Monday, February 12, 2024

What We (Don't) See

One of most immersive experiences you can have as a reporter is to cover a trial. Usually from the part of the courtroom reserved for the press you can see everybody -- the judge, the jury, the prosecution, the defense, and the spectators.

The accused sits in the front row next to or just behind his or her attorney. If it is a criminal proceeding, the victim or victim's family sits behind the prosecutor.

As an observer, you note the facial expressions, the body language, the whisperings, every gesture of the various parties and, if the trial lasts for days, you pick up the rhythm of the thing. You get a pretty good sense of which side is winning its case or if it's actually too close to call.

Although they are often admonished to not react visibly to what they hear, the members of the jury are human beings just like you and me -- they smile, frown, nod their heads in agreement or stare in disbelief.

Then again, people vary. Those who would be much better poker players than the others keep their expressions inscrutable.

In many courtrooms, an illustrator is also present and he or she captures some of the visual narrative, usually by focusing on the principals. As an editor, I've purchased the work of illustrators and I love the way they enhanced the written narrative my reporters produced.

In most courtrooms, we cannot tape the proceedings so there is little audio or video to share with our audiences. This deeply affects television and radio coverage, removing their technical advantage over written accounts.

So for me, being forced to watch Trump’s impeachment trial almost exclusively through a static camera with a single frame provided too narrow a view on what was happening in the Congressional chamber. Anecdotal accounts suggest some Republican senators were doodling or reading newspapers or otherwise clearly indicating their disinterest in the proceedings; and I'd have liked to watch that.

If I were in the courtroom as your correspondent, that is some of what I would cover, plus who is dozing off or staring into space.

What we were given instead was a TV show with one permitted prop -- blow-up slides with quotes highlighted and some stunning video clips.

This guy Trump is clearly guilty but we need to be able to study the expressions of the jurors during this testimony. After all, we are the ones with the greatest stake in the outcome.

(This is from three years ago in February 2021 and concerns the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump.)

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