Taylor’s Takes: Clancy trial shows society can’t handle courtroom drama anymore

The mid-2010s were a golden age for court reporters in Massachusetts.

In 2013, Boston saw the return of James “Whitey” Bulger to the city where he once ruled as the Irish underworld crime boss.

In 2015, Dzokhar Tsarnaev, the tousle-haired youth a/k/a murderous anti-American terrorist, was also on trial in the same federal courthouse Whitey had been convicted in two years prior.

For both of these trials, while cameras and news vans shut down Northern Ave, no cameras were allowed inside the courtroom. We were not allowed to witness Whitey staring down Kevin Weeks and launching into a tirade with his former right-hand man. We were not allowed to see the callousness of Tsarnaev’s demeanor as he sat through his trial.

It was a sidebar discussion on some talk shows about the lack of cameras in the courtroom. But that’s the federal law. No outside cameras or recording devices of any kind. I suppose that’s to protect the integrity of the proceedings as well as the witnesses.

At the time, I was supportive of changing that law. Who wouldn’t have wanted to watch those dramatic scenes between Bulger and Weeks over and over? Who wouldn’t have wanted to see Tsarnaev in shackles after blowing up the Boston Marathon?

But now, in 2026, I’m more firmly on the side of extending the no-cameras policy to the state and local courts, as well. And the Lindsay Clancy case was the final straw.

The world of journalism has taken a turn in the last 5-10 years. With the ever-expanding world of social media, just about anyone with internet access and an opinion can post whatever they’d like, masquerading as a “journalist.” And there are some that actually do their due diligence when it comes to reporting on trials, murder cases, and the like.

But the negatives, in my humble opinion, far outweigh the positives.

Lindsay Clancy’s ongoing murder trial is readily available for anyone to stream. You get a free ringside seat from your office or your home. It’s easy to find and convenient to keep tabs on, if that’s what you’re into.

But there are so many people, with little to no prior experience in courtroom proceedings or murder cases, who have their eyes glued to the trial. And when I say they have their eyes glued, I mean they are watching every single gesture. Every eye twitch. Every wrinkling of the nose. EVERYTHING.

And they’re not just watching. They’re over-analyzing. They’re reading into these movements, making something out of nothing. Theorizing over the feelings of the defendant, her lawyer, her husband, and whomever else pops into frame.

Some casual viewers come in late to the trial, picking up on some testimony without hearing prior testimony, and speculating about wild theories that I won’t even repeat because they are so libelous. What they don’t realize is that the testimony they have missed in days or even hours prior would have severely disproven their theories, had they heard it.

Then you have the fans of Lindsay Clancy. And I mean that word in the common usage, and it’s long form: fanatics. Wearing pink outside of the courthouse (trying to capitalize on the Free Karen Read movement), these trial-watching, crazed sympathizers put on display for all the world to see how loony one can become when you allow images, mannerisms, and a misreading or complete disregard of the facts to override logic.

The cameras, while they make for great theatre, produce just that. To so many, the Lindsay Clancy trial, the Karen Read trials, and others have become movies, both in the literal and figurative senses.

It would serve society well for viewers to keep in mind that these trials are not amusement; they are real life. Real people. Real crimes. Real consequences, both legal and generational.

I would argue for a removal of the cameras in all courtrooms. You would immediately decrease the amount of fly-by-night YouTube streamers looking to make a quick buck from their bedrooms by commentating in real-time. You would decrease the amount of speculation. You would force people to read court transcripts, devoid of emotion and replete with only matter-of-fact dialogue.

Let’s get the cameras out of courtrooms and the bush-leaguers out of “journalism.”