No sooner had Casey Anthony been acquitted on charges of killing her daughter than her attorneys lashed out against cable news coverage that they said unfairly cast the verdict as shocking. 
 
 jAttorney Jose Baez, right, lead defense counsel for Casey Anthony, answers questions after his client was found not guilty in her murder trial, at the Orange County Courthouse, in Orlando, Fla., Tuesday,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Cheney Mason answers questions after his client, Casey Anthony, was found not guilty in her murder trial in Orlando, Fla., Tuesday, July 5, 2011. Anthony had been charged with killing her daughter,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Jose Baez, right, and Cheney Mason, answer questions after their client, Casey Anthony, was found not guilty in her murder trial in Orlando, Fla., Tuesday, July 5, 2011. Anthony had been charged with... (Associated Press) 
 
 Shortly after the jury's decision was announced, one of Anthony's lawyers, Cheney Mason, said he hoped the verdict was a lesson to those who had "indulged in media assassination" during the three years between 2-year-old Caylee Anthony's disappearance and her mother's acquittal for murder. 
 
 Mason did not mention anyone by name, but his remarks seemed aimed at Nancy Grace of the HLN network, which has seen its fortunes soar with extensive coverage of the trial. 
 
 "There is no way that this is a verdict that speaks the truth," Grace said. 
 
 Grace, the former prosecutor with a prime-time show, began covering the Anthony story in 2008 as a missing persons case and has made little secret of her belief in Casey Anthony's guilt. 
 
 HLN, formerly known as CNN Headline News, aired the full trial and extensive analysis. Its average viewership essentially doubled in June over a year before, according to the Nielsen Co. 
 
 Grace, the network's most prominent personality with an average of 1.5 million viewers a night, had her most-watched month ever in June. Her Facebook fan page has gained 49,000 viewers since the start of the trial, HLN said. 
 
 Mason criticized "biased and prejudiced and incompetent talking heads saying what it would be and how it would be. 
 
 "I can tell you that my colleagues from coast to coast and border to border have condemned this whole process of lawyers getting on television and talking about cases that they don't know a thing about, and don't have the experience to back up their words or the law to do it," he said. "Now you have learned a lesson." 
 
 Many commentators on other networks also expressed surprise at the verdict. Some filled time in the 45 minutes before the decision with discussions that assumed Anthony would be convicted, particularly because the jury reached a decision relatively quickly. 
 
 Others said on air afterward they had assumed there would be a guilty verdict on at least one felony charge. 
 
 Grace appeared to take Mason's comments personally. 
 
 "What does he care about what pundits are saying?" she said, adding that she imagines she's tried and covered as many cases as Mason. She criticized defense attorneys for delivering media criticism before mentioning Caylee's name in their post-verdict news conference. 
 
 "Caylee's death is now just a blip on the screen," she said. "It didn't mean anything. It didn't amount to a hill of beans." 
 
 During the Grace-anchored live coverage of the verdict, correspondents interviewed people outside of the courthouse, most of them expressing dismay. Grace took phone calls, including one from a woman who said, "That woman just got away with murder, Nancy." 
 
 Michelle Zierler, director of the Project in Law and Journalism at New York Law School, said she had essentially been convinced that Anthony was guilty from watching the trial on TV. 
 
 She said Grace "is always certain that the defendant is guilty and needs instant punishment." 
 
 "It's sort of entertainment and buyer beware, and unfortunately too many people succumb to that sort of hype," Zierler said. 
 
 She said she believed Grace's opinion affected her analysis of the case. For example, Grace had criticized the closing arguments of Anthony's defense team while Zierler, who also watched, said she believed those lawyers did a good job summing up their case, even if they had not convinced her. 
 
 HLN President Scot Safon said he was comfortable with how the network had covered the case. 
 
 "Over the course of our coverage, we gave a platform to a pretty broad range of potential outcomes here," he said. 
 
 Given the extensive coverage of the trial, Mason's arguments probably got their fullest airing on HLN, he said. 
 
 HLN's ratings success is an indication that its focus on high-interest legal cases is likely to continue. Safon said HLN wants to concentrate on "water cooler" news stories that people like to talk about, and the Anthony case fit the approach perfectly. 
 
 By covering the trial extensively, HLN also filled a void left by Court TV, which was shut down and renamed Tru TV, with a focus on nonfiction programming. Safon said the network will probably give extensive coverage to the trial of Dr. Conrad Murray, who is accused of giving Michael Jackson an overdose of a powerful anesthetic and other sedatives. Murray has pleaded not guilty and is due for trial in September. 
 
 (This version CORRECTS name of law school to New York Law) 

 Yesterday’s stunning verdict in the Casey Anthony trial has revealed a number of rifts in public opinion. While the overriding public opinion seems to be of stunned outrage, there are a few iconoclasts who feel that justice was served by the jury’s decision of not guilty on the charges of murder. But another, more secondary topic that has been just as hotly debated in the wake of the verdict has been the media’s role in this case. And Casey Anthony Defense Attorney Cheney Mason left little doubt on his true feelings evidenced by his gesture here. 
 
 
 
 WESH.com explains: 
 
 Casey Anthony defense attorney Cheney Mason was pictured giving reporters and onlookers his “finger of affection,” as Judge Belvin Perry dubbed the gesture during the high-profile trial. Last week, Perry sentenced a courtroom spectator to six days in jail for holding his middle finger up to a prosecutor. On Tuesday afternoon, after a not guilty verdict was read in Casey Anthony’s murder trial, Mason was seen using his middle finger at a downtown Orlando restaurant. 
 
 Shortly after the verdict had been reached yesterday, Mason spoke to the media covering this gruesome and sad story and chose to vilify the very media to which he was speaking. Apparently he wanted to be crystal clear on how he felt about the press, and felt that he needed this particular gesture to get his feelings across. Stay classy Cheney Mason!
– Most everybody was busy pointing fingers following Casey Anthony's acquittal yesterday, but defense attorney Cheney Mason had a choice one to point at the media. Spotted drinking cocktails at an Orlando restaurant to celebrate the verdict, Mason flipped off reporters peering into the window at him ... and an AP photographer captured the moment. "Apparently he wanted to be crystal clear on how he felt about the press," notes Mediaite, "and felt that he needed this particular gesture to get his feelings across." The AP adds that after the verdict was read, Mason also voiced those feelings, criticizing "biased and prejudiced and incompetent talking heads saying what it would be and how it would be." He "condemned this whole process of lawyers getting on television and talking about cases that they don't know a thing about, and don't have the experience to back up their words or the law to do it. Now you have learned a lesson." Click for another appearance of the finger at the Anthony trial.