In early September last year, about 40 members of the news media, many of whom covered the Oklahoma Sooners football team regularly, crowded into a nondescript room at the Norman Police Department.
Many had filed open-records requests seeking copies of a private surveillance tape that was said to show Oklahoma running back Joe Mixon striking another student, Amelia Molitor, breaking four bones in her face. As a result of those requests, the reporters had been invited to a viewing.
The lights were turned off, the clip was projected onto a large screen, and the journalists started taking notes.