The second panel I attended for COM Week was entitled, "Courtrooms and Newsrooms: Exploring the Line Between Law and Journalistic Ethics - Is Our Legal System At War With the First Amendment?" The discussion was moderated by Sam Terilli, a practicing lawyer and the best professor the University of Miami has, in my opinion at least. While the panelists started out on track, with debate over the antics portrayed by the judge in the Anna Nicole Smith body-custody case, it quickly veered off. Soon, courtrooms didn't seem to have a place in their talks and it was more focused on simply ethics and the media in general.
Being a student in a class that discusses just that on a weekly basis, I was particularly interested to see what a panel of lawyers thought about ethics in regards to the media. They confirmed just what I suspected: when it comes to ethics, they as lawyers are not there to judge. Their role is to tell the media outlet whether running a particular story is LEGAL, not whether it is ethical or not. The ethics of the matter is then left to be determined by the editor, producer or writer of the story.
Overall, I thought it was interesting to listen to a group of lawyers sit around and discuss ethics when it isn't exactly something they are known for. However, there was one panelist, who will remain nameless (but could be recognized by anyone who attended the session), who was positively BORING. Never have I heard one person ramble so much about absolutely nothing! It is sad to say, considering the other great minds that sat on the panel with him, but this gentleman stole the focus and unfortunately left the audience a bit disenchanted.
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