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with the viewing public, but at the same time, traditional media competes with social and online media, which is always available and can be updated at any time. New devel- opments in any case or trial can be posted to the Web 24/7. Dahlia Lithwick, a senior editor at Slate.com, lives in


that online world. “A reporter at ABC news on a huge case gets 30 seconds,” says


Lithwick. “Fourteen hundred words isn’t a lot but it’s a lot more than some people get.” She says referring to a standard blog post.


DAHLIA LITHWICK, LEGAL CONTRIBUTOR TO SLATE.COM


Lithwick, who has a law degree from Stanford


University, writes the “Supreme Court Dispatches” and “Jurisprudence” columns for the online magazine. Her articles have also appeared in T e New York Times, Harper’s, T e Washington Post and Commentary, among other outlets. Lithwick, like hundreds of other legal scholars and jour- nalists, is, as of this writing, analyzing the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to uphold key parts of the Aff ordable Care Act, the Obama administration’s major health care overhaul that faced a test of its constitutionality this session. While discussing the ramifi cations of the decision, she refl ects on how legal journalism has changed and moved forward over the last decade. “Some of the best legal minds in the world have climbed


down from the ivory tower of academia and are writing legal blogs,” thus making informed legal analysis by learned experts much more available and accessible, says Lithwick. “T e best among them are amazing.” In terms of the Internet, the democratization of legal news coverage has both benefi ts and liabilities. Brilliant law


26


DAHLIA LITHWICK grew up in a middle class family in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and has dual Canadian/U.S. citizenship. She moved to the U.S. to study at Yale Univer- sity, where she received a B.A. in English in 1990 before earning her J.D. from Stanford.


Lithwick worked several years at Paul New- man’s camp for terminally ill kids in Con- necticut and believed she wanted to practice family law, specifi cally as an advocate for children. After law school she clerked on the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit and then worked at a Reno, Nevada family law fi rm for two years. In actuality she found family law depressing, but discovered that she loved writing about the law for the general public.


Lithwick was the fi rst online journalist invited to serve on the Steering Committee for the Re- porters Committee for Freedom of the Press.


“ AS A TRUE LEGAL JOURNALIST, IT IS IMPORTANT TO HEAR ALL SIDES.” – SUNNY HOSTIN


professors have a platform to discuss and dissect the issues of the day, but citizen journalists also can throw up a Web site and call what they do “legal aff airs” coverage whether they actually understand the facts and law or not. In Lithwick’s opinion, the Supreme Court especially


makes broader, deeper, and more accurate reporting in legal aff airs diffi cult by not allowing cameras in the courtroom, much like C-Span covers the U.S. Congress. But whether or not cameras are ever allowed into the Supreme Court, Hostin, Smith, and Lithwick will all still have a job to do. All three view their legal training and what it has led


them to as a type of public service. Neither Hostin, Smith, nor Lithwick can predict the future


of legal journalism in a rapidly changing journalistic world, but they all play a vital role in keeping us accurately informed


“SOME OF THE BEST LEGAL MINDS IN THE WORLD HAVE CLIMBED DOWN FROM THE IV FPO DIVERSITY & THE BAR® JULY/AUGUST 2012 MCCA.COM


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