[edwin hubble]

This wasn't a trial.

It was a workshop or seminar.

[Piranha]

Since the meeting was all on the record, according to the blog, I have no problem with it in concept.

The problem came only after the meeting, when apparently nobody wrote about it. Therefore, they were complicit in making the meeting into a workshop, as you say, instead of a trial, which it should have been. Just as reporters typically won't make contributions to political campaigns, so they shouldn't coach candidates.