Corruption Trial Defendant Objects to Live-Blogging

Attorneys for former state senator Vince Fumo objected to blog coverage of his corruption trial.  Apparently his attorney believes that “that media coverage of the trial has been unprecedented, including not only news stories and editorials, but ‘things like a blog, where the reporter sits in the back of the courtroom every day and in real time gives his spin of what is happening.’”

His attorney wants the judge to question each juror about their awareness of media reports.  The judge seemed unpersuaded, finding that the only difference in coverage for this trial compared to other trials was the use of a blog which “he didn’t seem to find troubling.”

In fact the judge somewhat endorsed the use of live-blogging “I thought it’s a good service for people who want to keep up to date on what’s going on in the trial,” Buckwalter said, “without any of the opinions that are sometimes offered or slants that are sometimes offered in [news]paper articles.”