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The death of legal journalism (slightly exaggerated)

By Mark Obbie

Journalist Sarah Kellogg wrote a long reported piece in the September issue of Washington Lawyer, published by the D.C. Bar, on the decline of traditional legal journalism and the rise of citizen media and other forms of Web-based legal information outside the confines of mainstream news media. The piece is loaded with stats and examples. Its central premise -- "The days are waning for in-depth coverage of the courts by the mainstream news media," as she puts it -- seems a tad overstated. Wherever did she get such a notion? Well, I'm quoted to that effect. So much for Kellogg's expert sources. Despite the lack of nuance on that point -- where she sees "general legal news . . . limited to celebrity arrests, occasional political scandals in Washington or statehouses, and explicit details of nasty homicides," I see tons of examples daily of enterprising, in-depth coverage of legal issues and serious cases -- I agree with her that the trends are in the wrong direction: fewer courthouse reporters and legal-policy pieces, more missing-white-women sensational "news" yak-fests. The story asks useful questions about how the public is served by citizen journalism of undetermined credibility, or when information comes from government, business, or advocacy groups unfiltered.

Full post as published by Lawbeat on September 04, 2008 (boomark / email).