On May 23, 2019, the New Jersey Law Journal published an article titled: “Could Automation Be the Antidote to the Court Reporter Shortage?” The article (a/k/a infomercial for the authors) was a brilliant example of damning court reporters with faint praise, innuendo, half-truths and subliminal criticism, and written by proponents of audio-recording technology.

The stock photo accompanying the article was of a court reporter using a manual stenotype machine that was old technology in the 1950s, propped upon a desk with paper coming out of the back, sending the message that court reporting technology has just recently emerged from the days of the Industrial Revolution. The only thing missing from the photo was a smokestack belching steam from atop the writer.