WEDNESDAY,JUNE19,2002
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 23
Reporters could face jail time for contact with jurors
Associated Press
CAMDEN, N.J. — Four Philadelphia Inquirer reporters could be sentenced to up to six months in jail for writing a story that included an interview with one juror and the name of another in the sensational murder trial of a rabbi.
Superior Court Judge Theodore Z. Davis ruled that George Anastasia, Emilie Lounsberry and Dwight Ott contacted jurors after the trial in violation of an order from Superior Court Judge Linda G. Baxter.
Baxter presided over the case of Rabbi Fred J. Neulander, who was accused of arranging his wife's killing. The case ended in a mistrial in November after the jury deadlocked.
The judge also held the three reporters in contempt of court Monday along with a fourth, Joseph Gambardello, for publishing the name of a juror after the trial. The jurors' identities were supposed to be secret.
Besides facing jail time, the reporters could be fined up to $1,000 at their sentencing Thursday.
tending Thursday. The four were listed as co-authors of a story exploring whether the jury forewoman lived in Pennsylvania rather than New Jersey.
The reporters' conduct "strongly suggests an arrogance which should not and must not be judicially digested," Davis wrote. "For to do so would be an abdication of the court's constitutional responsibility to maintain a viable, fair and operational judicial system."
Inquirer deputy managing editor Hank
Klibanoff said there was no immediate decision on whether to appeal.
"The testimony I heard in this case showed that Inquirer reporters acted courteously, honestly and in the highest journalistic traditions in their reporting following the Neulander trial," he said.
Before the trial began, Baxter banned reporters from contacting jurors during or after the trial.
After the article at issue was published, the New Jersey Supreme Court in April ruled that Baxter had the authority to bar reporters from contacting jurors before the verdict, but not afterward.
New Jersey Deputy Attorney General Eric Schweiker had argued that the reporters should be held in contempt because the order was in effect at the time they violated it.
First Amendment experts said Baxter's order and Davis' decision Monday were rare and troubling restrictions of media freedom.
"It's unusual to the point of being bizarre," said Jonathan Kotler, director of graduate and professional programs at the University of Southern California and a lawyer who frequently represents news organizations in First Amendment cases. Normally, what happens is the jurors are told not to talk to the press."
Monday's ruling brought to five the number of reporters held in contempt for their reporting on the Neulander case. Carol Saline, a writer for Philadelphia Magazine, was fined $1,000 for approaching a juror before deliberations ended.
Neulander is awaiting a retrial in September.
Listeners leaving FM raido, saying it's too repetitive
Associated Press
CEDAR GROVE, N.J. — When 13-year-old Dana Marino flips on her boom box, she wants to hear her favorite songs. And she often does — over and over and over again.
"FM stations overplay popular songs, to the point that no one likes them anymore," the eighth-gradeer complained after a recent audio overdose of J.Lo and Ia Rule.
Ed Cronin, 42, rarely flips his radio on. He longs for the free-form format of his teen years, when you could hear anything from Elvis Presley to Elvis Costello, the Supremes to the Sex Pistols.
"You were exposed to all sorts of other stuff—not only the hip and new, but older stuff," said the resident of West Roxbury, Mass. "You can't hear that now."
Finally, a place where no generation gap exists.
When it comes to commercial radio, it appears everybody has a gripe — except the corporations atop the multibillion-
"We play what people want to hear," said John Hogan, president and chief operating officer of Clear Channel Radio and its 1,200 stations. "And if we play too little of what people want to hear, they're going to go somewhere else."
They already are — although it's not necessarily to other radio stations.
Radio listeners are listening less. In 1993, they spent an average of 23 hours per week with the radio on; last year, it was down to 201/2 hours, according to numbers from Arbitron, an international media and market research firm.
dollar industry. Their stations, they say, are just following the advice of the Kinks' Ray Davies: Give the people what they want.
Those most likely to turn off the radio: teen-agers, long among the medium's mainstays. Among girls age 12 to 17, the radio is on just 16 hours a week. For boys, it's just 121/2 hours. That's bad news for the country's 11,047 commercial radio stations.
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