No Rooting From the Pressbox
I was watching a conversation on Twitter yesterday between a sports reported for the local paper and some of his followers. They were discussing the number one rule of sport reporters, “No rooting in the pressbox”. He pointed out that eventually you learn to be very detached from the game at hand, looking at it as a passive observer, noting all the relevant facts, and not showing any emotion about whatever is going on. He then talked about how it’s difficult for him, after all these years, to go to a game with his kids as a fan, because it’s not easy to go “be a fan”, he’s so accustomed to being detached while at any game.
It reminded me a bit of a friend of mine from high school/college. He and I spent a lot of time going to the OSU campus bars and seeing all sorts of bands. We were both very interested in both the local and national acts that came through town, and loved music. He was a musician as well, while I never really had the patience to learn to play music very well. (My short-lived career as lead singer of a punk cover band notwithstanding.) The thing was, as we got a little older, and he found himself playing in some bands and being part of the local music scene, when I would see him out at a show, he was much more reserved, almost detached. He was watching how the band played, what they did on stage, how the crowd reacted, etc. He wasn’t just a fan any more, he was actively trying to compare and contrast what he was doing in his career with what was going on in the club.
Why am I blogging about this? I have long wondered if having done some work in trial presentation, having sat in the hot seat, and worked with attorneys on coming up with a presentation strategy for their case, would actually make me a terrible jury candidate. I’ve sat in a court room enough to know that previous experience with the court system is a pretty common question posed to potential jurors from attorneys. They want to know what you know, what your experiences have been like, etc. because it’s relevant to how you might perform as a juror.
I haven’t had the pleasure of being called for jury duty since I’ve been working in this field. I do, however, wonder if an attorney might see a very real possibility that I would be spending my time being detached from the proceedings, watching how each side presents their case, comparing it to things I’ve worked on, making notes on things to maybe try, and to avoid, in future case, as opposed to actually carefully weighing the facts in the case. I also wonder if any attorney who thought that would be right. I imagine it would be difficult to not do that. Not impossible, but difficult. Difficult enough that no attorney would take the chance.
What do you think? Any attorneys want to share some thoughts on the matter?
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