Kudos for Mississippi Public TV
Ken A. Bode
June 21, 2005
High praise to Mississippi Public Television for an important job well done, and for ably fulfilling its mission of public service to the state.
For the past ten days, Edgar Ray Killen has been on trial at the Neshoba County courthouse in Philadelphia, Mississippi for the 1964 murder of three civil rights workers, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner and James Chaney. This is the first time in 41 years that anyone involved in this crime has faced murder charges, and media interest has been strong, both statewide and nationwide.
The list of journalists registered with the Neshoba County Circuit Clerk numbered 221 from 60 different media organizations from the US and abroad. Seating in the courtroom was strictly limited, so Mississippi Public Television arranged for direct video and audio feeds from the courtroom to a Media Center in downtown Philadelphia allowing the assembled media to witness the trial proceedings live.
Mississippi Public television also cleared its evening schedule to provide statewide coverage of the trial by tape delay each evening at 10:00 p.m., with court recesses deleted. The video feed was also made available to the local Philadelphia, Mississippi public access channel so the community most directly involved could follow the proceedings.
In charge of the Mississippi Public Television team were Marie Antoon, executive director of Mississippi Public Broadcasting and Paul Miller, Executive Producer/Mobile Production Unit Coordinator.
Kudos to both.
