No More O.J. ? At Least In One Newspaper p. 15

By: Dorothy Giobbe

Publisher of Georgia daily calls Simpson trial a 'farce';
says the paper will no longer run stories or photos about it sp.

THERE WON'T BE any more dramatic shots of O.J. Simpson breaking down in court. No breathless accounts of the jury's latest rebellion, or its reaction to shocking crime scene photos.
In fact, in the Carrollton, Ga., Times-Georgian, there won't be any more news about the so-called "trial of the century" at all.
Recently, the 11,217-circulation daily imposed a total blackout on coverage of the O.J. Simpson murder trial.
Characterizing the trial as a "farce" and the antics of its high-profile players as "buffoonery," publisher Pat Cavanaugh vowed that the ban would stay in place "until the fat lady sings."
Cavanaugh said the new policy is "sort of serious, and sort of tongue in cheek."
He added that mainstream coverage of the trial has become so distorted and overblown, "people have just had it. You find yourself going home at night, nasty and bitter, talking back to the TV."
The decision to go cold turkey was prompted by reader complaints over the amount of coverage devoted to the trial, Cavanaugh said.
Since the ban was announced, the newspaper has received just two responses from disgruntled readers, including one who said she could not "do without" what she called "the mother of all soap operas."
But bucking the national media trend also has won the Times-Georgian a legion of new fans. Over 200 supportive letters have come in from around the world, as well as 10 new subscriptions, Cavanaugh said. One letter from a man in Turkey said that media coverage of the trial was making the United States "look awful."
The Times-Georgian has run some of the letters in the newspaper, so far filling two and a half pages with reader reactions.
"There is a God, after all!" wrote one supporter of the ban. "Congratulations! I wish every paper in the country would follow your lead," wrote another.
Anotherwriter praised the newspaper while slamming television. TV media, he wrote, "now feasts, with ravenous appetites, like maggots on a dead carcass!"
Media commentators often defend the trial's massive coverage on the grounds that it allows ordinary Americans to view the inner workings of the justice system.
But Cavanaugh believes, "If it was being handled as a trial, it would be so boring that no one would watch it . . . but all the side agendas that have come with it have turned the whole thing into a circus, and I think that's what people are upset about."
Despite receiving interview requests from international television and print journalists, for the most part Cavanaugh has declined to comment on the paper's policy, preferring not to become "part of the circus."
He wrote in the newspaper: "The story of this action hit the national news media, and the Times-Georgian found itself in the unusual situation of making the news rather than reporting it." The Times-Georgian will "periodically" print photos from the trial, Cavanaugh said. But just in case readers get a craving for coverage, the newspaper will discourage the habit by covering the photos with a red circle and slash bar.