TV Stations Tread Easily on Coverage of Unrest : Television: L.A. news broadcasters deny restraint stemmed from criticism that their reporting helped inflame rioting last spring.

Los Angeles television stations, criticized in some quarters for inflammatory coverage of the city’s riots last spring, were generally restrained in their reporting of Monday’s disturbance that was quelled by swift police action in the South-Central area.

Avoiding constant break-ins to their programming, the reports, which continued Tuesday morning, were mostly limited to regular newscasts.

Most station officials denied that their coverage was affected by past criticism. “I wasn’t exercising restraint, I was exercising news judgment,” said Warren Cereghino, news director at KTLA-TV Channel 5.

Because of its nightly three-hour block of news programming in prime time, KCAL-TV Channel 9 had a heavy presence in the ongoing story Monday, including exclusive live coverage of a news conference with Police Chief Willie L. Williams at 8:15 p.m. after he arrived at the command post at the site.

The new chief, who replaced the embattled Daryl F. Gates, provided a calm and authoritative TV presence during the conference, describing the police action as “swift” and “excellent” and deflecting at least one question about whether his force had overreacted, implying that the response be compared with what happened during the riots.

At that time, slow police response was a key reason cited for the riots getting out of hand.

But while TV focused primarily on the show of police force Monday--with an estimated 350 officers on the scene and 200 others on alert--some stations failed to define sharply the cause of the disturbance. It began during a rally supporting the four men arrested in the beating of truck driver Reginald O. Denny during the riots.

With Monday’s disturbance breaking out at a recognizable TV flash point--Florence and Normandie, where the spring’s crisis began--local stations had the makings of another highly charged story. What’s more, it was developing just as the major network stations--KNBC-TV Channel 4, KCBS-TV Channel 2 and KABC-TV Channel 7--were broadcasting their late afternoon newscasts.

The story was reported during 5 p.m. newscasts. But KCAL did not present its first story until its 6:30 p.m. news. Stations such as KCOP-TV Channel 13 held off until the regular 10 p.m. news. And the major network stations showed regular programming--such as “Evening Shade” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air”--before giving later reports on their 11 p.m. news programs.

Although local stations are well-known for break-ins and hyping of more ordinary events such as freeway car chases, they mostly denied that they were unduly influenced in Monday’s coverage by reaction to their reporting of the April riots.

However, Jeff Wald, executive director of news programming at KCOP Channel 13, said Tuesday: “We learned a lot from the incidents that occurred seven months ago at the same intersection. Even when we had those terrific pictures at that corner (in April), we were in tremendous anguish over whether to put them on the air at that time.

“But it was our duty to put them on and also warn people what was going on. And we were all shocked at the time that the police did not respond in force. Monday was different. Police were there in force.”

Bob Henry, news director of KCAL, said: “We monitored the story carefully and didn’t think it merited a break-in. It seemed to us from the very beginning that the LAPD had the situation very well in hand.”

Reed Manville, general manager of KNBC, said in a formal statement: “We do not have a policy which dictates the extent of coverage that any event will receive before the event occurs. (We) will continue to be sensitive to stories of this nature in the future.”

A special panel investigating police response to the civil unrest concluded in October that live TV coverage of the initial outbreaks of violence was a catalyst for further looting and chaos. But their report stopped short of knocking the TV coverage or the judgment of news executives.

The panel, which was headed by former FBI and CIA Director William H. Webster, said television coverage of the early flare-ups at Florence and Normandie avenues, and of a heated conflict at the Parker Center police headquarters between police and demonstrators, were crucial in informing potential rioters that police were not responding to the melee.

KCBS was one of the first stations on the air Monday with a live report at the top of the 5 p.m. news.

The station had some of the more dramatic footage. During a live report, one reporter was almost overcome by a mob as he tried to file details back to the studio. Also, the station showed police arresting a man who was wearing an “X” hat--for the late black leader Malcolm X. They attempted to handcuff him on the hood of a car and yelled at him to stop resisting. He replied that he was not resisting. When his hat got knocked off, an officer shoved it back on his head.

KCBS news director John Lippman could not be reached Tuesday for comment.

KABC-TV had two live reports from the area at 11 p.m. Reporter Jeff Michael told how his crew, which arrived on the scene after the police had taken control, was forced back into his van by angry protesters. “Our photographer took a rock,” he said.

KABC news director Roger Bell said, “We were in no means responding to the criticism (about the riot coverage). The last time was an extreme situation. When it was clear that it was out of hand and TV wasn’t going to influence it one way or the other, that’s when we went on the air.”

In a four-minute live report from the police command post on KTLA’s 10 p.m. newscast, reporter Stan Chambers concentrated on the strong law enforcement response, making almost no mention of the peaceful demonstration or how or why the violence erupted.

Some of the images showed banners and flyers calling for the release of the “L.A. Four,” the men accused of beating Denny.

The report was also filled with images of police arresting blacks and patrolling the streets.

“The fast, efficient and professional stand by the LAPD kept this from getting out of control,” said Chambers, noting that the location was calm. Anchorman Hal Fishman told Chambers the newscast would return to the site if there were further developments, and moved on. There were no further updates.

At 10 p.m. on KTTV-TV Channel 11, reporter Carol Lin told viewers that police were regarding the incident not as a riot, but as “a problem. There was a real strong show of force by police.” One tape showed a woman being held from behind by officers as she struggled near a van, ordering police to let her go.

In her four-minute live report from the area, Lin also showed tape of the rally, and interviews of demonstrators complaining that police presence at the protest provoked members of the crowd.

The stations’ approach to Monday’s story was to present it prominently but for relatively brief periods, perhaps in three- or four-minute reports or less, with quick updates later in a newscast, including dramatic helicopter shots disturbingly similar to the ones of last spring.

The Williams news conference ran longer, as KCAL carried it for about 10 minutes. KCOP, meanwhile, added a solid commentary on its 10 p.m. news by Bill Press, who said: “What a difference between April and November.” But KCBS’ hyper news attitude at times seemed to heighten the tension; the station’s 11 p.m. news, for instance, started with a “high noon” type of summary outlining events that led to the disturbance.

KCAL also was somewhat out of focus early in its 8 p.m. newscast with an indefinite and useless helicopter report and a piece by reporter Tracie Savage that dealt vaguely with how the incident began.

Because the stations held off from break-ins during the night, most of their later reports were delivered after the situation seemed well in hand, which added to the downplaying of the explosiveness.