Today's New Blawg

Kerry Sipe, online news coordinator for the Virginian-Pilot, is using his laptop and a WiFi connection to blog live from the Washington, D.C., area sniper trial of John Allen Muhammad. [Via Howard Bashman, Ernie Svenson] According to the latest entry, the defense team is up today: "John A. Muhammad's defense attorneys will begin to present their case at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday when court reconvenes after the Veterans Day holiday. At that time, Judge LeRoy Millette will rule on defense motions that the murder and terrorism charges against Muhammad be struck." Poynter's Howard Finberg has a great post, quoting Sipe, on Courtroom Coverage Convergence:

Since there was to be no TV or audio allowed by the court, I felt that real-time online reports would be the next best way to satisfy the intense interest in the trial. I have not seen it done in quite the intensive way I am trying to do it, though I did find one case on the Internet of a television station that did online reports of a trial. [...]

The blog had been up for only a few minutes yesterday when I began to get e-mails about it. I've heard from about a dozen readers who think it's great to get able to get news about the trial while it happens.

Poynter also links to the AP coverage, and its Convergence Chaser blog looks well worth revisiting. Ryan Pitts of the Dead Parrot Society likewise has a good report on "beat blogging."