5.29.11
This is an Archival Site
There is now a new Rogovoy Report home
5.18.11
Weekend Preview May 19-24
Bob Dylan tributes, Deborah Voigt, Tom Paxton, Bill Kirchen, John Kirk and Trish Miller
5.18.11
Celebrating Bob Dylan's 70th Birthday in Style
Paying tribute to the greatest rock songwriter ever
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FILM REVIEW: In a Better World and Of Gods and Men
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.17.11
'LIKE' The Rogovoy Report on Facebook
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5.12.11
Deborah Voigt Headlines Mahaiwe Gala
Opera star to sing arias, show tunes on Saturday, May 21
5.15.11
Famed Spiritual Teacher to Speak on Nonviolence
Mother Maya in free talk at Sruti Yoga in Great Barrington, Mass., on Friday May 20 at 7pm
5.12.11
Special Effects Wizard to Be Honored by Film Festival
Doug Trumbull to be Feted by BIFF
5.11.11
Weekend Preview May 12-16
Cultural Highlights of the Berkshire Weekend
6.4.09
Talk about a small world
Elaine and I grew up together, but only just recently met....
5.8.11
Berkshire Living to Cease Publication
A Farewell from Publisher Michael Zivyak
5.8.11
twiGs Branches Out
Lenox boutique launches new e-tail site
5.8.11
[MUSIC REVIEW] Avalon Quartet in Close Encounters at Mahaiwe
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.8.11
[MUSIC REVIEW] Avalon Quartet in Close Encounters at Mahaiwe
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.7.11
[FILM REVIEW] Bill Cunningham New York
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.7.11
[FILM REVIEW] Bill Cunningham New York
Review by Seth Rogovoy
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Twitter Rubs Up Against the Judicial System
2.10.11
by Seth Rogovoy
Perhaps I should have known better than to suggest that I was “in contempt of court” in a Twitter message (a “tweet,” for the uninitiated) earlier this week, a tweet that got me thrown off a jury hearing the trial of an accused pedophile priest after someone turned over to the judge hearing the case at Berkshire Superior Court several pages of my Twitter feed from the previous days.
In his introductory remarks to the jury before the trial began, Judge John A. Agostini of Berkshire Superior Court in Pittsfield, Mass., admitted to us that he knew nothing about social media -- “Facebook and something called Twixting,” he said, presumably conflating texting and Twitter. Perhaps I should have realized then and there that no good could come from mixing up my Twitter feed with a few cryptic comments like “I packed a fork with which to eat my salad on break in the jury room. Big fail. Busted! No forks allowed” and “Sucks that you can't tweet from the jury box. What's the fun in that?” in between more typical and fascinating fare I tweet such as “10 cars are ahead of me in line for the car wash” and “Let's go Mets!,” which I tweeted during the Super Bowl, because I’m an inveterate wiseguy.
The judge, as it turns out, was not amused. While I believed and still do that I was not in any way discussing the case being heard – I never once named the court, the defendant, the judge, or commented on any of the details of the case against former priest Gary Mercure (in fact, no one other than the judge, the prosecutor, and the defense attorney should have even known that I was on the jury) – Judge Agostini apparently felt otherwise. The fence he draws around “discussing the case” encompasses an enormous amount of territory – so much that it is destined only to cause more trouble as social media becomes the conventional form of communication, ultimately and for better worse replacing telephone, email, and to a large extent, face-to-face dialogue.
The judicial system – at least as represented by the Berkshire Superior Court in Pittsfield, Mass. – is light years behind the curve when it comes to the role of social media in fomenting and perpetuating democracy. While the no-cellphone rule in the visitor’s gallery is understandable in the same way it is at the movies or the theater, court officers are also quick to scold anyone who even peeks at his BlackBerry or iPhone to check email or send a text message.
And while the world over, people are using social media and wireless technology as tools of democracy, to open windows and shine lights on the inner workings of government, here the agents of the greatest democracy in the world are acting like mini-Mubaraks, with unfounded blanket rules against any use of wireless communication in an open courtroom – a courtroom, incidentally, in which cameras are whirring the entire time. Have the judges forgotten the battles that were fought to bring cameras into the courtroom in the first place, and what a triumph this has been for opening up the legal system to greater scrutiny and less potential for abuse? Don’t they realize that the ability of the public to communicate via Twitter and Facebook from within the courtroom is just a logical extension of allowing the press to cover the trial in a fair and open courtroom?
By no means am I suggesting – in spite of my humorous tweet to the contrary, meant as a play on words that could have been posted by anyone at anytime, with no reference to coming from a sitting juror -- that jurors should be free to divulge testimony to which they are privy (and of this I did none).
But to expect that I am going to go home every night for the duration of a trial lasting more than a week and not engage in regular communication with my friends, relatives, and, yes, my “followers” – my online community – is not only unrealistic, but it is a losing battle, and one that will inevitably rub up against claims of prior restraint of free speech. That fence needs to be drawn much closer to the actual content of the trial itself, and not around the mere exercise of one’s right to be an engaged citizen.
Seth Rogovoy is the editor-in-chief of Berkshire Living and BerkshireDaily and the author of Bob Dylan: Prophet Mystic Poet.
2/11/2011
Glad you took your responsibility seriously, Seth. Your tweets are obviously more important than putting that animal behind bars.
From IP address: 204.80.61.94
2/11/2011
Your actions and mindset represent the epitome of what is wrong with current trends in social media. You were on a JURY for chrissakes! Have you NO respect for the judicial process? You aren't in Egypt, and your smarmy commentary above just reinforces my perception that you are without clue. Grow up and become a citizen.
From IP address: 12.107.154.130
2/11/2011
I don't see anything wrong with sending tweets. He didn't say anything about the case for crying out loud. I had no idea he was on that jury panel until they called him out and publicized his situation, which I think is awful.
I'm more interested in figuring out how someone found pages of his tweets to submit to the judge. Sounds like the defense was fishing for a mistrial and was going to do everything possible to declare as such....including spying.
*glad to know I can't bring forks to court*
From IP address: 74.76.75.2
2/11/2011
"I don't see anything wrong with sending tweets. "
When you're on a jury, you don't talk about it.
You don't tweet about it.
You don't post about it.
You don't blog about it.
You don't text about it.
You don't write about it.
It's not a hard concept. Mr. Rogovoy is lucky he was not "held" in contempt and remanded to jail. He was fulfilling his role as a citizen, not a journalist. It's one of the basic tenets of our society... duh.
From IP address: 12.107.154.130
2/11/2011
Normally, people tweet or facebook about irrelevant personal issues and the saving grace is that it doesn't really matter. We don't care, and we don't remember. But if an entire jury tweeted about its trial experience, any judgement could be appealed for a variety of reasons. Rogovoy's narcissism and stupidity are impressive. This was endangering the judicial process and NOT ABOUT HIM.
From IP address: 207.190.198.62
2/11/2011
Exactly. Tweeting is another form of conversation and should not be allowed in court. Somehow because it's new and does reveal some oppression in other oppressive areas, everyone who tweets feels they have the right to tweet when and where they please. Most of most tweets are innocuous, but tweeting from court as a member of a jury is not.
From IP address: 68.218.137.15
2/11/2011
You are an idiot pure and simple.
From IP address: 74.70.208.146
2/12/2011
To 68.218.137.15: Seth did not tweet from court, but only tweeted a couple of generic messages that did not disclose anything about the proceedings when court was not in session.
Norm Tedford
From IP address: 74.70.138.249
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