Friday, June 24, 1994
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Howard Rosenberg / Television;

Call Them Irresponsible, Throw in Unreliable Too

By: Howard Rosenberg

The Court of Loose Tongues is convened.

"Breaking news! Sources say incriminating nose hairs, reportedly
belonging to O.J. Simpson, have been recovered from a paper bag that
someone matching Simpson's description was seen burying. . . . "

Don't scoff. Only slight hyperbole here. With minor changes, the above
could be tonight's lead story. Some TV coverage of the Simpson-Goldman
murder case is getting that bad.

It was widely reported on television and attributed to "sources," for
example, that police had recovered a bloody ski mask in connection with
the fatal stabbings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman for
which O.J. Simpson is charged.
During Tuesday night's edition of TV's newest syndicated tabloid
series, "Premier Story" (on KCOP-TV Channel 13), scrounging reporter
Rafael Abramovitz repeated the ski mask story, confidently swearing by
the "source" who fed it to him.
On Wednesday, however, Deputy Dist. Atty. Marcia Clark, lead
prosecutor in the case, said there was no bloody ski mask.
Oh.
Initially quoting "our sources," KCBS-TV Channel 2 reported Wednesday
that police had discovered potentially damaging evidence in a golf bag
that Simpson is said to have brought to Chicago the same night that the
bodies of his former wife and Goldman were discovered outside her
Brentwood townhouse.
Elaborating in Chicago on the alleged discovery, reporter Mike Parker
attributed the story to "a police source," a subtle but significant
change in the attribution. Instead of multiple sources--which
would have earned the story more credibility--there was only one
source, according to Parker, who proceeded to construct an entire
anti-Simpson scenario based on the information he had received from his
"police source." Anchor Michael Tuck called the report a "bombshell."
Later that evening, however, competing KNBC-TV Channel 4 flat-out
claimed that the golf bag story--the one it hadn't even reported--was
erroneous.
Not that Channel 4 didn't have its own sources . . . or source.
Initially citing "sources inside the investigation," Channel 4
presented its own purported slash-by-slash account of how and when the
victims were brutally slain. Yet on second reference, Chuck Henry quoted
only "our source," as if there was no corroboration. Later he sloppily
went back to "sources," before returning to "our source."
Which was it? Like many in the media themselves, inquiring minds could
only speculate.
With the prosecution and defense each digging deep into its bag of
media-oriented slick tricks to sway public opinion in its favor, just
whom do we trust? Perhaps no one. UCLA law professor Peter Arenella
preaches the gospel of skepticism: Don't believe everything the media
report about this case.
Part of that swelling cottage industry of moonlighting academics and
other attorneys who dissect high-profile criminal cases for TV
newscasters, Arenella has commented astutely about media coverage of the
Simpson-Goldman case in his capacity as lead legal eagle on KTLA-TV
Channel 5.
What's a reporter to do if fed some hot scoop on the case from a
source that he or she regards as reliable? Just ignore it? "No, seek
confirmation from another source," Arenella said by phone Wednesday. Yes,
yes, but that's Reporting 101, something that should be standard
procedure on every sensitive story.
Citing the leak about the phony ski mask--which, like the golf bag
story, clearly favored the prosecution--Arenella also advised reporters
to attach a warning: "Self-interest must be taken into account as to why
this information is being released. It might be unreliable or
characterizing evidence in a light most favorable to the prosecution."
Or the defense. Simpson's attorney, Robert Shapiro, seems intent on
presenting his client as shattered and emotionally fragile, as if--as the
speculation goes--he is contemplating an insanity or diminished capacity
defense. "Every public viewing of a depressed O.J. will help buttress
(the theory) about his disturbed mental state," Arenella said.
Yet Wednesday's reports of his past mental state--linked to audiotapes
of those 911 calls that Nicole Simpson made when confronted by a
seemingly enraged and out-of-control O.J. Simpson--possibly tainted
forever the image of him as a mild-mannered sports icon. Although the
press had been seeking access to the tapes, the timing of the material's
release--just in time for Wednesday's early evening newscasts--reeked of
advance planning by the prosecution.
What's more, the affair showed some television newscasts at their
frantic, breathless, do-anything-to-beat-the-competition worst. Without
hearing it beforehand, both KABC-TV Channel 7 and Channel 4 rushed the
raw audio onto the air. But the tape each played first--the one related
to Simpson's 1989 no-contest plea to a spousal battery charge--was
virtually inaudible. After embarrassing themselves, both stations
temporarily aborted that story, returning later with the devastating 1993
tape during which Simpson could be heard ranting in the background as his
ex-wife was on the phone with a 911 operator.
That tape was the core of the night's coverage, both locally and
nationally, as TV continued to utilize every inch of this case the way
Eskimos do whales they've slaughtered. The CBS News program "America
Tonight" even threw in one of those meaningless and absurd "900" phone
polls that asked whether the prosecution should demand the death penalty
if Simpson is convicted ("We'd like you to make a life or death
decision," host Deborah Norville said grimly). Viewers were also asked
(at least someone on the show had a dark sense of humor) if the media
were "spending too much time on this story or the right amount of time."
Much of it is certainly not quality time.
Wednesday's episode of the syndicated "Geraldo" on Channel 2
symbolized the worst of the worst, uniting in wild speculation a Who's
Who of America's tabloid Mafioso. They ranged from Mike Walker of the
National Enquirer (on the phone with his "far-flung sources") to "A
Current Affair" hitman Steve Dunleavy (predicting that Simpson would be
"found not guilty by reason of insanity") to ever-available psychiatrist
Carole Lieberman, her usual sage and thoughtful self while weighing in on
O.J. Simpson's now-famous flight from police on the freeways of Los
Angeles: "He wanted to kill himself, in my opinion, next to the grave
site (of Nicole Simpson) so he could be as close to her in death as he
was in life."
Dr. Joyce Brothers was also on the "Geraldo" panel, presumably to
psychoanalyze Carole Lieberman.
What a circus. Rarely in the history of crime coverage have so many
who knew so little been so willing to share their ignorance.