Media
Media
The Scarlet Badge – Jury Selection in the Anthony Maio Case
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 07/22/2009 - 10:41I spent yesterday in jury duty and was selected for the Anthony Maio Case. New Haven Police Officer Anthony Maio is accused of two counts of Fourth Degree Sexual Contact without Consent and two counts of Second Degree Unlawful Constraint in an incident where he allegedly groped two Yale Students in a private bathroom at the nightclub, BAR one evening.
During Voir Dire, I was questioned by the attorneys and Judge Blue about my knowledge of the case and my ability to deliver a fair and unbiased decision. It was a very interesting set of questions that I think are very illustrative of the considerations that should be made in selecting jurors and I hope to write a detailed account later.
I had a certain amount of knowledge about the case before being empanelled as well as a friendship with the Mayor and certain reporters that have covered the case. While I believe that I could most likely have separated in my mind what is presented as evidence and what I know beforehand, what the law says and what is right and any feelings I have about people involved in the process, including journalists and politicians, it would be reasonable for people to doubt if I could be fair and impartial and I believe that the judge did the correct thing in excusing me from serving on the jury, as much as I would have been interested in serving on that jury.
During my questioning, I mentioned my role in 2005 as BlogMaster for Mayor DeStefano’s Gubernatorial campaign, and last night people search on this and read my blog post from when I started in that role. I hope that people who read that will come back to read future posts about the case.
Besides writing about my experience in the jury selection process, I am considering attending parts of the trial and writing about it, if I can work it into my schedule. The trial raises many interesting questions that I believe would make good material for blog posts.
I will be off at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival for the next several days. After I return, the trial is scheduled to start on August 3. However, there is a UNESCO conference at UConn the same week and I am sure I will have plenty of other things to work on, so I will have to carefully balance my schedule.
Fourth of July Weekend
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 07/05/2009 - 10:39On this Fourth of July Weekend, as we celebrate our country’s independence with our friends and families, I thought it would be good to take a quick moment to think a little bit more about our freedoms.
First, I want to start off with a quote from the Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
As I read this, I think about what is going on in Iran. I think of those who have lost their lives or liberty in an effort to keep their government from becoming more destructive. Here in the United States, the struggles to keep our government from becoming destructive is much more acceptable, and often lauded. Yet even here, it is an ongoing struggle.
The struggle here is usually not as dangerous. Instead, it takes much more thinking and analysis. We are currently in a national dialog about who the next member of the Supreme Court should be. Many of my friends are strong supporters of Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Yet I have had serious doubts about her stance on basic freedoms, starting from my interest in the Doninger case.
Andy Thibault pointed me to a blog post by Kristin Billera at the Media and Communications Law Society saying Sotomayor’s Record on Freedom of Speech Issues is Mixed.
The crux of the Doninger case is whether or not what a student says at home on a computer can be considered ‘on campus’ speech. The essential argument of the court is that with a click of a mouse all off campus speech becomes on campus speech.
This isn’t the only case where speech that takes place online is being considered. Toni Bowers, who writes for TechRepublic, has a blog post up about a woman suing to have the name of an anonymous poster revealed. The plaintiff accuses the anonymous poster of defamation.
The post cites examples of other cases where the identity of anonymous posters have been demanded and of newspapers changing their policies about anonymous posts. This raises many issues about privacy, shield laws, and so on and it will be interesting to see how these cases play out.
My general thoughts about anonymous sources and privacy go back to the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics
Always question sources’ motives before promising anonymity. Clarify conditions attached to any promise made in exchange for information. Keep promises.
It seems to me that newspapers that allow for anonymous comments, or, as in the case listed above, quote those comments in an article, rarely question sources’ motives before promising anonymity. On the other hand, not respecting any promises of anonymity implied in allowing anonymous comments on newspaper websites would also fail to meet this ethical standard.
In Iran, opponents of the government have a strong need for anonymity. They face arrest, torture or death if their comments are traced back to them. This isn’t a fear that most people posting anonymously on blogs in the United States should have.
We do live in a great country. Our freedoms are a key part of what makes our country great. I am glad to celebrate these freedoms with friends and family over this Fourth of July weekend. At the same time, we need to remain constantly vigilant to protect these freedoms in an ever-changing world.
#followfriday
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 06/19/2009 - 12:30#iranelection What more can I say? This is the one thing to be following right now. Shout outs to friends in the States who are closely following things in Iran with me, especially @jodmentum
It is also Juneteenth. Shout outs to @raynetoday and @ConnecticutMan1 who are also celebrating Juneteenth today.
Final comments. On Wednesday, there was a great discussion on the #editorchat hashtag on Twitter. @TimOBrienNYT raised an interesting question about the relationship between traditional journalism and Twitter, which I joined in on. Others that joined the discussion included @KatPowers @WpgGirl @lauriemeisel @wmduke @LisaGemini @kbeninato and @saulcarlin It was great to hear from Saul, a Wesleyan alum doing well for himself in DC.
