The King, Denny Trials: Covering a Powder Keg : Television: Officials at local stations are trying to ensure that their coverage doesn’t inflame the passions of viewers.

As the curtain prepares to rise on the courtroom dramas surrounding the four Los Angeles Police officers accused in the Rodney G. King beating case and the three men accused of beating trucker Reginald O. Denny, local television news officials are faced with their own outside-the-courtroom dramas.

Even as jury selection continues this week in the King case, officials at local stations are grappling with ways to best convey to viewers what happens during daily proceedings, since no cameras are being allowed inside the federal courthouse where the trial is taking place.

Strategies range from using sketches to convincing witnesses to recap their testimony outside the courthouse to having experts lend perspective on legal matters.

The Denny trial will not have as many restrictions for news crews, who will be allowed to broadcast or tape the Superior Court proceedings. At present, only the cable channel Court TV is planning live coverage of the entire trial.

The efforts in covering both trials are being shadowed and, in some cases, influenced by what is sure to be increased scrutiny of how local television news handles the coverage. The television media was roundly criticized last year for what critics called inflammatory coverage that may have encouraged rioting following the initial acquittal of the officers in Simi Valley.

Although news directors at local stations insisted their individual coverage of the verdict and post-verdict civil unrest last year was not a factor in contributing to the disturbances, some admitted that there seemed to be an added sensitivity about the upcoming trials, especially because many in the various communities fear more rioting. A recent Los Angeles Times poll found 67% of the city expecting either the King or Denny verdict to spark more violence.

Unlike last year, when Fox TV provided gavel-to-gavel coverage of the officers’ civil trial, news stories will be the only way most citizens will be able to glimpse what happens behind the courtroom doors. Television recaps will be the most immediate way for viewers to find out what took place; some news directors said the spin on their stories could prove to be critical.

“We all feel an added sense of responsibility,” said Sylvia Teague, managing editor of KCAL-TV Channel 9. “We always aim for fair and accurate coverage, but that aim is more heightened than usual. Most people will get their information about this trial from TV news.”

Jeff Wald, news director at KCOP-TV Channel 13, said, “I think the news media should have been more sensitive to this story before the rioting broke out last time, and this time around I’ve told our people to take a step backward and look at the overall picture. This time around, we are probably going to take an even more careful approach.”

The sensitivity has already manifested itself in heated discussions around local newsrooms. Editors at KNBC-TV Channel 4 recently argued over giving their King coverage the title of “Cops on Trial.” They ultimately decided on a more subtle “The Rodney King Case.”

The two trials may overlap. The King case, in which the four officers--Stacey C. Koon, Laurence M. Powell, Timothy E. Wind and Theodore J. Briseno--are accused of violating King’s civil rights, might begin as early as Friday if jury selection is completed and is expected to last eight weeks. The Denny case is expected to commence around March 15, although the court may delay the trial in order to lessen community tension.

News directors said the Denny case will be covered like a conventional trial, since cameras are not being banned from the courtroom. In that case, Damian Monroe Williams, Antoine Miller and Henry Keith Watson will be tried in Los Angeles Superior Court for attempted murder in the beating of Denny.

It’s the coverage of the King case that will provide a special challenge for news crews.

Besides having to cover the trial without video footage, those covering the case will also be hindered by their inability to show the defendants entering and leaving the courtroom. The officers are being allowed to park in the garage underneath the courthouse, and will be able to take an elevator directly to the courtroom, thus avoiding news cameras.

Many of the stations are using and sharing sketch artists for their coverage. Most will have a reporter in the courtroom every day, although reports may not be filed daily.

Prominence in newscasts will vary, the directors said. Court TV will be filing four daily reports from the courthouse. Warren Cereghino, news director at KTLA-TV Channel 5, said coverage of the trial will “vary from day to day. Some days it will require more time than other days.”

The time allotted for daily coverage coverage will be a crucial factor as far as perception, said Jose Rios, news director at KTTV-TV Channel 11.

“The danger for television is not giving the trial enough time on their newscast,” said Rios. “Some news director may decide that since it’s not a story with pictures, they may not give it enough time. If they try to cover this in a minute and a half each night, they’re not doing it justice. For L.A., this is a seminal story.”

Rios said he could devote as much as 10 minutes in one newscast to the case if he felt it warranted that much coverage.

Other strategies include trying to question witnesses after they testify. “If witnesses would be willing to talk afterward, that would be great,” said Cereghino.

Several news directors said they would also look at supplementing the coverage with stories on community reaction or other issues.

John Lippman, news director at KCBS-TV Channel 2, said that in addition to daily reports, reporter Harvey Levin will take a weekly look at the King case from a legal perspective during the Sunday 6 p.m. newscast.

Part of the heightened sensitivity and careful approach toward the trials’ coverage is already being utilized in the use of the two videotapes that show the four police defendants beating King on March 3, 1991, and the news footage of Denny being attacked at the intersection of Florence and Normandie following the verdicts.

Most news directors said they had already lessened use of the King tape, which was played repeatedly by news stations before and during last year’s trial. Several critics said the footage served to anger or desensitize viewers.

Most news directors said that during the trial they will use mostly still pictures or just a few seconds of the one-minute, 50-second tape.

“We’ve started using three seconds of each tape together in split-screen,” said Wald. “We’ve seen enough of both situations. We’ll just use enough to remind, not to rekindle the emotions.”