Reporters Find the Big Story on What Seemed a Slow Day

I felt a sense of excitement as I walked through the rain Wednesday morning to the Criminal Courts Building, where the O.J. Simpson trial resumed after a two-week holiday recess.

This might seem odd because the day didn’t promise much but a morning of discussions behind closed doors between Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lance A. Ito and the lawyers. And I wasn’t alone. Other reporters seemed glad to be back too--returning to a world that doesn’t seem quite real--but is more exciting than real life.

The fact is that reporters are excitement junkies, and that quirk in their personalities has as much to do with the intensity of the Simpson coverage as their employers’ need to capture an audience.

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At the courthouse, the reporters took their places in the print pressroom and the nearby work space reserved for television and radio crews.

Greetings were exchanged, but our eyes were looking around for something new, some development, for the day’s lead.

Restless, I headed across Temple Street to Camp O.J., the parking lot where the television networks are headquartered. Toward the back of the big parking lot was the CNN van, where I had spent a morning late last year recording how the 24-hour news network covers the trial.

Inside, producer Traci Tamura and correspondent Jim Hill were watching CNN’s telecast of the opening of Congress.

That was the big story of the day, Tamura said. CNN, which usually broadcasts from the Simpson trial several times a day, wasn’t even going live. Just standing by, she said. The three of us exchanged gossip about the trial, and I prepared to leave, expressing my regrets that the CNN crew was without a story. Tamura wasn’t discouraged. At the Simpson trial, she reminded me, something always turns up.

In fact, something already had turned up, as I found out when I returned to the pressroom.

An unscheduled court session had been announced. My colleagues were lining up for the red passes needed for entrance to the courtroom.

When a big story occurs at a trial, it often takes some time to understand how big it is.

First Judge Ito announced that the jurors should be in court Jan. 11 with bags packed, ready to be sequestered until the trial ends. Ito’s tone was so matter-of-fact that only an experienced Simpson trial watcher would have known this was hot: Ito for the first time was revealing that he had decided to sequester the jury and that the jurors would be on the job much sooner than expected.

We quickly learned why. Simpson’s attorneys had filed a notice to the court abandoning a challenge to the prosecution’s plan to use DNA evidence. A hearing over whether such evidence should be admitted was likely to have taken weeks.

Traci Tamura of CNN was right. Something always turns up at the Simpson trial. CNN went live with the news.

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The excitement is addictive.

At the time of a breaking story, however, I may not even realize I’m excited. That’s because my attention, every bit of it, is concentrated on compiling the details, getting them right and formulating a first paragraph, the lead. All this must done quickly. Only afterward do you appreciate the excitement when you replay the event in your mind and enjoy the satisfaction of having covered something important.

Reporters fight to get assigned to big stories, such as the Simpson trial, and battle ferociously to do well once they get the assignment. When you’re forced to leave a big story, even for a short time, some of us are dogged by depression.

Because people like me are attracted to the work, it probably does affect the coverage and the public’s perception of what’s happening. The volume of news is increased and it becomes more sensational because of the reporters’ drive be in the middle of the action--to report it, to make page one or to lead the nightly TV news.

Let’s face it. Some of us get carried away. But it’s also reporters drawn to excitement who tell us about wars, riots, floods, crooks and shady politicians. Enthusiasm is not a bad thing, if it is tempered by intelligence, fairness and responsibility.

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A final note: Intelligence, fairness and responsibility describe Chris Harris of KTTV, Channel 11, one of the most distinguished reporters covering the Simpson trial, who died Dec. 28 at the age of 51.

Harris knew the tremendous power of his medium, but never abused it to hype the news. This was especially true when he covered the first Rodney G. King beating trial for KTTV, setting a standard of restraint under fire.