Quote:
Originally posted by Connect_the_Dots
Apparently, the people on the scene wanted to be cooperative, but someone at MTV told the cops that they would go through the videotapes and employee timesheets and decide what, if anything, they would and wouldn't show to the cops. THat didn't go over too well with them.
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Just so MTV's lawyers (hi, str8!) don't come off sounding like a bunch of pro-rape dicks, the videotapes would probably be subject to California's Reporter Shield Law, so the decision to withhold them pending legal review was legit. An editorial decision to release them notwithstanding their protection from subpoena is
very dicey and always more complex than you'd figure, so the cops should grow the fuck up. Sometimes you find yourself not releasing tapes and notes to investigating authorities even when it would potentially do social good to do so (i.e., convicting a criminal "caught on tape"), because you don't want to put your reporters and camera operators in a position in which they're always potentially gathering state's evidence whenever they turn the camera on.
Never thought I'd find myself defending MTV's legal strategies.
