Much in the way that the Jungle is always the most popular subject in the Jungle, the blogosphere is always one of the most popular topics in the blogosphere. The circle of bloggers that I read, some of whom even read me, remains a bit abuzz over Brittney Gilbert's paid gig blogging for a TV station in Nashville.
Here in SoCal, KCBS-TV has started blogging. Its main blog -- it has three -- is called "Let's Blog," and it is written by Kent Shocknek, a news anchor who, to this day, remains best known for turning ash-white and diving under his desk when a Northridge quake (or was it the Whitter Narrows quake?) aftershock struck during a live broadcast. Locals still refer to him as Kent Aftershocknek.
Unlike Brittney, Kent was a "real" journalist before becoming a blogger. So his blog should have an extra dose of trustworthiness, no?
I don't think so.
In today's feature, Kent tells us how so few people serve their jury duty, which, in general, is a real problem. But at the end of the post, he cites some anonymous source at the Norwalk courthouse -- a branch of the Los Angeles County Superior Court system. Kent writes:
Norwalk will try again this week. It's looking for 200 jurors. A jury manager says they'll be lucky to get 10. That's one in 20.
Bullshit. The math is okay, but the underlying facts are false. I don't know if Kent is the bullshitter, or the "jury manager" is the bullshitter, but that is complete bullshit.
I try cases in Norwalk. There is no place in L.A. County where you get to a jury faster. Show up on Monday at 8:30 a.m. with a scheduled trial date and you will be in trial by 1:30 p.m. -- at the latest. That should not, would not, could not happen if they were "lucky to get 10" jurors. You can't empanel even a single jury with 10 stragglers. It takes 12 to start, and that is after the lawyers get to strike potential jurors from the pool. Moreover, civil cases always take a back seat to the criminal trials, so if they have time to send in 18 or more jurors from which I can pick my civil jury, they have a shitpotful more than 10 people showing up.
"They'll be lucky to get 10" jurors is an intriguing story line. But it just isn't true.
I've heard it said that blog isn't short for "weblog." It stands for "better listing on google." Ask a TV news anchor, however, and you might be told it stands for "bullshit, lie or gull." I guess the mainstream media thinks that blogging means you don't have to be right anymore.
[Update: Here's another crappy TV station blog: Click On Detroit.]
That's terrible.
Posted by: Retro Girl | May 10, 2005 at 23:33