Local reporters seem to be having trouble today reporting on the controversy that erupted over a comment left on a Chron.com news story related to the David Temple murder trial.
Here is KHOU-11’s Wendell Edwards:
In a brief hearing a man named Robert Fleming testified that he was a blogger.
His boss is on the jury.
He blogged Friday that his boss told him that the jury could have a verdict by the end of the day.
That happened.
The judge, however, said he saw no evidence of jury misconduct.
Here is KTRK-13’s Mark Garay:
There was concern about a Chronicle blogger who stated that his boss was on the jury panel and who had predicted a verdict seven hours before the verdict came down.
The blogger took the stand and was identified as Robert Fleming. He did admit to speaking to one of the jurors at the office where he works with the juror at CenterPoint Energy. But he says he only asked the man if he thought he would be back to work soon, to which the juror replied, ‘We may be done today.’
And here is KPRC-2’s Phil Archer:
Before testimony began in the punishment phase of trial of a man convicted of killing his pregnant wife, the defense attorney filed a motion alleging jury misconduct.
David Temple was convicted Thursday of killing Belinda Temple in their Katy home in 1999.
The claim of juror misconduct was based on a blog entry in the Houston Chronicle on Thursday.
The entry was written by Robert Fleming, a CenterPoint Energy employee whose supervisor is the jury foreman.
Fleming’s comment on the blog was in response to a story on final arguments in the case.
“My boss is on the jury,” Fleming wrote on Thursday morning. “Thinks they’ll have a verdict this afternoon.”
The defense was concerned because jury members are prohibited from discussing the case with anyone, including fellow jurors, while testimony is still under way.
Fleming took the stand Monday and indicated there was no real discussion between him and his boss.
“I asked him how long he would be going through the deliberation process and his response was, ‘Actually, we could be done today.'”
Judge Doug Shaver denied the defense motion, ruling there was no juror misconduct.
Three different reporters, three similarly inaccurate descriptions.
Here is a primer for folks reporting/editing this story:
The text in question was a COMMENT, not a BLOG ENTRY.
The COMMENT in question was not left in response to a Chron.com BLOG, but to a NEWS STORY.
Mr. Fleming was a COMMENTER on the Chron.com NEWS STORY, not a CHRONICLE BLOGGER.
Cindy George’s coverage for the Chronicle actually gets the terminology right. Maybe the other reporters should read her before they continue reporting on that newfangled internet. Substantively, this bit is interesting:
Attorneys for Temple on Friday issued a subpoena to the Houston Chronicle seeking information that would help them identify the reader.
The story did not answer the question of whether her employer provided that information. I’ve emailed her to ask.
UPDATE: Neither the reporter nor interim reader representative Steve Jetton deigned to answer my email (very professional, folks!), but the story has been updated to include the following:
The Chronicle did not release the identity of REFster.
“We showed up this morning and all of a sudden he was there with a lawyer,” DeGuerin said late Monday.
