Barred From Tyson Trial, TV Scrambles for Coverage

There won’t be a blue dot covering the face of the woman accusing Mike Tyson of rape when the former heavyweight champion goes on trial in Indianapolis. The proceedings were scheduled to begin today.

The dot won’t be needed because, unlike last month’s William Kennedy Smith trial, the Tyson case won’t be coming directly into the nation’s homes. Indiana is one of four states that don’t allow television coverage of trials.

Without live or taped courtroom footage, TV coverage of the Tyson trial will instead rely on courtroom sketches and reporters’ explanations rather than the gripping, graphic testimony that characterized Smith’s trial and which transfixed much of the nation, bringing increased viewership to Cable News Network and Court TV.

“You miss the high drama because the sketches are not very adequate compared to seeing and hearing the real thing,” said Ed Turner, CNN’s vice president for news gathering. “But it will be good reporting, kind of like the (Manuel A.) Noriega trial (in Miami).”

Interest in the trial has been so great that a court-appointed committee has been established to serve as a liaison between the news media and the court, and a phone-answering system with updated information about the case has been set up. The Associated Press has run advisories on subjects including parking accommodations for television satellite trucks.

CBS, NBC and CNN have all been assigned fixed seats in the courtroom. ABC will share its seat with ESPN. (Capital Cities/ABC Inc. owns an 80% stake in the all-sports cable network.)

There is one place that Tyson’s trial will be on television. The Indiana Supreme Court has allowed closed-circuit television to the media viewing room of the City-County Building for note-taking purposes only.

Court TV wrote to Indiana Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard on Jan. 9, asking that it be allowed to air the Tyson proceedings live. But it got no response.

“The stakes in (the trial) and Mr. Tyson’s future affect millions of dollars, many, many people and large institutions,” said Merrill Brown, the senior vice president of corporate and program development for the six-month-old national cable network, which gained prominence for its live, uninterrupted coverage of the Smith case.

Judge Patricia Gifford, who will preside over the case, objects to televising trials.

“I feel that people, once they know the cameras are on them, respond a great deal differently,” Gifford said.