Tag Archives: trial

Why we are not covering the trial

I thought about writing some long drawn out explanation about why The Terminal will not be covering the Langford trial… we’ll see how long this actually ends up.

I actually got stole the idea from Andrew Huff, editor of fellow hyperlocal blog Gapers Block and how they handled coverage of the Olympic bid in Chicago. My reasons are somewhat similar – everybody else is going to be covering it – a lot.

We already know that NBC 13 will be tweeting from the trial. Then there’s the possibility that Birmingham Weekly will do the same. All four of our local television networks will no doubt provide extensive in depth analysis of the situation and we haven’t even talked about The Birmingham News, The Birmingham Times, local talk radio and other bloggers. Overkill may be a kind word for what’s about to happen.

It would also help if there were three or four of me to be able to truly do it justice.

Maybe it’s not relevant to not cover a major trial. Maybe it’s more relevant to remind folks that regardless of what happens with this trial, the work of moving the City of Birmingham forward continues. I do realize that we live in a city and region that loves politics and drama, so we’ll see if taking this approach was appropriate.

Now, with all of this being said, there is one possible way to convince me to go back on my word (though even then, it will depend on how it’s proposed): One or two people would need to volunteer to attend the conference and cover it for The Terminal.

If there is anyone who thinks that they would be willing to do daily updates about the trial, then drop me a line at andre@bhamterminal.com and we’ll talk about you doing just that. Realize that any attempt to get a hold of me today may be thwarted thanks to BarCamp Nashville (great job so far guys) and the National Preservation Conference (same goes for you too), so don’t be discouraged if I don’t respond immediately.

We’ll see you on Monday morning!

André Natta is the stationmaster for bhamterminal.com.