NCJ Number
151746
Journal
Judicature Volume: 78 Issue: 2 Dated: (September-October 1994) Pages: 89-95
Date Published
1994
Length
7 pages
Annotation
An analysis of all 41 television network evening news stories about docketing decisions during the United States Supreme Court's 1989-90 terms revealed extensive inaccuracies and ambiguities and indicated that coverage of the Court's docketing decisions is cursory at best.
Abstract
The stories were coded along variables focusing on technical aspects such as story placement and length as well as variables gauging the stories substantive content. The analysis focused on the Court's action in the case, how the network presented the Court's action, and how definitive the Court's action was. The analysis indicated that although the networks did a credible job when they chose to reports grants of certiorari, reporting of the Court's denials of certiorari was much more problematic. Because examples exist of accurate reporting, it is puzzling why the newscasts do not present docketing decisions more accurately more of the time. Footnotes