A gripping national news story has almost everything it would need in the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev now underway in Boston: a tragic crime, a young and attractive defendant and controversial elements like religion and terrorism.
But one thing is missing: cameras.
The Tsarnaev trial — opening more than a year after he and his now-dead older brother allegedly carried out the plot to bomb the Boston Marathon April 15, 2013, resulting in three deaths and more than 250 injuries — is not open to broadcast media. This means still and video photography, as well as microphones, are banned from the Massachusetts court room.
The difference between the Tsarnaev trial and, say, the televised trails of George Zimmerman in 2013 and O.J. Simpson in 1995, is that Tsarnaev is charged with federal crimes. Federal courts have banned broadcast media since the advent of commercial television in the 1940s.
Jeffrey Toobin, a legal analyst for CNN and The New Yorker, said that the lack of a television presence in the courtroom will invariably lead to less national news coverage of the Tsarnaev trial.
“Without new pictures, it is not going to be much of a television story,” he told the Washington Examiner media desk. “Whether that’s good or bad, I can’t tell you. I think it’s just a fact of how television works.”
He said the trial will receive some coverage but it won’t be as intensive as other legal proceedings, like the Zimmerman trial. Toobin also said another contributing factor in the lack of national news coverage is that there is little mystery or controversy in the case.
In the Zimmerman case, it was unclear whether the defendant was in the right as a private citizen to follow Trayvon Martin, black teenager whom Zimmerman claimed was suspiciously-dressed, before a deadly struggle ensued between the two parties.
Zimmerman maintained that he was attacked first, though there was no video evidence of that. Florida’s controversial “Stand Your Ground” law was also at play, which allows individuals to use lethal force against an assailant under perceived life-threatening circumstances.
Though Tsarnaev, now 21, has plead not guilty to his charges, he was found after the bombings hiding from police inside a boat in a residential backyard. Allegedly written on the walls of the boat were confessions to the bombings by Tsarnaev. He is also believed to have been with his older brother, Tamerlan, when Tamerlan was involved in a deadly shootout with a police officer.
“This isn’t a who-done-it,” Toobin said.
Greta Van Susteren, an anchor at Fox News who rose to fame for her reporting and analysis in the O.J. Simpson trial at CNN, also said the lack of cameras will shrink interest the Tsarnaev trial.
“Without access, it is hard to get viewers interested,” Van Susteren said. Hyper-intensive coverage of the trail will likely only be found on the local level, she said.
“If something unexpected were to happen, I think you would see the national media quickly moving in and devoting more resources,” she said.
Tom Fitton, president of the right-leaning non-profit government watchdog Judicial Watch, anticipates another consequence from the lack of wall-to-wall coverage on TV.
Though the Tsarnaev case involves elements of immigration and terrorism — the Tsarnaev brothers are ethnic Chechens who were allegedly inspired by foreign, radical Islamic jihadists — it’s likely true that most coverage of the trial will likely be relayed in terms of drama and suspense, rather than policy.
“There will probably be a lot of human interest coverage of the victims and that’s appropriate,” Fitton said, “but much of the bigger issues won’t be covered.”
