Television News and the Supreme Court
All the News that's Fit to Air?

This book offers an in-depth analysis of journalistic attention to the Supreme Court.

Elliot E. Slotnick (Author), Jennifer A. Segal (Author)

9780521576161, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 28 August 1998

280 pages, 12 tables
22.8 x 15 x 1.6 cm, 0.43 kg

"...provide[s] a highly readable scholarly examination of the ways in which the media, particularly television news, (mis)inform the public about the Supreme Court....Television News and the Supreme Court contributes significant new information about the Court and the reporters who cover it....this book could become part of an excellent graduate course on the interactions of the Court and the media." Susan Dente Ross, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly

Beginning with the recognition that the Supreme Court is the most invisible branch of American government and the one that most Americans know the least about, this book examines the way in which television news, the primary source of the public's limited knowledge, covers the Supreme Court. The book relies on rich interviews with network news reporters who have covered the Court, coupled with actual videotapes of network newscast coverage, to develop a unique portrait of the constraints faced by reporters covering the institution as well as a thorough picture of what facets of the Court's work actually are covered by television news. The analysis demonstrates convincingly that there are characteristics of the television news industry (such as its heavy reliance on dramatic stories and visuals) that, coupled with the rules and habits of the Supreme Court (such as its refusal to allow cameras in the Court as well as its propensity to announce several critical rulings on the same day) come together to make network news coverage of the Court infrequent, brief, and in too many instances, simply plain wrong.

List of tables
Acknowledgements
1. Television news: a critical link between the Supreme Court and the American public
2. The Supreme Court beat: a view from the press
3. Television news and the Supreme Court: opportunities and constraints
4. A tale of two cases: Bakke and Webster
5. A tale of two terms: the 1989 and 1994 court terms
6. 'The Supreme Court decided today …' - or did it?
7. Which decisions are reported? It's the issue, stupid!
8. Television news and the Supreme Court: all the news that's fit to air?
Appendix: schedule of interviews
Notes
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Courts & procedure [LNAA], Freedom of information & freedom of speech [JPVH2]