mediaphile

So on Saturday I had my job orientation.

One of the other guys that was there told me that court reporting is obsolete. 

Um. What? How? I seriously disagree, dude.

You can’t rely on electronic means of recording. What if the power goes out? What if the batteries die? Suppose someone coughs and you miss an important part of the testimony. What if the tape is garbled and you can’t understand a word after the fact? Then what? 

And tapes can be altered. When a reporter takes it down, even if it’s stricken from the record, there’s a paper trail. You can’t fake anything that’s on that paper. Sure, you might not be able to read it unless you’re a reporter or scopist, but it’s still there, all the same.

 And suppose the judge asks you to read that back. Does he really want to sit there while you rewind and fast-forward the tape to the proper point? I doubt it. He’s got more important things to do, and a good reporter can find the right point pretty darn quickly.

Besides, there was a court reporter even in the original Star Trek. Kirk calls the court reporter to the bridge. Not the “tape recorder.” The COURT REPORTER.

I understand that most things nowadays can be done electronically. The more digitally advanced, the better. But nothing is better at recording sounds than the human ear. We can pick up those nuances that recorders don’t catch. 

The courts have tried in the past to use recorders instead of reporters. It’s never worked. It never will work.

 We will never be obsolete.

P.S. Just because Carol Burnett is win .

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