Sky of Blue, and Sea of Green – The New Normal #iranelection
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 06/17/2009 - 16:57In the first days of a crisis, everything is new. People scurry around, not sure how to react; what the right thing to do is. Yet slowly, the crisis becomes routine. People learn to cope. The visit to the hospital becomes a regular, normal occurrence. The expectation of things changing soon remains, but you recognize that you will probably do the same thing tomorrow that you did yesterday.
It seems as if this applies not only when a loved one fights some horrible illness, but can also apply to a nation fighting a horrible illness. Today, on twitter, a person tweeted, “The Sea of Green will continue tomorrow and every day until election is declared void”. The sea of green has become the new normal.
My scanning of the #iranelection tweets has become more routine. I recognize things to look for. Themes recur. The picture of the day is
The discussion started off talking about the Iranian Soccer team wearing green wristbands. There were talks about which cleric was saying what, which generals or military forces are planning what. This is supplemented by rumors about Montazeri withdrawing his support of Khamenei and possible meeting of the Assembly of Experts.
Others are settling into their patterns as well. The Guardian has its live coverage of the Iranian Uprising, and people on Twitter are asking, “Are CNN and the networks just reading twitter, facebook, and youtube for me? They're going the way of the newspaper.”
Personally, I think the Guardian, CNN, and the networks are doing more than just reading Twitter. They are gathering out the most important points and putting them into context. For people that have time to read Twitter constantly and investigate what is being said, the traditional news outlets aren’t adding much. But most people don’t have that sort of time or inclination, and the news outlets are reaching beyond the most engaged.
I remember what was called the Iranian Hostage Crisis in the United States. The television stations would run their nightly reports of Day 49, or whichever day it was. Interestingly enough, this was tied to the freezing of all Iranian Assets held in the United States, something a friend of mine at the State Department is still dealing with thirty years later.
MediaBistro has provided a great profile of the ‘kid’ at the State Department who contacted Twitter. Clay Shirky shares his thoughts about the use of Twitter over on the TEDBlog.
People talk about the role of the United States and President Obama’s remarks. We can argue about whether or not one Iranian leader is really substantially different from another. One person on Twitter commented, “People of Iran, most of us here in America are supporting you so your government will be more pro-iranian, not pro-american”
Perhaps this takes us to where the real difference is. The underlying issue is whether or not a leader will respect the will and freedom of the people being governed. Will the leader order troops to shoot people who disagree with him? Will he round up dissidents? Will he try to shut down access to the media?
There is also some good levity on Twitter and the joke du jour is this item on eBay.
With the rhythm Iranian uprising taking shape, I need to re-evaluate how it fits into the rest of the rhythm of my blog. I like to write about a large array of topics but the Iranian uprising has been taking up a lot of my writing focus. Do you find these posts interesting? Helpful? Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.
#cnnfail and #iranelection
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 06/14/2009 - 09:16Somewhere in Iran, perhaps at Sharif University of Technology in the Tarasht neighborhood of Tehran a quick run from Azadi Square, a young Jack Reed manages to connect to the Twitter API across some Internet proxy to send out 140 character dispatches about the protests over the announced election results in Iran. They note which sites are blocked, the status of cellphone coverage, how to connect to the outside world and other technical details.
There are thousands of tweets about the Iran Election, tagged #iranelection for people around the world to follow. Information gets repeated rapidly, without being confirmed. A clip of a BBC report on YouTube gets widely repeated:
as does a Flickr Slideshow of the Streets in Iran. A site called Tehran Bureau is posting regular updates. A picture on Tehran Live evokes reflections of Tiananmen Square.
Unlike the Jack Reed of yore, these young citizen journalists simply wanted to write about technology and are finding their stories caught up in a larger story. As misinformation spreads, perhaps at the hands of intelligence agents also on Twitter, things get uglier and many of them protect their posts and stop sending political messages.
Others post plans for worldwide protests and links to the Iranian Embassies. Reddit posts a list of Twitters posting from inside Iran.
Meanwhile, back in the United States, CNN airs a segment where "Larry talks to the stars of American Chopper and takes you on a behind-the-scenes tour." Insomniac news junkies are outraged and #cnnfail becomes a trending topic on Twitter.
This becomes a story in and of itself. My News Junkie runs Twitter Users Shame CNN For Not Covering Iran Elections, Riots. Michael Pinto creates an image that contrasts the coverage of the events by different news outlets. 
Others note that CNN International is providing better coverage. They suggest going to the edition.cnn.com website, and highlight a report by “CNN's Christiane Amanpour on the angry aftermath of the presidential election result in Iran.”
Others join in the discussion, Read Write Web asks CNN to check Twitter for News about Iran. TheLetterTwo writes about Why Traditional Media Is Failing to Understand The Web.
Hours into the protests, CNN starts providing much more in depth coverage. People that are still tweeting from Iran are adding ‘confirmed’ or ‘unconfirmed’ to their tweets, although it is hard to tell how things are being confirmed.
As I write this, evening is settling into Iran. Will it be another night of violence? Will there be a general strike? Is this the new Tiananmen Square with crack downs to follow, or is it the new Iranian Revolution? Most importantly, what can all of us learn from this about news coverage in the twenty first century?
