Legal Media News: A Leap from ABC to CBS; a Dig at Factual Reporting
Two well-known legal journalists are in the news, one for a career move and another for her criticism of the “he-said, she-said” style of journalism.
Jan Crawford Greenburg is returning to CBS after spending three years at ABC, according to Media Bistro. Greenburg will be chief legal correspondent at CBS, where she will contribute to The CBS Evening News, The Early Show, Face the Nation, and radio and Internet reports.
Greenburg wrote the 2007 book, Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for the Control of the United States Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, the Cornell Daily Sun reports on a speech Tuesday by former New York Times Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse. She questioned the he-said, she-said style of reporting that presents all viewpoints and then leaves it to the public to decide.
“Can this operate in the world when many stories have many sides or only one?” she said. “Facts alone don’t necessarily lead the reader to real understanding, and that’s, I think, the function of journalism in democratic society—to empower readers and viewers.”
Greenhouse said the mainstream media displays “hypersensitivity” to accusations of liberal bias, using phrases such as “enhanced interrogation techniques” to describe waterboarding.
According to the Daily Sun, Greenhouse offered “a somewhat unique point of view in that, in her opinion, few legitimate sources exist in opposition to Supreme Court decisions.”
