Are Federal Cases Headed For Television?
An advisory panel takes a step toward allowing cameras at U.S. criminal trials. By Lyle Denniston The technology of the broadcast news industry is changing at a dizzying rate. But the federal courts continue to move into the television age at a crawl. A small advance took place recently with the first official support for easing the ban on airing federal criminal trials. By early 1996, the first televised federal criminal trial could occur. But even that may be only an experiment. Lawyers for the broadcast press, repeatedly frustrated in efforts to get cameras into the U.S. courts, no longer seek bold gestures; they are content to solicit incremental change. Americans may have become a visual people, but all they see of federal criminal cases are artists’ sketches, sometimes good likenesses but with none of the drama and sound of the real thing. By contrast, the nation has long watched state criminal trials, including recent high-profile legal battles involving Rodney King, the Bobbitt
