15 minutes redux

[khaosworks]

Name in the papers, although they wrongly promoted me. I'm just a Magistrate, not a District Judge.

Comments

[gingicat]

Sounds like the paper didn't approve of your actions, and didn't provide information properly showing how you came to your conclusion. Silly gits.

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

This is because the reporter only showed up on the day I gave my decision (for which I don't usually give extemporaneous reasons) and didn't bother to follow the two days of trial before that. This happens a lot in the smaller courts like mine. Reporters hop from court to court hoping to catch something interesting, get bored, then hop to another court, then show up for the verdict, whereupon they usually get their information from the defence counsels.

Back when I was a Prosecutor I used to cultivate a good working relationship with the crime beat reporters so I could ensure they at least got some of the story straight from my end of the case. Not all prosecutors did this, and I think the new breed of prosecutors seem rather aloof, which explains why the case reports get a bit lopsided in the press. I've expressed my despair that the new prosecution kids aren't street savvy enough and keep too much of a distance between them and opposing counsel and the press (leading to bad adversarial relationships and bad press), but it usually winds up me sounding like I'm doing the "When I Was A Boy" shtick.