IGF CultureWatch

The Internet abhors an information vacuum. While the U.S. Supreme Court dithers about whether a public trial should be available to the public in the entire nation, or just that portion of the public who can get to the courthouse, bloggers have taken up the slack. Karen Ocamb is posting updates from the trial at her site, and the Courage Campaign has set up a special live-blog just for the trial - and they're not the only ones.

Again, I have to plead common sense to the Justices. Every judge and every lawyer knows the problem with hearsay, with one person narrating what someone else has said. When it comes to discovering the truth, there is nothing like the original source - even the most trustworthy intermediaries get in the way.

I have a great deal of faith in Karen Ocamb and Rick Jacobs. But how much better an assessment can I - or anyone else, individually - make if we can see the witnesses, and the lawyers asking the questions, directly?

Or, stated in terms I hope the Supreme Court takes into account, is the public more likely to get an accurate picture of this trial by relying on the accounts of a few individuals who are dedicated or fortunate enough to be present at the courthouse, or are we better served by being able to see the trial for ourselves?

The court could not possibly prevent these people from reporting their observations of what is going on, nor could it even consider such a thing. But the people at the courthouse in particular are highly likely to have a strong predilection toward one side or the other (I trust that the anti-marriage side, too, has some observers present). Is the court's mission of objective truth-seeking really being served by preventing the public from actually seeing the proceedings directly? Are the Justices really prepared to rule that the hearsay which is objectionable in court, is, in fact, good enough for the public at large?

This question is a new one in light of the new ways we have to communicate. Up until now, it was inconceivable that a few non-journalists would be able to present their impressions of a trial -- or, more cynically, to spin it -- to the entire interested world. Now, that is not only possible, it is likely, given the high emotions on both sides of this case. But today, we don't need to worry about whether intermediaries have an agenda or not. What they say about the original source, if it is tainted, is easily remedied by presenting the original source, itself.

The only problem, then, is in obscuring the original source. The Justices could do that. I hope they don't.