ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 2, 1997 TAG: 9703030122
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: DENVER
SOURCE: TOM KENWORTHY THE WASHINGTON POST
FIRST, THE STORY went on the Web. Then, it went to readers in Dallas. The impact on Timothy McVeigh's trial is predicted to be enormous. The publication of a sensational story on the Oklahoma City bombing case could have profound implications for the upcoming trial of defendant Timothy McVeigh and for a journalistic fraternity that is grappling uneasily with the question of how to marry traditional newspaper publishing with the Internet.
For McVeigh, who goes on trial here March 31, the obvious question with the unknown answer is whether he can still receive a fair trial given the widespread dissemination of a Dallas Morning News story asserting that he admitted his guilt to unnamed members of his defense team.
For the journalism profession, the question is whether the newspaper's decision to publish the story first on its Web page Friday afternoon in advance of the publication of Saturday's print edition crossed a threshold in how newspapers deliver their product to readers.
As full of outrage as he was at the Morning News story, McVeigh's attorney, Stephen Jones, said he is confident that federal District Judge Richard Matsch ``is going to see we get a fair jury.''
But other members of Colorado's legal community who have been watching the run-up to the trial are considerably less sanguine about the impact of the story, in which McVeigh was said to not only have admitted his guilt to his defense team but also to have chosen to detonate the huge bomb during daylight hours in order to ensure a high ``body count.''
``This is one of the saddest moments in journalism, and now it will be one of the saddest moments in law,'' said Larry Pozner, a Denver criminal attorney and vice president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. ``It has destroyed any chance of a fair trial. It is unrealistic to expect people to forget what they've heard.''
Although there have been a number of other leaks concerning evidence that will be used against McVeigh and co-defendant Terry Nichols, Pozner said evidence will be introduced at trial and weighed for its credibility by a jury after hearing arguments from both the prosecution and defense.
``It's an entirely different thing to say that McVeigh has confessed to the entire crime,'' he said. ``That will never come into evidence.''
But Albert Alschuler, a professor of criminal law at the University of Chicago Law School, said the possibility of empaneling a fair-minded jury would depend on how the story is presented and if there remained a serious question of whether the story was, as Jones insisted, a hoax.
``This is a classic sort of situation,'' Alschuler said. ``If everybody in America knows that McVeigh has given a confession that is inadmissible, how on earth can you empanel a fair jury? On the other hand, how on earth could you let that man go after killing that many people?
``If it stays with a big question mark on it, it is not hard to persuade jurors they should disregard it. It may be a complete fraud; and if it is not introduced, the jury is not supposed to pay attention to it, and it is possible to empanel a jury on that basis.''
As to the question of whether a defense lawyer would ask a client if he is guilty, Alschuler said there are ``two schools of thought on that: Some lawyers say, `Of course I always ask because I cannot prepare a good defense unless I know the whole truth.' ... And others say, `I don't want to know. I never ask.'''
Students of the media were more certain in their estimations of the impact of the Morning News decision to publish the bombing story on its Web site. The event, they said, represents a crossing of a journalistic Rubicon for print media and their electronic offspring.
``It's a landmark, it really is,'' said Jon Katz, who covers the media for Wired magazine. ``It's journalism history. It's one of the first times, if not the first time, that a major, traditional news organization has chosen to break a story like this on its Web site.''
Katz said the electronic publication of the story is an encouraging sign that newspapers are learning how to fuse their traditional and electronic formats to the benefit of both.
``The old and the new are coming together in the middle, which is quite healthy,'' he said. ``It's a long overdue recognition on the part of newspapers that if they want to stay in the breaking-news business, they need to use electronic media to do it. They can't just come out once a day and be competitive.''
Katz, who argues in his new book ``Virtuous Reality'' that both traditional and new electronic forms of media ought to survive and thrive in the new environment, said the Morning News had demonstrated to a nervous industry that it can break news quickly on the Web but still provide needed context and depth the following day in traditional print format.
Tom Rosenstiel, a former media reporter for the Los Angeles Times who directs the Washington-based Project for Excellence in Journalism, also said the Morning News had crossed an important boundary.
The strength of traditional newspapers, Rosenstiel said, is their ability to provide comprehensive news gathering, and the challenge facing the profession is to exploit multiple outlets without undercutting accuracy and thoroughness.
Although scores of daily newspapers now publish editions electronically, the new formats are largely jazzed-up versions of the print editions and have not been used to transmit instantaneously breaking news from their own staffs. ``Shovelware'' is the somewhat-dismissive term used that describes the recycled material that appears on newspaper Web sites.
To Katz, the Morning News decision to publish first on the Web ``is a profoundly significant journalistic event that should show the way for many papers who are phobic about new media that they shouldn't be afraid of it, they should use it and use it in innovative ways.''
Tom Rosenstiel, a former media reporter for the Los Angeles Times who directs the Washington-based Project for Excellence in Journalism, also said the Morning News had crossed an important boundary. ``This is not an anomaly. This is definitely the beginning of a trend,'' he said.
The strength of traditional newspapers, Rosenstiel said, is their ability to provide comprehensive news gathering, and the challenge facing the profession is to exploit multiple outlets without undercutting accuracy and thoroughness.
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