Cases pit right to privacy and fair trial against public right to know

By Kevin Drew
CNN.com Law Editor
Thursday, August 7, 2003 Posted: 11:15 AM EDT (1515 GMT)

Kobe Bryant arrives for a hearing in Colorado on the sexual assault charge he faces.

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(CNN) -- Jeffrey Toobin, a former federal prosecutor, recalls the heady days of covering the O.J. Simpson murder trial and sees both important parallels and differences in the coverage of high-profile legal cases today.

The media convergence in Los Angeles in the mid-1990s was intense for the Simpson trial. But the coverage during the initial stages of the Simpson case pales in comparison to the early, pre-trial proceedings in the sexual assault case against Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant and other high-profile legal cases.

"The experience of O.J. convinced (news) management that there is tremendous interest in high-profile legal cases," says Toobin, who today is a legal analyst for CNN and a writer for The New Yorker magazine. "So everyone is immediately geared up to cover the big cases, with all our resources.

"Now, it's just a matter of turning on the machine, rather than inventing the machine," he says.

The proliferation of mainstream, non-traditional and tabloid media in recent years today has placed a number of high-profile court cases in the spotlight. Today's coverage, analysts agree, renews debate about the balancing act between preserving fair trial privacy rights for accuser and accused against the public's right to know.

"When it comes to understanding how those practices are compromised by the modern environment of 24-hour cable and Internet, I think most editors are just beginning to tap into this conversation," says Kelly McBride, who teaches ethics at the Poynter Institute, an organization devoted to teaching journalists.

Expectant father and teammate both accused of murder

Scott Peterson

In addition to the Bryant case, news coverage this year also has focused on the case of a California husband accused of killing his wife and their unborn child, and a college basketball player charged with the slaying of his teammate.

In California, media coverage of Scott Peterson, accused of killing his wife Laci and their unborn child, was near daily until the Bryant story broke. Newspapers currently are seeking release of telephone calls with Peterson. News media including CNN are calling for the September preliminary hearing to be open to the public.

In Texas, Baylor University basketball player Carlton Dotson has been charged with murder in the slaying of 21-year-old teammate Patrick Dennehy. Dennehy was last seen around June 12, and his body was found in late July.

As in the Bryant case, pre-trial coverage of the Dotson case has been intense and competitive. At the end of July, the Dallas Morning News published a jailhouse interview between Dotson and an intern at the newspaper. In that story, in which the newspaper acknowledged the reporter did not take notes or tape the interview, Dotson was reported as saying he acted in self-defense.

Dotson's attorney protested the story, alleging intern Shani George did not represent herself as a reporter, and was critical of a story containing quotes without substantiating notes or tapes.

A top editor at the newspaper defended the accuracy of George's reporting, as well as the practice of publishing an article with quotes but without notes or a tape to support them. The jail in which Dotson is housed prohibits bringing in objects such as notebooks, purses or tape recorders, said deputy managing editor Lennox Samuels.

"No amount of competition has persuaded us to change or lower, reduce our standards and our guidelines," Samuels said.

Fairness vs. right to know

Dennehy, left and Dotson

It is the Kobe Bryant case, however, attracting media coverage on a global scale. Bryant has been charged with one count of sexual assault after a 19-year-old woman told police he assaulted her June 30 at a Colorado mountain lodge where she worked and where Bryant was staying. Bryant says he is not guilty.

A judge currently is considering media requests -- including one by CNN -- to unseal court records in the case, including the arrest warrant and accompanying affidavits. Judge Frederick Gannett already has issued an order telling lawyers, investigators and court personnel to limit their public comments in order to avoid prejudicing the proceedings.

Additionally, Gannett has filed an order warning the media not to violate the privacy of the alleged victim in the sexual assault case. The order was spurred by the flurry of reporting by mainstream media, radio talk shows, Internet sites and tabloid newspapers on the background on the accuser and the accused.

"One of the toughest issues here is how much you disclose about the character and history of the accuser in the Bryant case," Toobin said. "At some level, it's relevant to her credibility, which is an important issue in the case. But there are also boundaries of fairness and good taste that need to be considered."

Responsible media will be able to need to stick to standards of balance and fairness, McBride says.

"The professional media is going to have to articulate its standards and practices to the public, and then abide by those standards and practices and hope that the public sees some value in the product they put out."