KCBS ‘Trespassed’ With Camera, Caltech Says : Television: The station had placed a camera aimed at a seismograph in the school’s lab press room. Caltech said it was unauthorized and demanded its removal.

A Caltech spokesman has accused KCBS Channel 2 of “trespassing” and trying to take over the media center at the Caltech Seismological Lab after the station placed an unattended “hot” camera aimed at a seismograph in the lab’s press room.

John Lippman, KCBS news director, denied, however, that the station had done anything other than attempt to provide the best possible earthquake coverage and said he “wish(ed) Caltech would be more supportive of public education.”

The upshot was that KCBS was forced to remove the camera it had intended to leave on 24 hours a day for an unspecified period to provide pictures of the seismograph’s jumping needle in the event of earthquakes or aftershocks.

Robert O’Rourke, Caltech’s assistant vice president of public relations, said late last week that the university was reviewing the incident with its legal department and he could not comment on whether it would file any kind of formal complaint.

The row started when the members of the Caltech seismological staff and the press walked into the media room Thursday morning and found an unattended camera in front of one seismographic drum. Taped to the camera was a note that said: “Live 24-hour camera. Do not touch. KCBS.” A note was also taped over the light switch on the wall of the room that read: “Do not turn off overhead lights. KCBS.”

When O’Rourke saw the camera--which Lippman said his crew had put in place the previous evening--the Caltech official said he determined that no one at the school had given permission for it and he called Lippman, demanding that KCBS remove it by noon.

O’Rourke explained that the fixed camera was in the way of other journalists and that if he permitted KCBS to maintain a camera there, he would have to provide the same arrangement to every other station.

“This is a private institution. We do the very best we can to help the public obtain the latest, most up-to-date information. That is our mission,” O’Rourke said. “But when a station violates and trespasses with a totally unauthorized arrangement, that will not be tolerated.”

In an interview, Lippman said that his crew had obtained permission from “someone” at Caltech Wednesday night, but he did not know who. He charged that it was only when reporters from other TV stations complained that Caltech objected to the camera.

“Caltech is being used to do the bidding of the other stations who we had the jump on,” Lippman said. “We went and set up the shot, the others didn’t and they got mad.”

O’Rourke responded that Lippman’s contention is “absolutely false” and that he would have asked for the camera’s removal whether he received complaints from other journalists or not.

O’Rourke also found a microphone attached to the camera that was apparently picking up everything said in the room. Lippman said he had no knowledge of the microphone and that no sound went out over air when the seismograph was shown.

At about 3 p.m. Thursday, a KCBS crew agreed to take down the camera. The station has since installed a 24-hour live camera showing a seismograph at USC.