FindLaw: Always Seeking Relevance
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11, 2004
I like FindLaw. I visit the site almost everyday. But I always find it funny and pointless when they link to an individual lawyer, usually someone involved in a big case. Generally, it makes some sense because it'll be related to a story about a legal issue or a lawsuit. On Monday, though, they were really stretching the limits. They were reporting that "hot" George P. Bush—son of a governor, grandson of a former president, nephew of the current president, and isn't his cousin a big time model?—got married, which is kind of a whatever story, and they posted the Reuters piece. Of course, this wasn't really front page news, but they billed it as one of their top three stories, which was silly enough. They made it applicable to "the law" with the headline "Bush's Heart-Throb Nephew Weds Lawyer." Yes. That's why people were interested. But even better, they linked to the firm profile of the bride with the tag line "The Lawyer He Married." The editors clearly failed to realize that it's not a legal story just because he married a lawyer (and is a lawyer himself, for good measure). But it was nice of FindLaw to dress up entertainment news as legal news. Gave me a good laugh for the effort.

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