Justice in the Digital Age

I was a cardboard-haired teevee news weasel in a previous life. I’ve never regretted leaving, and have no desire to be in a maelstrom today.

Two quick thoughts.

One is about the massive hoax perpetrated on the media yesterday. A group of activists spoofed the identity of the US Chamber of Commerce, and got several news outlets to bite on a phony news conference. Those outlets all reported the Chamber’s sudden (and non-existent) reversal of policy regarding climate change.

But hey – by all means let’s do a whole Fact Check segment on a Saturday Night Live sketch.

The second has to do with the legal system.

I remember covering the SEC asset forfeiture hearings for HealthSouth founder Richard Scrushy. They were the beginning of his legal troubles, which culminated in fraud convictions and billion-dollar civil suits. (I wrote about Scrushy and HealthSouth quite a bit on my old blog, which remains as an archive.)

At the time, that federal judge was a stickler for technology. She was quite dismayed to find that reporters from Bloomberg, with new-fangled BlackBerry wireless devices, were able to send dispatches from the room. (Of course, in order to get a signal, they had to sit on the back row and sometimes place the device against the wall…)

Contrast that with today, where the federal judge presiding over the corruption trial of Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford issued a directive to the jurors:

It’s not just that the judge was specifically acknowledging Tweets – it was the resignation that we have a technology that can’t readily be stopped.

I’m certain there have been numerous judicial conferences and seminars addressing the changing communications landscape. It would be no more fruitful to ban Twitter than it would to tell jurors they can’t go near a newsstand. He simply warned them about mixing outside information with what goes on within the boundaries of evidence.

For what it is worth, the “tweets from others” doesn’t just refer to friends and family. In this case, there are no fewer than six media outlets Tweeting from within the courtroom. I created a page where you can follow the Langford Trial real-time if you want, including the occasional video from Birmingham Weekly‘s Kyle Whitmire.

Update:

From John Archibald:

Judge is on his blackberry. I wonder if he’s following the trial on twitter. There are a lot of twits around here. #langford