D. Max Noel (鈥64) is professionally acquainted with deceit.
| Max Noel will present a virtual lecture on his work with the FBI on Tuesday, October 26 at 7 p.m. in Olin B, located between Olin Hall and Smith-Curtis. |
The retired FBI agent has been lied to by countless criminals weaving yarns long and winding enough to crisscross continents. Noel has likewise spun a few untruths of his own to manipulate hostage takers, terrorists and crooks in a decorated investigative career that spanned decades.
So whenever Noel watches dramatic reenactments of his most famous case, he鈥檚 not exactly shocked if the plot veers from the truth. 鈥淚 know screenwriters have a job to do and not much space to work with,鈥 he said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e not going to get everything just right.鈥
Still, Noel鈥檚 patience has limits. And the 2017 Discovery Channel series, 鈥淢anhunt: Unabomber,鈥 was one of the portrayals that stretched his tolerance.
鈥淭here鈥檚 only one FBI agent who ever interviewed Ted Kaczynski, along with Postal Inspector Paul Wilhelmus,鈥 he said. 鈥淎nd that鈥檚 me.鈥
The truth often requires a critical eye
That straightforward reality wasn鈥檛 reflected in the true-crime series, 鈥淢anhunt: Unabomber.鈥 The Discovery series was generally a hit with audiences, and a miss with the people closest to the case. (NPR鈥檚 TV critic, David Bianculli, called it 鈥渁n all-out winner鈥; and Ted Kaczynski called the plot descriptions he read from his maximum- security prison cell 鈥渂ull manure.鈥)
Among FBI agents, frustration with the show鈥檚 inaccuracies extended beyond Noel. Retired agent Greg Stejskal wrote about the series for the federal law enforcement blog, ticklethewire.com. 鈥淚t portray[ed] a minor player on the Unabom Task Force (UTF), Jim Fitzgerald, as the investigator who broke the case. It then [built] on that fiction by depicting a relationship between ... Ted Kaczynski and Fitzgerald that never happened.鈥
There鈥檚 only one FBI agent who ever interviewed Ted Kaczynski ... and that鈥檚 me.
Stejskal continued, 鈥淛im Fitzgerald never met Ted Kaczynski.鈥
Mistaken notions about the case motivated Noel and two of his colleagues, Special Agent in Charge Jim Freeman and UTF Assistant Special Agent in Charge Terry Turchie, to write their second book about the investigation. Capturing the Unabomber: The FBI Insiders鈥 Story was released in May by History Publishing Company. It joins their 2014 book, Unabomber: How the FBI Broke Its Own Rules to Capture the Terrorist Ted Kaczynski.
鈥淚t鈥檚 our effort to set the record straight,鈥 Noel said.
Pursuing the truth is not easy
Professor of Communication David Whitt is quick to admit he鈥檚 no expert on the FBI or the Unabomber investigation. But the 小草影院 professor does have something significant in common with agents like Noel:
They鈥檙e both professionally committed to pursuing truth. And that pursuit is getting harder.
Whitt teaches 小草影院 courses on mass media and persuasion. He said, 鈥淲e live in a media environment where the lines are getting blurrier. It鈥檚 harder to see the divisions between content that seeks to inform us, entertain us or even manipulate us.鈥 The rise of newer terms like 鈥渇ake news,鈥 鈥渋nfotainment,鈥 鈥渁lternative facts,鈥 and 鈥渕ockumentaries鈥 all point to this recent blurring.
While entertainment often plays artfully with the facts, Whitt won鈥檛 disregard its cultural value. He is, after all, author or editor of such works as Millennial Mythmaking: Essays on the Power of Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature, Films, and Games, as well as 鈥 鈥業 can get college credit for reading Batman? That鈥檚 a joke, right?鈥: Confessions of a Fanboy Professor Teaching Comic Books.鈥
鈥淓ven when it鈥檚 not strictly factual,鈥 Whitt said, 鈥渉istorical entertainment can be what sparks our interest in new subjects.鈥 He pointed to Netflix鈥檚 鈥淭he Crown鈥 and the 2018 film, 鈥淏ohemian Rhapsody,鈥 as recent examples that inspired him to look deeper into subjects as divergent as Queen Elizabeth II and Queen.
Whitt urges his students to use historical entertainment as a springboard for more study. They can move from the art to the actual history, not in order to discredit the entertainment, but to add depth of understanding to what originally moved them about the subject.
鈥淚t鈥檚 important for my students to keep asking, 鈥榃hat is true?鈥欌 said Whitt. 鈥淲e can ask, 鈥榃hy is this character a composite of three people? What was the screenwriter doing here?鈥欌
In the case of 鈥淢anhunt: Unabomber,鈥 fans who take the time to learn the full story can ask, 鈥淲hy was Noel鈥檚 role minimized and Fitzgerald鈥檚 inflated? How did those decisions impact the story? And was the outcome aesthetically effective?鈥
Whitt said his students are more accustomed to scrutinizing ads this way, in a context where they know they鈥檙e being sold on something. 鈥淏ut how great would it be to bring that critical mindset to all the media content around us? To ask ourselves, 鈥楬ow does this work? What are its goals? What鈥檚 honest about it? And what鈥檚 misleading?鈥欌
Solving problems, or winning fights?
This brand of media literacy is useful for far more than untwisting a TV show鈥檚 plot. In fact, Whitt contended that our media savviness鈥攁nd its next-door neighbors, statistical and scientific literacy鈥攈ave become increasingly crucial parts of American citizenship during the pandemic.
If we lack the skills to navigate large amounts of complex data鈥攊f we grow less able to judge experts鈥 claims on their merits and adapt our behavior to changing circumstances鈥攖hen we can only approach our biggest problems with an upsetting and disorienting dizziness.
Max Noel knows that angry, head- spinning feeling well. The weight of helping to lead one of the most overwhelmingly complicated manhunts in U.S. history strained Noel鈥檚 hot temper often enough that his boss at the FBI nicknamed him 鈥淢ad Max.鈥
Volatile as his emotions could run, Noel knew that 鈥渕ad and dizzy鈥 was no way to approach a fight. 鈥淪ome things will make me blow my top,鈥 Noel told Archways in a 2015 story on Kaczynski鈥檚 capture. 鈥淏ut not this. For [tactical situations], I鈥檓 cool, calm and collected.鈥
Noel鈥檚 collectedness protected his most effective weapon as an investigator: the critical thinking necessary to solve complex problems.
As Americans continue to face our most divisive issues, some of us are sure to also occasionally 鈥渂low our tops.鈥 We鈥檒l catch ourselves digging deeper into already- entrenched positions when we鈥檇 be better served digging new ground toward a more complicated truth.
That鈥檚 not necessarily the ground where arguments are won. But it is where the solutions hide. This is the ground where the crimefighter, the citizen and the TV actor all face the same fundamental question of character. We ask ourselves: What鈥檚 my motivation here? Am I trying to solve problems, or win fights?