Coming After Fred

The LA Times today has a story detailing the shady past of Robert J. Maynard Jr., owner of LifeLock, Inc. Who is he and why is he significant? Because his company airs a an ABC Radio spot which on occasion is read by Fred Thompson.

Possible presidential candidate Fred D. Thompson is lending his voice to radio commercials for a company that says it fights identity thieves and that was co-founded by a man accused of taking money from consumer bank accounts without permission.

The one-minute commercials are airing across the country on behalf of Tempe, Ariz.-based LifeLock Inc., which said nearly 200,000 customers pay about $10 a month for services that include placing fraud alerts on their credit files.

LifeLock was co-founded in 2005 by Robert J. Maynard Jr., whom the Federal Trade Commission accused in 1996 of deceiving consumers with advertisements that suggested his credit-repair company could remove records of bankruptcies and delinquent payments.

So Thompson reads ad copy 11 years later and this is relevant how?

Thompson's spokesman, Mark Corallo, said the former senator from Tennessee and actor, best known for his role as the district attorney on NBC television's "Law & Order," did not research the company before becoming LifeLock's pitchman.

Corallo said ABC Radio asked Thompson, as well as other hosts of its syndicated talk programs, to endorse LifeLock, an advertiser on its stations.

Thompson has been a commentator and host of ABC Radio specials since 2006.

"It's part of the contract," Corallo said. "You can't expect the individual on-air personality to do research on every company."

But in the worldview of the LA Times, this deserves over a thousand words for an absolute nonstory.