Price-gouging court reporter reaches Web agreement with Court TV and CNN
By TODD WOODY
O.J. fanatics rejoice: a constitutional crisis has been averted and every word uttered at Simpson's Santa Monica trial now will be available for endless analysis on the World Wide Web.
Two television networks and the Simpson court stenographer had spent weeks in a First Amendment tussle over the media's right to publish trial transcripts on the Web. But the dispute disappeared on Monday when Court TV and CNN agreed to more than double court reporter Paula Dickson's fee and delay for 24 hours the posting of daily transcripts from Simpson's wrongful death trial.
Simpson's expected testimony and the broadcast blackout imposed by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki sent the two cable networks scrambling for transcripts of the proceedings.
Dickson, however, invoked a little-used 1993 California law to claim that while the media could buy copies of transcripts from her, they could not publish them on their Web sites. Dickson herself hired an agent to sell transcripts through the Net Court Web site for 55 cents a page and a $20 processing charge.
A quirk of California history gives court reporters the right to market trial transcripts, even though they are public employees and court records are public documents. Court stenographers in Simpson's 1995 criminal trial, for instance, earned more than $150,000 selling transcripts. But the widespread publication of Simpson documents on the Web threatened to erode that monopoly.
Court TV and CNN's attorney last month called Dickson's interpretation of California law "astonishing" and "constitutionally impermissible."
On Monday, however, interest in satisfying the public's seeming insatiability for Simpson news quashed any looming First Amendment showdown.
"I sent (Dickson and her agent) a letter saying that we fundamentally disagree with their legal position and that this should not be read as a waiver of our rights," said Craig Matters, editor of the Court TV Law Center Web site. "I'm reasonably comfortable with the deal . . . It's certainly a less expensive alternative to litigation."
Court TV and CNN will pay Dickson $1.30 per page for the transcripts published on their Web sites -- more than double her usual fee. The new fee includes the standard 55-cents-per-page charge plus a 75-cents-per-page "redistribution surcharge."
Said Scott Huseby, Dickson's agent and the president of Charlotte, N.C.-based Net Court: "We've reached agreements with CNN and Court TV that we feel are fair and reasonable, and any other news organizations have been offered the same deal."
Court TV and CNN also will link their sites to Net Court and post a notice telling readers to go there to obtain an official copy of the transcripts.
The 24-hour delay in publishing transcripts helps ensure that other media buy their own transcripts rather than just wait to see what Court TV and CNN post, Matters said.
Dickson has pledged to produce the transcripts quickly, and even with the delay, the documents should appear on Web sites faster than in previous high-profile trials, according to Matters.
That means that if Dickson prepares a transcript on Monday night, for example, it will be available on Court TV's Web site on Wednesday morning, Matters noted.
Of course, die-hard O.J. junkies don't have to wait for the media. If you're willing to pay the price, Dickson will e-mail transcripts directly to you each night.
Todd Woody is a senior writer at The Recorder, a San Francisco legal daily where a version of this story first appeared. The Recorder is affiliated with Court TV.
Bookmark: http://www.salon1999.com/media/mediacircus.html