Dateline's Lennon "scoop" is old news

NBC’s tabloid news magazine “Dateline” announced it’s airing taped interviews with John Lennon’s killer as part of a two-hour documentary special set to cash in on the 25th anniversary of Lennon's death.

The interviews with Mark David Chapman were conducted in Attica prison by author Jack Jones, who wrote the Chapman biography "Let Me Take You Down."

First of all, they’re audiotapes. Second, it’s old news.

The tapes were first unveiled five years ago, in the Court TV documentary film, “Death of A Beatle.” The film was produced by John Parsons Peditto, Alison Holloway and Tabloid Baby author Burt Kearns.

The two-hour film and the Chapman tapes were aired on October 2, 2000 in conjunction with Chapman’s first parole hearing. When parole was denied, the board cited Chapman’s statements in the film.

The special film not only traced Chapman’s days in New York City as he stalked and killed our hero, but it also told Lennon's story, from Liverpool to the Upper West Side, through never-seen photographs and interviews with his close friends and collaborators-- including Pete Best, Neil Innes (who played the Lennon character in The Rutles) and BBC radio host Andy Peebles, who conducted and played clips from Lennon’s last interview.

"Death of A Beatle" also contained an interview with the surgeon who held Lennon's heart in his hands as he tried to save his life.

The film was a special presentation in John Parsons Peditto’s Mugshots series. Mugshots helped put Court TV on the ratings map. John Parsons Peditto is a great independent journalist and producer. He beat Dateline by five years and change.

You haven’t seen "Death of A Beatle" on Court TV again because Yoko Ono made a few calls. She likes to control the legacy.

I don’t like writing Mark David Chapman’s name. He’s a pathetic loser who killed a great man. He and his name should be forgotten. Now Stone Phillips will show us “both sides of the story” and probably hype the fact that Jared Leto is going to glorify Chapman in the movies.

Just gimme some truth.