My Payback For "Newspaper Reporters Love Affair With Prosecutors"

When I wrote the below post a couple days ago, I had no idea that my federal sentencing yesterday would be the subject of an article in my local paper.

Another one, naming and quoting the prosecutor, and leading the public to believe that there was no defense lawyer.

Now, in defense of this reporter, he's a great guy, balanced as they come, with a great sense of the system. He's that good that you would never know from reading the article, that he was not at the sentencing. This is another new little secret of the printed press: They don't have the staff to actually attend things that they write about.

No, this story came from U.S. Attorney Press Releases, pleadings in the court file, and maybe, but probably not, a quick conversation with the prosecutor.

So the question is asked: ""Brian, is this about getting your name in the paper?"

Nope. My name's been in the paper plenty, and I'm not that hot on having my name in the paper when my client goes to prison.

The issue is: why the public continues to be fed stories about the prosecution of criminal cases, and not the defense? My client was facing decades in prison, and got two. How? That's the question I'm being asked, so I assume those reading the story in the paper are asking the same question. Actually, I know this is the question they are asking as it is part of the disgusting discourse in the comment section.

The second question is: How can reporters continue to call defense lawyers with a straight face and say "we want to get your side so we can write a balanced story?"

It is a complete coincidence that this story left me out just days after my post. Again, the reporter here, thought nothing of it, and probably didn't even realize it (until I emailed him this morning with a copy of my post below).

Cases are prosecuted and defended., by prosecutors and defense lawyers. The only place where this is not true is on the darling of the American public show "Law & Order.

It is a chronic problem in the print media, which I will continue to post about here.

Brian Tannebaum is a criminal defense lawyer in Miami, Florida practicing in state and federal court. Read his free ebook The Truth About Hiring A Criminal Defense Lawyer. To learn more about Brian and his firm, Tannebaum Weiss, please visit www.tannebaumweiss.com



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