Media Coverage Intense in Case that Captured the Nation

John Couey’s murder trial has gone from the rural Central Florida
backdrop of Lake County to the bright lights and big city in Miami.

Goodbye boiled peanuts. Hello Shaquille O’Neal.

“Putting
this trial in Miami is like tossing a bloody hunk of meat into a shark
tank. The media down there are going to be all over each other trying
to eat this stuff up,” said Ocala lawyer Charles R. Holloman, who used
to live and work in Miami. “It’s going to be some show.”

At
least 40 news organizations will be covering the trial, and 100 media
members have received press credentials, said Eunice Sigler, a
spokeswoman for the Miami-Dade County 11th Circuit Court. The courtroom
holds 95 seats, she said, and 40 of them have been reserved for media
each day. Parking has been reserved for up to 30 television satellite
trucks.

Couey has been a national media figure for the past two
years. He’s being tried for the 2005 kidnapping and murder of Jessica
Lunsford, 9, who investigators say was buried alive. Media saturation
in the case reached a peak last summer during an attempt to pick a jury
in Tavares. …

… Al Tompkins, broadcast/online group leader at The Poynter Institute
school for journalists in St. Petersburg, said that, despite the
presence of so many big-league national news figures, the Couey trial
provides smaller news organizations a chance to shine.

“This is
still a local story, and you’ve got to keep the focus on local
coverage,” Tompkins said. “No one covers local news better than a local
news organization. The reporters from Central Florida have the
background on the case and know the lawyers and people involved.”
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