By Steve Levy
I’ve long opposed cameras in the courtroom, dating back to even before cameras turned the O.J. Simpson trial into a debacle. The nonstop coverage of the Lindsay Clancy child murder case simply reinforced my position.
Trials should not be entertainment. We should not encourage grandstanding for those playing to the camera. But that’s what cameras do.
Jurors, for the most part, want to do their duty in anonymity and not be subject to public scorn. Unfortunately, that may have been the case in this trial. The sole holdout was being praised by some sectors and vilified by others. He will be easily identified.
A trial that should have revolved solely around the facts became a focal point for extraneous issues. One of them was postpartum depression, which undoubtedly is real and has a negative impact on many women.
But this trial should not have been based upon how many clicks come about from social influencers.
Just as important is the fact that networks cannot help themselves, but bury important domestic and international issues while they become a version of Court TV.
Many of these networks were showing nonstop Lindsay Clancy trial coverage.
Days went by without adequate coverage of what’s happening in the Strait of Hormuz or Russia bombing apartment complexes in Ukraine or Putin bombing parts of NATO countries. And let’s not forget our national debt exceeding $40 trillion.
This isn’t to say that the Clancy trial wasn’t significant and should not have been covered to some extent. But there were thousands of trials going on every day throughout the nation.
This, of course, involved the killing of three young children by a mother, so it was obviously going to get a lot of attention.
But it still wasn’t an issue on par with world events.
You wouldn’t have known that, based upon the hour-to-hour coverage of this trial. It was riveting TV. It was great entertainment. That’s why we have something called Court TV.
We don’t need every network and cable outlet using the trial for ratings or clickbait.
Remove cameras from the courtroom and the trial will no longer be about entertaining viewers, but rather about getting back to the basic concept of guilt or innocence based on the facts.