Fixer (person)

For other uses, seeFixer.

Afixeris someone who carries out assignments for or is skillful at solving problems for others. The term has different meanings in different contexts. InBritish usage,the term is neutral, meaning "the sort of person who solves problems and gets things done".In journalism, a fixer is a local person who expedites the work of acorrespondentworking in a foreign country. Use inAmerican Englishimplies that methods used to conceal their clients' identities or potential scandals are almost certainly of questionable morality, if not legality.A fixer who disposes of bodies or "cleans up" physicalevidence of crimeis often more specifically called acleaner.In sports, the term describes someone who makes (usually illegal) arrangements tomanipulate or pre-arrange the outcomeof a sporting contest.

Facilitator

Fixers may primarily use legal means, such aslawsuitsandpayoffs,to accomplish their ends, or they may carry out unlawful activities. TheWhite House Plumbershave been described as fixers forRichard Nixon;their methods includedbreak-ins and burglary.Fixers who specialize in disposing of evidence or bodies are called "cleaners",like the character of Victor "The Cleaner" in the filmLa Femme Nikita,or the fictional Jonathan Quinn, subject of theBrett BattlesnovelThe Cleaner.

In Britain, a fixer is acommercial consultantfor business improvement, whereas in an American context a fixer is often an associate of a powerful person who carries out difficult,undercover,or stealth actions, or extricates a client out of personal or legal trouble.A fixer may freelance, likeJudy Smith,a well-known Americanpublic relations"crisis consultant" whose career provided inspiration for the popular 2012 television seriesScandal.More commonly a fixer works for a single employer, under a title such as "attorney" or "bodyguard",which does not typically describe the kinds of services that they provide.

Sports match fixer

Main article:Match fixing

In sport, when a match fixer arranges a preordained outcome of a sporting or athletic contest, the motivation is often gambling, and the fixer is often employed byorganized crime.In theBlack Sox Scandal,for instance,Major League Baseballplayers became involved with agambling syndicateand agreed to lose the1919 World Seriesin exchange for payoffs.In another example, in 1975,BostonmobsterAnthony "Fat Tony" Ciulla of theWinter Hill Gangwas identified as the fixer who routinely bribedjockeysto throwhorse races.Other insiders may also be fixers, as in the case ofveterinarianMark Gerard,who, in September 1978, was convicted of fraud for "masterminding a horse-racing scandal that involved switching twothoroughbreds"so that he could cash in on along-shot bet.

Journalism aide

In journalism, a fixer is someone, often a local journalist, hired by a foreign correspondent or a media company to help arrange a story. Fixers will most often act as translators and guides, and will help to arrange local interviews that the correspondent would not otherwise have access to. They help to collect information for the story and sometimes play a crucial role in the outcome.Fixers are rarely credited, and often put themselves in danger, especially in regimes where they might face consequences from an oppressive government for exposing iniquities the state may want to censor.

In modern journalism, these aides are often the prime risk mitigators within a journalist's team, making crucial decisions for the reporter. According to journalist Laurie Few, "You don't have time not to listen (to the fixer)", and anybody who disregards a fixer's advice "is going to step on a landmine, figurative or actual".Throughout the last 20 years,fixers have ranged from civilians to local journalists within the regions of conflict. They are rarely credited and paid menially, which has begun a conversation for the compensation rights of these individuals. According to statistics gathered from theGlobal Investigative Journalism Network,the base pay for a fixer's time ranged from US$50–400 per day.

A map based on publicly accessible research data shows a visual representation of data collected from various studies conducted on both fixers and their journalist counterparts from over 70 countries. Gathered from theGlobal Reporting Centre,the survey demographic map had 132 respondents from North America, 101 from Europe, 23 from South America, Africa andEurasia,63 from Asia and 9 from Australia.

In popular culture

Numerous films and several songs have been namedThe Fixer.As a genre, they illustrate the different meanings of the term. Most commonly, they refer to the kind of person who carries out illicit activities on behalf of someone else. For example, the 2008 British television seriesThe Fixeris about "arenegadegroup acting outside the law to bring order to the spiraling criminal activity in the country ".

