NYDEO: The Media and the Courts: Content & Coverage 02/28/20

[Nydia Tisdale]

The Media and the Courts: Content & Coverage

A retired federal judge probes a panel of veteran court watchers about lessons learned over decades of covering federal and state trial and appellate courts.

Moderator:
• Hon. William S. Duffey, U.S. District Judge (retired)

Panelists:
• Bill Rankin, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta
• Mark Sherman, The Associated Press, Washington, D.C.
• R. Robin McDonald, Daily Report, Atlanta

29th Annual Georgia Bar, Media & Judiciary Conference
Friday, February 28, 2020 at 10:15 a.m.
State Bar Headquarters / Atlanta, Georgia

Georgia Judges, Journalists and Lawyers And the First Amendment
A Primer on Recurring and Emerging Issues and the Law

Conference AGENDA and panelists’ BIOGRAPHIES.

#Nydeo by Nydia Tisdale for AboutForsyth.com. Please $upport nydeos via PayPal.

[Nydia Tisdale]

WILLIAM S. DUFFEY, JR. recently retired from active service as a United States District Judge for the Northern District of Georgia. Before his judicial service, Judge Duffey served as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. Before his appointment as United States Attorney, Judge Duffey was a partner at King & Spalding in Atlanta. From 1994 to 1995, Judge Duffey left private practice to serve as Deputy Independent Counsel in charge of the Arkansas phase of the Whitewater investigation. He rejoined King & Spalding as a partner following government service.

An honors graduate of Drake University, Judge Duffey received his J.D. degree in 1977 from the University of South Carolina Law School. Judge Duffey served in the United States Air Force Judge Advocate General Corps from 1978-82.

Judge Duffey is married to Betsy Byars Duffey, an accomplished author of children’s and adult fiction. He has two married sons.

[Nydia Tisdale]

BILL RANKIN joined the AJC in 1989, three years after his father, Jim Rankin, retired from the paper after 26 years. For most of his time at the AJC, Bill has covered state and federal courts, specializing in civil litigation, criminal justice and the death penalty. Beginning in 2015, Bill began hosting the AJC’s “Breakdown” podcast. The podcast’s sixth season, “A Jury of His Peers,” cohosted with AJC editor Kevin Riley, won the American Bar Association’s 2018 Silver Gavel Award.

[Nydia Tisdale]

MARK SHERMAN has covered the Supreme Court for The Associated Press since 2006, a period that has included blockbuster decisions on health care, same-sex marriage and voting rights, and big changes in the court’s membership. He has previously written about the Justice Department, health care and national politics in more than 30 years as a reporter based in Washington and Atlanta. Mark worked for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution from 1988 to 2001. His beats included the Gwinnett County government, Atlanta City Hall, Gov. Zell Miller, the statehouse and statewide political campaigns. The paper sent him to Washington in 1996 to report on Newt Gingrich and the rest of the Georgia congressional delegation. Earlier in his professional life, Mark was a Foreign Service officer. He is a native of Brooklyn, NY, a graduate of Princeton University and a resident of Washington, DC, where he lives just a few blocks from the court with his wife and children.

[Nydia Tisdale]

R. ROBIN MCDONALD is the author of two true crime books, “Black Widow: The True Story of the Hilley Poisonings” and “Secrets Never Lie: The Death of Sara Tokars.” Currently a longtime reporter for The Daily Report in Atlanta, she is also a member of parent company ALM Media's national litigation team. She has previously worked for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta Magazine, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Wichita Eagle, and The Anniston Star where she first embarked on a career-long fascination with police and court coverage (returning her keys to the backdoor of the city police department and the front door of the county courthouse when she left The Star.) She has also worked part-time as a trial tracker, first for CourtTV and later for CNN. A Duke University graduate with a degree in Public Policy Studies and English, McDonald began her journalism career at the National Center for Community Action in Washington, D.C. where she served as a staff writer, associate editor and then editorial manager for the organization’s two monthly magazines and a monthly newspaper.