A reporter covering Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial sparked backlash when she appeared to wink and smile at the camera in the courtroom.
As the trial was being livestreamed by CourtTV on Monday, August 24, the camera panned to show a row of journalists in the courtroom gallery. Journalist Brittany Romano noticed the camera on her before she grinned. Her beaming expression and seemingly playful demeanor stood out, as she was seated around stone-faced reporters.
The clip went viral, and several people took to social media to sound off about what appeared to be Romano’s upbeat mood during the heavy trial.
“Ok, this is a lunatic move. Her name is Brittany Romano and she works for Vanity Fair. Deplorable behavior. 3 children are dead and this fool is acting like that??? Disgusting,” one person wrote via X, while another added, “Imagine treating a trial for three murdered children like a red carpet photo op, and then being arrogant enough to lash out when people call out your complete lack of basic empathy. Unbelievable.”
The backlash continued as a third person chimed in, “My god, the narcissism is literally dripping off of her face. She cannot be more happy to have a camera on her.”
Following the hearing on August 24, a social media user caught up with Romano outside of the courtroom and asked her why she was smiling. She explained that “grew up” with Clancy, 36, and was smiling for her father after he previously told her she looked sad when he saw her on TV, according to a video of the conversation uploaded to X.
Not only did Romano’s behavior gain negative attention, but she also lost her credentials with Vanity Fair to cover the trial. The outlet announced on Tuesday, August 25, that it planned to stop working with Romano.
“We were interested in the prospect of a personal essay by Brittany Romano about her experience growing up with Lindsay Clancy,” Vanity Fair said in a statement, according to the New York Post. “Yesterday, after clear conflicts with our editorial standards and processes, we informed Romano that we were not moving forward with her essay and informed the court that she is no longer credentialed by Vanity Fair.”
Romano broke her silence and addressed the backlash in a series of Instagram stories on August 24. After she shared several screenshots of social media users sending her nasty messages, she uploaded a photo that showed her posts had over 100 comments, 24 likes and she had 100 new followers. “All for smiling at a camera?! Love it! Tysm for boosting my analytics Xoxoxoxo,” she wrote.
In a following Instagram story, Romano said “these trolls have been absolutely vile” and have told her to kill herself.
Clancy is currently on trial for killing her kids, Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, in January 2023. She has not denied killing her three kids, but her defense argued she shouldn’t be held criminally responsible for the killings due to her mental health struggles at the time.
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