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34 U. Rich. L. Rev. 1107 (2000-2001)
Trial Participants in the Newsgathering Process

handle is hein.journals/urich34 and id is 1135 raw text is: TRIAL PARTICIPANTS IN THE NEWSGATHERING PROCESS C. Thomas Dienes * I. INTRODUCTION The 1990s produced a number of sensational criminal and civil trials. The media and public avidly followed the murder trials of O.J. Simpson and the Menendez brothers, the Oklahoma City bombing trials of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, and the trial of those charged in the World Trade Center bombing. Civil trials involving products liability, medical malpractice, environ- mental pollution; the civil trial of O.J. Simpson; Paula Jones's sexual harassment action against President Clinton; and the no- torious antitrust case against Microsoft similarly captured the public's attention. Also, as might be expected, trial judges and the legal system generally grappled with questions concerning the ef- fects of potentially harmful publicity on the administration of jus- tice.' Most of the attention naturally concerned the potential prejudicial effect of media coverage in criminal cases on the fair trial rights of the defendant.2 Even when the publicity is gener- * Lyle T. Alverson Professor of Law, George Washington University Law School. B.S., Loyola University, Chicago; J.D., Northwestern University; Ph.D., Northwestern University. The author was General Counsel at U.S. News and World Report and contin- ues to serve as Legal Consultant to U.S. News and Fast Company Magazine. I wish to thank Professors David Anderson, Jerome A. Barron, Thomas Morgan, Rodney A. Smolla, and Robert Tuttle, and Lee Levine of Levine, Sullivan & Koch for re- viewing this article. I also wish to express my appreciation to Jennifer A. Karmonick, a recent graduate of the George Washington University Law School, for her valuable re- search assistance. 1. See generally C. THOMAS DIENES ET AL., NEWSGATHERING AND THE LAW (2d ed. 1999) (providing much of the background material for this article). 2. See generally TIMOTHY R. MURPHY ET AL., MANAGING NOTORIOUS TRIALS (2d ed. 1998); RODNEY A. SMOLLA, SMOLLA AND NIMMER ON FREEDOM OF SPEECH: A TREATISE ON THE THEORY OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT § 15.28 (1996); HARvEY L. ZUCKMAN ET AL., MODERN COMMIJNICATION LAW (1999); Thomas F. Liotti, Closing the Courtroom Door to the Public: Whose Rights Are Violated?, 63 BROOK. L. REV. 501 (1997); Lance R. Peterson, Note, A First Amendment-Sixth Amendment Dilemma: Manuel Noriega Pushes the Ameri- 1107

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