Maybe not on purpose, but decision by Murdaugh case judge helps keep the stories coming
“The four SLED agents, dressed in coats and ties, sat silently in a front row courtroom seat for the entire hearing.”
That’s how reporter John Monk of The State Media Co. described the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division agents who were inside a Colleton County courtroom Monday.
Lawyers Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, the defense team for Alex Murdaugh on two murder charges, wanted the agents to be sitting on the witness stand and testifying about evidence being leaked to reporters.
Judge Clifton Newman denied the request to have the agents put on the witness stand.
Any members of the public clamoring for details about the Murdaugh case, which is sure to called “the trial of the century” if it hasn’t already, better be thanking Newman for his decision.
You may be asking, how did Newman — knowingly or not — help maintain the flow of Murdaugh stories by keeping these agents from testifying in a public court? Here’s how that works.
Reporters rely on sources to help uncover revelations that the public wants and needs. Anyone who has seen “All the President’s Men” knows a little something about this. Those sources, who often want to be anonymous for fear of reprisal, trust some reporters to protect their anonymity.
If Newman had allowed the agents to testify, that easily could have scared sources from providing information to reporters. The agents aren’t suspected of being the leakers. Nor were they expected to identify the leakers in court. But any courtroom effort to uncover those who provide information anonymously can have a chilling effect on the flow of information.
Sources might have been scared that they would be the next to be subpoenaed or that their names might be spoken by someone on a witness stand.
While reporters can get information through other means, like documents and court hearings, sources can provide the kind revelatory and shocking details that the public has shown it wants in the Murdaugh case.
In Harpootlian’s request to have the SLED agents testify, he claims information was coming to reporters from sources inside the state Attorney General’s office, which is prosecuting Murdaugh. Harpootlian claims that leaked information amounted to a public pressure campaign to charge Murdaugh with murder. The AG’s office has denied this.
Harpootlian, a Democratic state senator from Columbia, wanted the agents to testify in court that they weren’t leaking the information, which, by process of elimination, might have suggested that someone inside the AG’s office was the source for many of the stories.
No matter who got the information to reporters or their intent, the result has been the public getting more information about the Murdaugh case.
Was Newman thinking about reporters and sources and how to keep the two dancing the dance that make the news? Probably not.
Nonetheless, by keeping those agents sitting “silently in a front row courtroom seat for the entire hearing,” Newman helped make sure that sources who want to be anonymous won’t be silent to reporters.
Citizens following the Murdaugh news should be thankful for that.
This story was originally published August 29, 2022 at 3:17 PM with the headline "Maybe not on purpose, but decision by Murdaugh case judge helps keep the stories coming."