"It Was Kind of Shocking That A Lawyer Would Say That in Court"

Inside the Tory Lanez Trial: An interview with Meghann 'Thee Reporter' Cuniff

Bonus post this week!

Megan Thee Stallion whose legal name is Megan Pete arrives at court to testify in the trial of Rapper Tory Lanez for allegedly shooting her on Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022 in Los Angeles, CA. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

In December, a California jury found the rapper (“rapper”) Tory Lanez guilty of shooting Megan Thee Stallion in her feet. The case was relatively straightforward —no one disputed Megan was shot, but Lanez claimed that Megan’s former friend/ex-assistant Kelsey Harris actually shot her — but trial’s coverage was rife with misinformation. Podcasters posting court documents, bloggers spreading false reports under the guise of infotainment, DJ Akademiks; just after Megan accused Tory Lanez of shooting her, Lanez's team reportedly impersonated an executive at Megan’s label to “campaign press” on Lanez’s behalf. The nonsense has not stopped: a month after Lanez was found guilty, 50 Cent publicly apologized to Megan for doubting her; Drake’s cornball ass meanwhile … silent!

My favorite reporter covering the trial was Meghann Cuniff, who frequently went viral when fans assigned her the moniker Meghann Thee Reporter. Her tweets were thorough, and the bob was bob-bing: her coverage was thoughtful, fast, and observant. (And she just started a Substack!) I talked to Meghann about the trial, Beyoncé’s husband, and what happens next.

Meghann Cuniff @meghanncuniff

One woman turned and looked at the reporters sitting behind her, including me, and said, "Jay Z is a bitch. Report that: Jay Z is a bitch."

You have a ton of experience covering California courts for a trade publication. I’m interested in what it’s like writing for that audience, versus the Tory Lanez trial, where all of a sudden you’re covering a trial for a much more general interest audience. Can you tell me about that?
I went to the L.A. Daily Journal in 2016. It’s a clubby little newspaper for lawyers. Four years there was basically like law school. I went to law.com for a year, which has more of a web presence than the Daily Journal and is more national, but it's also a trade publication. When I went to Law & Crime, I wanted to get back into the mainstream news. Because I like writing for the people, writing for a broad audience instead of only lawyers or people who are paying high subscription prices for the trade publication stuff.

I had so much experience covering two-month trials, really complicated cases from the top trial judges in Southern California. I certainly don't want to downplay the significance of the Tory Lanez case, but fact-wise and witness-wise, it wasn't that complicated a case. Instead of getting so lost in the details of some of the testimony, I was able to take some time and explain the process, understanding that a lot of people are coming into this not really understanding how trials work or what the next step is.

How did you start covering this case?
I'd been at Los Angeles Superior Court for two months covering the Harvey Weinstein trial and then the Danny Masterson trial. When Tory Lanez came up, I was still waiting for the jury on Harvey Weinstein. I was just like, "If we're waiting for the verdict on this, I might as well go check out this trial." Instead of hanging out on the ninth floor, which is where the Harvey Weinstein and the Danny Masterson trials were, I just went six floors up to Judge Herriford's courtroom.

I was happy that people were so into it. It made me do my own soul searching about what we decide to cover and why. We were so into the Harvey Weinstein trial, and people are interested in that and it's important, but it wasn't getting anywhere near the coverage and attention that Tory Lanez and Megan Thee Stallion was.

TINA SNOW @theestallion

And when the mf facts come out remember all y’all hoe ass favorite rappers that stood behind a Nigga that SHOT A FEMALE

This trial showed the vacuum of information between real reporters and people whose job is to run, like, viral Instagram accounts. It seemed like they would spin anything — even facts that weren’t in dispute — in Tory Lanez’s favor. Did you observe any of that?
It wasn’t until after the trial that I really sat down and read more of the social coverage. I saw a headline on some website about the first day of the trial. The headline was about something Tory's lawyer had said in passing about how Kelsey and Megan had both had romantic interest in DaBaby and Ben Simmons or something. And I'm like, Wow, I can't believe that after an entire day of sitting in court and hearing all of this stuff about this shooting, that that is the fact that they focused on. Because it was just some throwaway line that he said! And of course we never heard anything about it again. 

It was kind of shocking that a lawyer would say that in court. He was talking about these women's sex lives, and he didn't even have evidence to back it up. I just couldn't believe that, wow, that was the focus of somebody's story, that one single line. And it frankly just proves Megan's point.