Court TV Correspondent Reveals What May Have Been Going on With Rittenhouse Jury Stalking – Opinion

In an earlier post, I described how the Rittenhouse judge banned MSNBC’s access to the court because it was allegedly stalking a bus with jury members. James Morrison, the producer of the film, claimed that he was instructed by New York-based employers to track the jury bus.

As the jury deliberates, Rittenhouse judges ban MSNBC from their courthouse pic.twitter.com/r4NTRKEqjZ

— Fox News (@FoxNews) November 18, 2021

Channel 5 Chicago (an NBC affiliate) confirmed Morrison to be a producer for NBC.

The incident was then covered by NBC News.

“Last night, a freelancer received a traffic citation. Although the incident occurred close to the jury van, there was no contact by the freelancer or intent to. He also never intended to photograph the jurors or took photographs of them during the deliberations. We regret the incident and will fully cooperate with the authorities on any investigation.”

Sounds like a denial, doesn’t it? But why would you be following the bus, if you didn’t intend to contact them? Morrison already gave up the game and confessed that he’d been instructed to follow the bus by his bosses, according to the judge.

This statement contains a lot of lies. NBC would like you to believe that the man was simply committing a traffic offense near the bus. He wasn’t running a red light for them to follow, according to the judge. They call the producer a “freelancer,” but he identified himself as an NBC producer and was identified by the NBC affiliate as a producer.

If you read the statement carefully, it isn’t a denial at all. It’s a very carefully worded statement that hinges on “during deliberations.”

Court TV now has an investigation into what was going on.

Perspective: A Court TV reporter who is familiar with James J. Morrison said that a reporter following the jury bus is an established practice in large trials by news media to obtain information on juror panels so they can quickly reach jurors after verdict. Every day it happens.

— Steve Lookner (@lookner) November 18, 2021

Court TV correspondent says he doesn’t want to defend the practice, and acknowledges some people might think it’s despicable. Says when a reporter follows a jury bus they’re looking for the jurors’ license plates so they can get their contact info to contact them after verdict.

— Steve Lookner (@lookner) November 18, 2021

So, they weren’t trying to intimidate them —  just trying to follow them, get their license plates, get someone to run the plates, find out who they were, and then harass them to talk to them. It’s not intimidation, is it? It doesn’t happen all the time, which I doubt. But if it does, that doesn’t make it better, it makes it worse. It is not right.

This is a shameful media behaviour. If a jury member wants to talk to you afterward, that’s up to them, but trying to follow them during a trial, especially when they are at risk from all kinds of other crazy people as well, needs to be condemned.

Instead, you will get this misleading statement. We should have known that the network will not do this again. For this act, the network must face real consequences.

You get instead other media that covers the story, such as this:

Kyle Rittenhouse Judge Bans MSNBC From Courthouse After Freelancer Gets Traffic Citations https://t.co/7ls7rAD53E

— Variety (@Variety) November 18, 2021

Yes, I’m sure it’s the traffic citations that are the important point.

This is a complete failure in media.