Media Grumble Over Press Seating At O.J. Trial p. 8

By: M.L. Stein

Two permanent seats go to book authors Joe McGinnis
and Dominick Dunne; they applied directly to trial
Judge Lance Ito, who granted their requests sp.

AMID EXPECTED GRUMBLING from the have-nots and partial have-nots, 27 courtroom seats have been allocated to the media in the O.J. Simpson murder trial.
"The space is finite and the demand was overwhelming," said Jerrianne Hayslett of the Los Angeles Superior Court's information office, which allocated the seats for the final approval of Judge Lance Ito, who is presiding over the trial.
Among newspapers, the allocation was almost strictly local. Permanent seats were given to the Los Angeles Times; Daily News of Los Angeles; Los Angeles Sentinel, a black weekly, and USA Today.
The Los Angeles Daily Journal, a legal affairs newspaper; La Opinion, a Los Angeles-based Spanish-language daily, and Reuters are sharing one seat.
Permanent seating also went to the Associated Press, City News Service, United Press International and Copley News Service. The latter two will share a seat.
The arrangements for time sharing are left up to the news organizations to work out.
Two other permanent seats were handed out to book authors Joe McGinnis and Dominick Dunne, which drew some flak from disappointed seekers of access, according to Hayslett.
She said that both writers applied for seating directly to Ito several weeks ago and he directed her to honor the request.
Three rotating seats will be shared by the New York Times, New York Newsday, New York Daily News and New York Post.
The Washington Post, KCRW public radio and National Public Radio will take turns at another seat. The same arrangement was made for the National Enquirer and the Pasadena Star-News.
Also rotating for one seat will be the Sacramento Bee, Chicago Tribune, San Jose Mercury News and San Francisco Chronicle.
Seventeen different news organizations will have to trade off for a single seat. Among them are the Tokyo Sports Press, Springer Publications and Der Speigel of Germany, 3AW Australian radio, Orange County Register, Philadelphia Inquirer, Boston Globe, Chicago Sun-Times and the Detroit Free Press.