Plans for live TV shots short-circuited

By Sarah Hite shite@timesleader.comStaff Writer

A local television station says technical difficulties prevented it from airing live footage of Monday afternoon’s press conference at the federal courthouse in regarding federal charges against two Luzerne County judges.

But an employee at the William J. Nealon Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Scranton, who asked not to be named, says Martin Carlson, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, did not want live video feed streamed during the press conference.

The television reporters and their camera crews were in place at the Scranton site, but viewers who tuned in to the three local channels to watch the press conference found regular programming being aired.

A standing order at the federal courthouse prohibits the use of cameras and recording devices, but the employee says Judge Thomas Vanaskie ruled that television cameras could tape the conference for later viewing.

The press conference outlined the charges against judges Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan.

WNEP-TV news director Erik Schrader says the station went live with news of the charges at approximately 1:15 p.m., but could not run a live feed of the 1:30 p.m. press conference because, “it was a technical thing.”

“We had no way of getting cables into the building,” Schrader said.

WBRE-TV and WYOU-TV also broke the news around 1:15 p.m. but did not show the conference live. Ron Krisulevicz, news director for WBRE-TV/WYOU-TV, says it wasn’t that they weren’t allowed to feed the live coverage; it was just logistically difficult to run the cameras and lines in the building.

“We were told by security they would frown on us taping (live) like that,” Krisulevicz added.

WILK-FM Radio broadcast the press conference live over the radio. The news director could not be reached for comment.