Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal News Blogs -> Lawbeat

Legal News

: Lawbeat

R. Kelly faceoff: Trib wins

By Mark Obbie

What's more important: good reporting or good writing? Here's a side by side comparison from coverage of the R. Kelly trial in Chicago that shows the ugly downside of having a bad dose of both.On Wednesday night, both the Chicago Tribune and Chicago's CBS 2 published stories on their Web sites about a surprise twist in the Kelly trial. The first that I read, on the CBS 2 site, is credited to reporter Jay Levine but carries a tagline indicating it was slapped together by a Web editor. It's badly written, confusing, full of empty hype about Channel 2's supposed exclusives, and leaves readers clueless about what is happening. Too bad that CBS editor didn't read the Trib's story by Kayce T. Ataiyero and Stacy St. Clair, which was published minutes earlier and tells in a straightforward, clear way about a surprise defense rebuttal witness. It's sourced to police and a defense lawyer and lacks the silly, breathless tone of the CBS version. That's what real reporting and writing are all about.

Full post as published by Lawbeat on May 29, 2008 (boomark / email).