• The 1986 filmWise GuysfeaturesCaptain Lou Albanoas Frankie "The Fixer" Acavano, an overweight, violent yet gluttonous psychopath who is tasked with tracking and killing the protagonists after ripping off their boss, Lou Castello, of a quarter of a million dollars in a fixed horse race.
• The 1993 filmPoint of No ReturnfeaturesHarvey Keitelas a cleaner who is called in to kill everyone and destroy the bodies after a mission goes awry.
• The 1994 filmPulp Fictionfeatures Harvey Keitel as Winston Wolfe, a notorious fixer and cleaner, who helps the protagonists dispose of a corpse.
• The main antagonist of the 2000 novelVoid Moonis a near-psychotic fixer who cleans and investigates a murder in his employer's casino.
• ABBC TwodocumentaryAlex Polizzi: The Fixerfeatures a fixer in the benign British sense – a consultant who helps to turn around failing businesses.
• The 2000 crime pictureThe Way of the Gunhas James Caan as a fixer known as Joe Sarno, a "Bagman".
• The 2007 filmMichael ClaytonstarsGeorge Clooneyas a fixer who works for a prestigious law firm and uses his connections and knowledge of legal loopholes to help his clients.
• The 2007 gangster filmEastern PromiseshasViggo Mortensenplaying Nikolai Luzhin, aRussian mafiafixer, bodyguard and driver.
• In Canadian writerLinden MacIntyre's award-winning 2009 novelThe Bishop's Man,theprotagonistis a guilt-riddenRoman Catholic priestand former fixer for theDiocese of Antigonishnamed Fr. Duncan MacAskill. After years of quietly resolving potential scandals involving the misdeeds of Diocesan priests, Fr. MacAskill has been assigned byhis Bishopto a remote rural parish onCape Breton Island,Nova Scotia,and ordered to maintain a low profile. While at his new parish, Fr. MacAskill begins spiritually counselling the son of a childhood friend, who suspects that his son was molested by the previous parish priest. Deeply moved by the boy's pain, Fr. MacAskill begins to seriously question his own past and the morality of acting as a fixer of such cases. MacIntyre's novel was inspired by the 2007sexual abuse scandal in Antigonish diocese.
• In the ABC dramaScandal,the main characterOlivia Pope(portrayed byKerry Washington) was a fixer and head of Pope and Associates, a crisis management organization that fixed political scandals andcleanedup crimes. Kerry Washington's character,Olivia Pope,is partially based on formerGeorge H. W. Bushadministration press aideJudy Smith,who serves as a co-executive producer.
• In theFXseriesSons of Anarchy,authorStephen Kingportrays a cleaner by the name of "Bachman", a nod to King's pen nameRichard Bachman,who is hired byGemma Teller Morrowto dispose of her father's caretaker's body after her accidental death.
• TheNetflixseriesHouse of CardsfeaturedMichael Kellyas Doug Stamper, a fixer for politician Frank Underwood.
• In theAMCTV seriesBreaking Bad,the characterMike Ehrmantrautplayed byJonathan Bankswas the cleaner forGustavo Fring's operations, later reprising the role in the series' prequel spinoff,Better Call Saul.
• The TV SeriesSuitsfeaturesHarvey Specter(played byGabriel Macht)as a New York's top lawyer for fixing clients problems. It also features Steven Huntley as the fixer for Edward Darby in Season 3. Many other fixers are also prevalent across it's nine seasons.
• The TV seriesRay Donovanfollows the eponymous character, played byLiev Schrieber,a Los Angeles-based fixer for celebrity clients. The character was inspired by a variety of Hollywood fixers such asEddie MannixandFred Otash.
• The 2016Coen brothers' filmHail, Caesar!,satirizes the American film industry of the 1950s, and is very loosely inspired byEddie Mannix's career as a Hollywood studio executive and fixer.In the film, actorJosh Brolinportrayed Mannix,who is shown scrambling to quietly resolve the kidnapping of anA-listleading man,while battling to keep multiple thinly fictionalized send-ups of real Hollywood scandals of the era out of thetabloids.Behind it all, however, Mannix depicted as a devout, if sinful and unconventional,Roman Catholicfamily man with two children and a doting homemaker wife namedConnie Mannix(Alison Pill).
• The 2016Romanian dramaThe Fixerand the 2009 documentaryFixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandiare each about journalistic fixers.
• In the 2020 television showDevs,security chief Kenton (Zach Grenier) serves as a fixer for the heads of the Amaya corporation.
• In the Ubisoft videogameWatch Dogs,enemy players are known as fixers, and the player can get contracts to eliminate other players, or carry out illegal jobs in game. The main protagonist,Aiden Pearce,is also a fixer himself.
• In severalcyberpunk-themedtabletop role-playing gamessuch asShadowrunandMike Pondsmith'sCyberpunk,fixers are intermediaries between clients and mercenaries, "well-connected fencers, smugglers, and information brokers who apply their trade on the black market,"connecting mercenaries to jobs they prefer to take and other mercenaries in the network they can work with.

Notable fixers

Business

• Alex Polizzi

Entertainment

• Eddie Mannix
• Fred Otash
• Anthony Pellicano
• Howard Strickling

Journalism

• Acquitté Kisembe –Agence France-Pressein theDemocratic Republic of Congo(missing since 2003)
• Almigdad Mojalli– Independent freelance fixer/journalist inYemen(killed in action,2016)
• Bakhtiyar Haddad -Iraqifixer for French reporter Stephan Villeneuve (Both killed in action inMosul,2014)
• Zabihullah Tamanna – Translator forUS National Public RadioinAfghanistan(killed in action, 2016)
• Ajmal Naqshbandi- Journalist/Fixer inAfghanistan.Killed byTaliban.(Killed in action, 2011)
• Sayed Agha - Driver/fixer in Afghanistan. Killed by Taliban. (Killed in action, 2011)

Organized crime

• Magaly Chaves "La Faraona" Ante(Sinaloa Cartel)
• Michael Cohen (lawyer)
• Gabriel Zendejas Chavez(Mexican Mafia)
• Manoel Alves "Sasquati" da Silva(Primeiro Comando da Capital)
• Sidney Rogério "Lacraia" de Moraes(Primeiro Comando da Capital)
• Sidney Korshak(Chicago Outfit)
• Arnold Rothstein(Jewish Mafia)
• Yoshio Kodama(Yakuza)
• Hisayuki Machii(Yakuza-Tosei-kai)
• Željko Raznatović Arkan(Serbian mafia)
• Milorad Ulemek(Serbian mafia-Zemun clan)
• John Francis "Johnny Cash" Morrissey(Irish Mafia-Kinahan crime family)
• Dámaso López "El Licenciado" Núñez(Sinaloa Cartel)
• Miguel "Z-40" Treviño Morales(Los Zetas Cartel)

Politics

• Lucius Cornelius Balbus
• Roy Cohn
• David Hart
• Konstantin Kilimnik
• Michael Pocalyko
• Keith Schiller

Public relations

• Mike Sitrick
• Judy Smith

Religion

• Seán Patrick O'Malley,Archbishop of Boston(Catholic Church)
• Mike Rinder(Scientology Church)

See also

• Cleaner role in arts and entertainment
• Henchman
• Hitman
  • Contract killing