Yesterday I was at the ready, pencil in hand, to catch that dramatic moment when Brian McNamee would point out the defendant, Roger Clemens, to the jury, but it never happened. Today, though, just as I was telling my colleague, fellow sketch artist Bill Hennessy, that we weren’t going to get the money shot…it happened.
We also got to see a photo of the Yankee Stadium jacuzzi. One of many locations were McNamee said he injected Clemens with HGH.
Finally, with only a half hour left in the day, the defense began its cross-examination. Rusty Hardin questioned McNamee about a tie he wore when he testified before the grand jury. The tie had an advertisement on it promoting a friend’s business.
Not sure what the point was except McNamee had the bad taste to take advantage of a media event.
McNamee of course said he chose that particular tie because his other tie was wrinkled.
AP story here.
Courtroom sketching is a form of visual journalism or reportage drawing that is slowly dying out. Where once upon a time news organization each had their own artist covering a story, today a “pool” artist often sketches for all. It is a demanding and stressful discipline where the drawing is often done directly and under tight deadline.
After forty-five years of news sketching in courtrooms and congress I’m calling it quits. It’s been sometimes fun, sometimes frustrating, almost always interesting. I’ve been lucky to work with some really great people. Don’t think I’ll miss it, but a little scared of not having a deadline.
While I won’t be sketching in court anymore, I may continue to post to this blog from time to time. Not sure what that might be. I’m about to start a new assignment documenting infrastructure and construction. Could be interesting.
