News/Commentary

Sue O’Connell went after the Clancy holdout — now she’s defending herself

September 15, 2026 | | Print Article

Sue O’Connell, a “journalist who is a COMMENTATOR,” is getting roasted online after digging into a single Lindsay Clancy juror.

The media’s almost obsessive interest in the lone juror who prompted a mistrial by refusing to agree that Clancy was insane at the time of murdering her three children is not sitting right with many Americans. O’Connell has been accused of being focused on the man, even going so far as to report “new details” about him as if he were a news story. After being confronted about this for several days, she decided to hit back with a “morning experiment.”

Look:

“With AI panic in the fall air and reading proficiency declining, let’s try a morning experiment! Many of you trust Grok more than the news media. Fair enough. Test your knowledge against your favorite chatbot and compare notes. Answer each question yourself first,” she wrote.

The questions she wanted answered include:

Q1: How do professional journalists actually find things out?

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Q2: In Massachusetts, is it against the law for a journalist to approach a discharged juror and request an interview even if the judge has temporarily impounded the official jury list? What does impoundment actually prohibit?

Q3: Does the Massachusetts Confidential Juror Questionnaire ask whether you’ve been arrested, charged with a crime, served with a court order, sued or filed a lawsuit? Does it require you to explain any “yes” answers?

Q4: If the prosecution and defense had known that a prospective murder juror was subject to an active restraining order and had been able to question him about it, how likely is it that neither side would have challenged him?

Q5: If journalists learned that a juror in a Massachusetts murder trial had an active restraining order against him, pending civil litigation and a dismissed domestic-assault charge, would that be newsworthy and in the public interest…especially if it raised questions about the jury-selection process?

Q6: Is it accurate to call the reporting “doxxing” when the article withholds the juror’s name, race, age, hometown and residence and does not publish the impounded jury list?

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Q7: Are opinion writers, commentators, columnists journalists? How are they different from reporters?

One X user tried to explain why people were so upset with her.

“I think you are misunderstanding. We don’t think you broke the law; we think you acted unethically. Jurors should have anonymity,” they wrote.

But O’Connell demanded to know which law she broke, despite the comment explicitly saying otherwise.

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“Read my tweet again. I don’t believe you broke the law. I believe you acted unethically. We have a public interest in protecting juror’s anonymity; journalists should respect this,” the user explained.

Other social media users reacted:

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Sierra Marlee
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