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Wanted: real courthouse reporters in Boston

By Mark Obbie

What's wrong with the Boston papers? A respected bankruptcy judge gets arrested and pleads no contest to DWI and DWCD -- driving while intoxicated and driving while in a cocktail dress. He resigns, then reconsiders. And then ... nothing. No reporter evidently has good enough sources on the district court bench or the 1st Circuit to report on why the May 15 deadline on the judge's status has come and gone. The story in today's Boston Globe by Jonathan Salzman appears to be the Globe's first on the case since this brief on April 2. The Herald, which might be counted on to pursue such a story with more gusto, hasn't even tried. Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly's Julia Reischel at least beat Salzman to the punch by two days, with the same basic story (i.e., we have no clue what is going on). It's disturbing that court officials can't come clean about what is happening. This, after all, is the public's business. But it's downright lame that the papers are so out of touch with the courthouse crowd that they are either silent or publicly confess their cluelessness instead of digging up the news.

Full post as published by Lawbeat on May 21, 2008 (boomark / email).