyone to realize they’ve hired a professional bullshit artist.

When Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Marc Kasowitz started getting hammered with reports that he was about to get fired and may have a drinking problem, he called upon Michael Sitrick, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sitrick And Company to come to his aid. Sitrick’s name is all over that Pro Publica story, explaining how the unnamed accounts gathered by the organization were untrue and providing statements from other Kasowitz Benson employees attesting to Kasowitz’s character and denying the claims that the boss went overboard at a holiday party (and denying the even more salacious suggestions of the piece). In short, Sitrick is doing his job as a spokesperson for a lawyer facing unflattering news stories. Frankly, he seems pretty good at it.

Like in this morning’s quote of the day from Sitrick:

…he never had a drink during the day at the Palm outside of lunch and dinner and never handled firm business while at the restaurant.

“Outside of lunch and dinner” seems to stand out like a flag in that statement, but whatever.

However, it’s just a little hard to take seriously a public relations flack who opens his firm bio with:

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Fortune magazine called him “one of the most accomplished practitioners of the dark arts of public relations” and “The Winston Wolf of Public Relations.” “Wolf,” Fortune explained, was the fixer in Pulp Fiction. Played by Harvey Keitel, he washed away assassins’ splatter and gore. Sitrick cleans up the messes of companies, celebrities and others and he’s a strategist who isn’t averse to treating PR as combat.”

For the record, Sitrick just informed the world that he feels comfortable being compared to a mob fixer. It’s obviously flattering to be linked to one of the greatest portrayals of competence porn in film history, but it also forces the average observer to wonder why Kasowitz needed to go all the way to a guy who compares his job to covering up dead guys. Ideally, the public relations professional should fade into the background, not be a distraction himself.

It’s not just that he’s announcing that he’s akin to a charismatic villain — as opposed to “working hard to present both sides of complex stories” or some other business safe fluff — it’s that he’s citing media accounts of his work. So he’s telling you that the media have already decided he represents the shady guys and routinely portray him that way. I’m entirely confused as to how bringing that baggage into every engagement isn’t a problem for his business.

Or maybe this is the whole point. Because now I’m writing a story about him instead of his client. Touché.

Los Angeles Magazine wrote: “Sitrick is a pure product of the 24-hour news cycle, of a culture dominated and defined by newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, the Internet, of the never-ending noise streaming into our lives. Beyond his aggressiveness, beyond his toughness, what distinguishes Sitrick is his ability to play the media to his clients’ advantage.”

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As frightening as it might be to admit, maybe we really are past the point of no return on this fake news stuff. We’ve got guys announcing on their official firm bios “if you see my name on a story, I’m ‘playing the media,'” and somehow that’s not immediately disqualifying.

Not that any of this suggests Sitrick isn’t great at the specific task of spinning for clients. It’s just that, you know, at some point public relations is about appearances.

UPDATE: Sitrick emailed a clarification. In the interest of completeness I provide his main point here:

Your headline that I describe myself as a “mob fixer” is not accurate. It is accurate to say that I cite a Fortune Magazine article which so describes me in this manner. This is a distinction with a difference.

In response I note that the post itself clarifies this with an exact quote from the bio. In any event, it is true that his bio is curated by him — the Fortune article is given prominence by his choice. To my mind that’s a descriptive act.

It’s why my bio doesn’t point out all the things the various readers have called me over the years.

Earlier: Marc Kasowitz Is Waking Up To A Bad Morning
Marc Kasowitz Is Not A Drunk


HeadshotJoe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.