The ongoing federal corruption trial of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich is the first blockbuster local trial of the Twitter Age.
Twitter is the microblogging service in which users send updates to the Internet in bursts of 140 characters or less, often from their cell phones. U.S. District Judge James Zagel has allowed spectators to Tweet — send these updates — discreetly from the gallery in real time, thus giving readers at home the closest thing to live play-by-play they’re going to get until cameras are allowed in our courtrooms.
Zagel ordered Blagojevich not to upload to his Twitter account while court is in session, though it’s my guess that publicists have been handling this chore all along for the technologically impaired Blago.
The Twitter Age includes more than Tweets. The increasing use of this technology has created an appetite and expectation not only for instant news, but also quick analysis on conventional blog sites and a plethora of tiny, atmospheric details about what key figures are wearing, what they’re eating for lunch and how they’re interacting with others in the building.
Team Tribune has, in my unbiased estimation, the best of the trial blogs — smart, clear and piping fresh entries from the 25th floor of the Dirksen Federal Courthouse. But the Team Sun-Times trial blog is also very good and very fast, and other local outlets including WTTW-Channel 11, NBC 5 and the Chicago News Cooperative are posting updates and occasional photos and videos throughout the day.
Among the Tweeters in the courtroom is freelance writer Susan Berger, whose work often appears in the Tribune. At the end of the day she shapes her postings into longer essays for her BlagoJustice blog. Independent writer Phil Smith doesn’t Tweet, but uploads extensive analysis of the case each evening to his BlagoReport blog.
Smith, from Tampa, Fla., told me he’s aiming to present a “juror’s eye view” of the proceedings and that he saved up so he could spend what amounts to a summer vacation in Chicago writing about Blagojevich.
I have links to all of these sites and more at Change of Subject online (chicagotribune.com/zorn).
Together they can satisfy even the most hopelessly addicted Blagojevich-trial junkie. Not that this describes me. I could quit any time I want. I just don’t choose to.
The ‘sins’ of the mothers
A Catholic grade school in Hingham, Mass., recently withdrew its acceptance of an 8-year-old transfer student after learning that his parents are lesbians.
This followed closely a decision at Sacred Heart of Jesus School in Boulder, Colo., not to allow a preschooler and kindergartner to re-enroll next year because their parents are lesbians.
The reason given in both cases was similar: Homosexual conduct violates church teachings, and to have gay parents as part of the community of parents would undermine the Catholic mission of the school.
A column published in the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Boston by philosopher Michael Pakaluk, a former visiting scholar at Harvard, went further and argued that there was a “real danger” that the children of gay parents would bring pornography into the classroom because such lurid material goes “along with the same-sex lifestyle, which — as not being related to procreation — is inherently eroticized and pornographic.”
He added the fear that gay families would use their position at Catholic schools to “advocate for the gay lifestyle.” Pakaluk later apologized for his harsh rhetoric.
What I find particularly dismaying about these decisions is that they punish the children for the putative sins of their parents. Not allowing a gay person to teach at a Catholic school based on the overheated fear that homosexuality is contagious is one thing; not allowing a kid to attend Catholic school because his parents are gay is another.
Seems to me that Ezekiel 18:20 comes into play here: “The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.”
Not that I myself consider homosexuality wicked or the Bible the last word, but that this ought to be a stern scriptural corrective for those who do.
National Review Online editor Kathryn Jean Lopez jumped into the fray last week with a column in which she concluded that, no matter how you feel about such exclusionary practices, Catholic and other sectarian schools should “be free to make that decision about the identity of the school and how best they can serve all of the children in it, as a matter of religious liberty.”
As a church-state separationist, I grudgingly agree with this. Part of the deal of keeping religion out of government is keeping government out of religion. The admissions policies of Catholic schools are, simply, none of my business, though I was glad to hear Friday from Sister Mary Paul McCaughey, superintendent of schools for the Chicago Catholic Archdiocese, who told me, “we will never back down from teaching the Catholic faith, but we are open to everyone.”
The only way such exclusions become my business is when sectarian schools start taking my money —taxpayer money — in the form of tuition vouchers. At that point, they’re everyone’s business. Are voucher advocates ready for that?
A mighty blowback
I was in the lobby at the Old Town School of Folk Music last weekend during my son’s band class, passing time by reading pamphlets about upcoming classes. There was the predictable traditional material — country gospel, harmonica, Johnny Cash songs, Steve Goodman songs — along with lots of rock and pop offerings — Patti Smith songs, Flaming Lips songs, Talking Heads songs and so on — that wouldn’t surprise anyone familiar with the institution’s eclectic take on “folk.”
But I startled at the “A Mighty Wind Songbook” class. “A Mighty Wind” is a 2003 mock documentary that skewered the saccharine earnestness of folkies to the point that the title has become synonymous with unreconstructed hippies and oversensitive nerds encouraging people to sing along during the choruses of endless ballads.
The film, like “This is Spinal Tap,” “Best in Show” and other productions from the same ensemble, ridiculed people who take themselves too seriously.
But rather than take offense, Bob Goins, the Old Town School guitar instructor who will be teaching the “A Mighty Wind Songbook” class this summer for the third time, took the joke and ran with it. “Maybe it’s ironic, but that movie has amazingly good songs in it,” he told me later. “I was aching with laughter when it was over, but totally in awe of the music.”
Your blog item
WGN AM 720 recently renamed its business news reports as “your money.” Suggestions: Change weather to “your comfort,” traffic to “your headaches” and sports to “your games.”
