SC ON THE TV

From Studio Briefing ...

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has spoken out strongly against allowing courtroom proceedings to be televised -- be they those of the high court or lower courts. As reported by Broadcasting & Cable, Scalia said on C-SPAN's Students and Leaders: "To make entertainment out of real people's legal troubles is quite sick. ... You want to entertain the public? Hire actors and put on Perry Mason or something. I don't think it is right to make enjoyment out of litigation, civil or criminal." He said that he would not be opposed to gavel-to-gavel coverage of Supreme Court proceedings on C-SPAN, but, he said, for every person watching such coverage, "there would be 100,000 who would watch a 15-second take-out from the C-SPAN feed. And I guarantee you that the 15-second take-out would not be characteristic of what we do."

And what exactly do you do, Mr. Scalia? Because, from what I can tell, all you do (along with Thomas, Roberts, and Alito) is rule in favor of every Bush-backed, neo-con, far right piece of garbage that comes through your (not so supreme) court. I think what you really fear is the public getting a glimpse of how incompetent this court has become. I would just love, for example, to see the audience "entertained" by Thomas asking no questions and stating no opinion ... unless, of course, it's to rabidly defend Bush's Guantanamo Bay fiasco.

I say, "Lights, camera, action!"