Mail supports judge's inkling to ban TV p. 10

By: Editorial Staff

IN WHAT IT labeled an exclusive, the New York Daily News reported that the public has swamped the judge in the O.J. Simpson murder trial with letters demanding he pull the plug on TV coverage.
The judge, Lance Ito in Los Angeles, proposed on Oct. 3 to ban the electronic media from the trial and set a hearing for Nov. 7 to decide the matter.
Relations between the judge and the press have grown increasingly strained in one of the most sensational trials in years. Ito first threatened to throw TV cameras out of court after KNBC-TV in Los Angeles reported, incorrectly, according to the judge, that DNA tests on a sock found in Simpson's house matched the blood of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson. O.J. Simpson is on trial for the murder of her and her friend, Ronald Goldman.
The News story, reported Oct. 4 by Michelle Caruso in Los Angeles and Jere Hester in New York, said letters to Ito were running 800 to 12 in favor of shutting down TV coverage of the trial. The story was based on an exclusive interview with Ito, who let a reporter examine two crates of mail he has received. Ito pointed to mail written by people around the nation after he first threatened to throw TV cameras out of court. One said, "Ban the TV. No more coverage of the O.J. Simpson case. We've had enough."
News organizations plan to contest any effort to curtail coverage.
But Ito told the News he was "confident" that in the likelihood of an appeal, higher courts would back him ? whatever he rules after the Nov. 7 hearing.
He said he feared cameras caused attorneys to act differently than they would otherwise.
News managing editor Martin Gottleib credited the coup ? not easy with a media circus of vast proportions surrounding the court house ? on Caruso's wiles. "She's just an excellent reporter," he said.