Word: courtroom
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...experiment more aggressively than they do during the regular season. So far this summer we've seen Norman Lear get religion (in CBS's Sunday Dinner); a former Surgeon General, C. Everett Koop, get a prime- time showcase (in five low-rated NBC specials); and CBS News invade the courtroom for a new reality series, Verdict. Three even more atypical offerings will debut in the next two weeks. Each would probably be regarded as too off the wall to be taken off the shelf during the cooler months. But two of them are worth some attention in any season...
...precursor Tigers (for boys 6 to 10), Boy Scouts (boys 11 to 17) and Explorers (both sexes, 14 to 20). The two younger groups must swear loyalty to God and country. Explorers take no oath, and thus the 1.2 million-member branch has largely kept clear of courtroom battles but has weakened scouting's claim that religious faith is central to its mission...
...many of the problems predicted by those who oppose cameras in the courtroom have not been realized. Even in states that allow televised trials, judges make the final determination as to whether TV should be admitted for a particular case; cameras are usually barred when the victim's identity needs to be protected, as in the Central Park-jogger rape trial. Nor, despite the / crowd at Ligon's trial, has TV in general turned the courtroom into the proverbial media circus. With tight ground rules, cameras and microphones can be kept relatively unobtrusive...
Some attorneys contend that cameras in the courtroom can have a subtle and damaging effect on the trial itself. Witnesses may be more reluctant to testify, for example, if they know they will be seen on the nightly news by their neighbors. Seth Waxman, a Washington attorney who represented a white- collar defendant in one televised trial, says that jurors afterward made it clear that TV had had an impact; one juror said a witness seemed less credible because she kept nervously glancing at the camera. Argues Waxman: "Any extraneous factor that complicates the fact-finding process ought...
...What happens to fairness with TV cameras in the courtroom...