Media coverage of Denver Churchill Trial

DENVER- NMT to the rescue. So far we’ve noticed a strange media dyslexia about the Churchill vs CU trial. When we’ve attended, the proceedings look like a rout for truth and the historical record. When we haven’t made it to Denver and are left to rely on the news coverage, by all accounts Churchill is in trouble. Are the reporters freakin’ blind?

While I’ve been content to revel in the excitement of clackering laptop keyboards all about me in the courtroom, I hadn’t snooped over anyone’s shoulder, until this week. On Monday, the Boulder Daily Camera front row regular, after he’d posted his story before the first morning break, busied himself with emails, then watched a video with the Denver Post correspondent perched over his shoulder. Later another media log lump monopolized the last power outlet to play solitaire.

I’m guessing the DU law student project Race to the Bottom blogger is taking the most notes, competing with a would-be law student, not just for proficiency, but also in who takes the most drearily technical view of the proceedings.

I’ve yet been able to assess the coverage by the weekly visitor from the Silver and Gold Record, CU’s faculty publication. Check out the Wednesday account, and three previous: March 16, 14, 12.

Ward Churchill is expected to take the stand today, so I’ve come up to lend insight to the academic goings on. I’m somewhat alarmed at the angle the media is taking. Ward Churchill is not only the leading authority on Native American history, he’s among only a few outspoken academic voices. More spirited than Zinn, or Chomsky, and as result, perhaps more controversial. But I challenge anyone to name many contemporaries who match more luminary.

Next I will provide color commentary for the lesser luminaries who are dogging Churchill and his desecration of idealized Americana.