Monday, February 23, 2009

MAJOR STORY: WLWT, WCPO, WXIX Trying to Gain Courtroom Access in Murder Trial

UPDATE 7:00 PM: Well, THAT went down fast.

WLWT says that in a hastily scheduled afternoon hearing, Judge Ward decided to ban ALL cameras from the courtroom, INCLUDING those of Dateline NBC...which as we reported earlier, had agreed to share the video with all of the local outlets. Far as we can tell, that will not happen now, unless the Kentucky Court of Appeals hears the appeal being filed by attorneys for 5, 9, and 19. And all this, because those three outlets wanted to have blogs covering the trial, which was by the way allowed in the case last year in which Liz and David Carroll were both sent to prison for killing 3 year old Marcus Fiesel.

The case has now been postponed until tomorrow morning.

The original posting earlier today follows:

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A major trial is scheduled to begin today in the case of Cheryl McCafferty, accused of murdering her husband.

You might be asking what this has to do with media.

Well, last night, WLWT-TV 5, WXIX-TV 19, and WCPO-TV 9, along with WKRC-TV 12, were informed that their access in the courtroom of Judge Julie Reinhardt Ward would be restricted, and blogging would not be allowed. Nor would any other type of reporting from inside the courtroom.

Here's WLWT's report on their challenge.

Here's WCPO's report.

And here's WXIX's report.

You'll notice a little piece of information in the WLWT report that is not echoed by the other two. NBC's "Dateline" (of course WLWT-TV IS an NBC affiliate) will have two remote controlled cameras in the courtroom, and they planned to share the footage with all other news outlets.

We'll update this story as it develops.

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