Trib takes holy war to government lawyers

The Salt Lake Tribune apparently sensed a conspiracy among those who hire Utah government lawyers: Today's story is "BYU law grads help draft Utah's laws; U. law grads help defend them."

Supreme speculation focuses on Utah judge

It's not every day that the Deseret Morning News and The Salt Lake Tribune run the exact same story. But it happened yesterday: Both papers ran a profile (News here, Trib here) of Tenth Circuit Judge Michael McConnell, rumored to be among President Bush's top choices should Chief Justice William Rehnquist announce his retirement this week.

The News headlined the story "Utah justice hopeful 'outside the box'" while the Trib went with "Nuanced U. law prof not easy to pigeonhole."

Justice dies

Former Utah Supreme Court Justice Daniel Stewart has died. The Salt Lake Tribune published his obituary today.

End of the Griffith story?

Perhaps I won't write so much about Tom Griffith anymore. With the Senate's 73-24 vote yesterday, the Griffith D.C. Circuit nomination story has come to an end. The Salt Lake Tribune wrote about the vote here and the Deseret Morning News did the same here.

Future of news

I am spending the week at the American Press Institute with a group of journalism educators. One of our most intriguing discussions thus far dealt with the future of news.

I came away from the session believing strongly that the storytelling at the heart of journalism will remain relevant long into the future (if not forever, given human nature's tendency toward stories). The contemporary American model of journalism -- news funded by advertising reaching mass audiences -- seems to be increasingly shrunken if not irrelevant. But, among those who have thought about this and are trying to project the future of journalism, I sensed great optimism. It's not that news won't be around in 5, 10 or 15 years; it's just that we may have found a new way by then to make it economically feasible.

And I too am optimistic. Journalism is not the same thing as a stuffy old newsroom full of newsprint and paper; journalism transcends the medium through which it is communicated.

The skills and attributes acquired by the journalist will continue to be relevant long after newspapers as we have known them in the 20th century are relics of the past. So, students of today should by all means study journalism, but they should not expect to practice the journalism their professors did. Perhaps the greater challenge is that today's professors should not expect their students to practice the craft the way they did. But I don't know that journalism professors are that open and progressive -- they seem like dinosaurs who complain about change rather than embracing it.

Griffith's future law clerk?

Listen while I talk about someone who wants to clerk for Tom Griffith on the D.C. Circuit (in 4-5 years!)

Griffith confirmed

Tom Griffith 

The wait was approximately one year, but Tom Griffith was confirmed by the Senate today to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. BYU public relations provides a brief update here, while The Salt Lake Tribune this morning wrote a story saying confirmation was expected.

Confirmation will not likely be as difficult in the Utah Senate for Carolyn McHugh as it was in the U.S. Senate for Griffith. McHugh is a Salt Lake City lawyer who was nominated by Gov. Jon Huntsman to a seat on the Utah Court of Appeals. Having worked as a summer clerk at McHugh's law firm, I can say she will make a great appellate judge.

Listen to my take on BYU political science professor Richard Davis' proposal that Supreme Court justices be elected.

Legal guide for bloggers

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (more about this San Francisco-based organization is available here) has created a Legal Guide for Bloggers. The guide covers a comprehensive range of basic issues regarding legal issues relevant to bloggers, such as intellectual property rights of content creators and defamation.

Griffith coverage

A short story in last week's Salt Lake Tribune notes that the Senate has scheduled the confirmation vote on Tom Griffith for today, rather than tomorrow, as I mentioned in a previous post.

Today's Daily Herald in Provo contains a story ("Confirmation expected for BYU lawyer") that is longer and relatively well-done, although it comes across as a bit of a catch-up and re-hash, perhaps in an effort to make up for the Herald's previous lack of coverage of the Griffith story.

The Library of Congress schedule available here says debate on Griffith will be today and the vote tomorrow at 10 a.m.

Griffith to get vote

It now appears that BYU general counsel Thomas Griffith will finally get an up-or-down vote in the U.S. Senate on his nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. His nomination stalled last year while senators complained about Griffith's failure to pay bar dues in Washington, D.C., and failure to take the Utah bar exam.

Coincidentally, I am in Washington, D.C., this week. I do not, however, plan to attend the Senate on Tuesday to see the Griffith vote personally. Instead, I will be participating in a Journalism Educators seminar at the American Press Institute.

Deep Throat unveiled

So, a former FBI No. 2 man has unveiled himself as the Watergate source of journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

Woodward and Bernstein were just young and inexperienced journalists at the time who would not likely have access to such a highly placed government official. We don't know yet how they came into contact with each other, but I'm guessing it was initiated by Felt, disgruntled with the bureaucracy after having been passed over for FBI director upon J. Edgar Hoover's death.

The moral of this 30-year-old tale? Journalists should work hard to cultivate the right sources, but success often depends on luck.

And, of course, Felt lives in California. Everyone lives in California. Especially old men from Washington who go there to live out retirement years with a daughter who once lived in a commune. Typical stuff. It would have been more dashing if Deep Throat had been discovered in Venice rather than Santa Rosa.