The Pitfalls of Playing the Media Game

Almost seven months ago, O.J. Simpson’s lawyers began a huge effort to try their case in the media, painting Los Angeles Police Detective Mark Fuhrman as a racist who tried to frame the former football star.

But playing the media game is a risky business. For the leakers gave away Simpson’s game plan--something his old Trojan coaches hated to do. The leaks gave the prosecution more than half a year to coach Fuhrman, a witness who at an early stage of his career was so shaky psychologically that he applied for a stress retirement claiming he couldn’t stand dealing with racial minorities.

For the sake of a media victory, the defense gave up the powerful weapon of surprise.

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An element of surprise would have helped the defense Monday when Fuhrman was questioned by F. Lee Bailey, the famous cross-examiner who had boasted to a press conference Friday that he couldn’t wait to rip up the detective on the witness stand. Fuhrman was well-prepared.

From the outset, Bailey had a tough job. He was trying to show that Fuhrman stole a bloody glove from the Bundy Drive site of the two murders, stuffed it in a pocket of his tan slacks, carried it up to Simpson’s Rockingham Avenue estate, wiped off some of the blood in Simpson’s Bronco and then planted the glove on the grounds.

Anyone who has ever worn tan slacks knows the difficulty of accomplishing this maneuver. Tan pants are like magnets when it comes to attracting stains. It’s hard to believe the blood didn’t leave at least a few telling spots.

Aside from that difficulty in the Bailey assault, he was up against a man who had been admittedly rehearsed by the prosecutors to withstand his foe’s questioning. I can imagine the sessions in Deputy Dist. Atty. Marcia Clark’s office. They must have approached the care and intensity of rehearsals for a televised presidential debate.

The Fuhrman that emerged from the Marcia Clark rehearsal hall was a much different man than the Fuhrman of the media.

Instead of the erratic, ill-tempered, over-the-top racist that many had expected, Fuhrman came across as an intelligent, systematic detective whose notes on the crime scene would have made his detective class teacher proud.

Bailey tried to pick apart Fuhrman’s education. The cop obviously was no scholar--a general equivalency degree from high school, studies at three community colleges followed by service in the Marine Corps before joining the Police Department. But Fuhrman wasn’t apologetic or defensive, and spoke with pride of the on-the-job Marine and Police Department training he got.

Bailey also tried to show that Fuhrman considered this case his chance of a lifetime, a media event that would make him famous--or at least promoted.

As you drove to the scene, Bailey asked, didn’t you think about all the publicity that would accompany the case? “I was going to a homicide scene and was thinking of how we were going to handle a homicide scene,” he said.

The detective answered his questions calmly, as if he knew what was coming. There was no sign of the volatile disposition we’d read about. When a question confused him, Fuhrman said: “Would you ask that one more time, please?”

Only once did Bailey look like he’d nail Fuhrman. It was just before lunch. Bailey was asking Fuhrman about Kathleen Bell, the real estate saleswoman who quoted Fuhrman as saying, “If I had my way, they would take all the niggers, put them together in a big group and burn them.” She said this occurred while she was visiting the Marine recruiting office downstairs from her Century 21 office. Fuhrman had been interested in joining a Marine Reserve unit and used to stop by to chat with the recruiters.

Fuhrman absolutely denied ever seeing Bell. He never met her. He never met a woman named Andrea Terry who has said she had been with Bell and Fuhrman.

But Bailey got Fuhrman to admit he had, indeed, known that a female Century 21 employee had visited the recruiting office. In fact, he admitted, “I saw a female walk in like she knew people in the office.” But he didn’t pay any attention to her, and did not know whether it was Kathleen Bell.

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So, at day’s end, Fuhrman was pretty much unscathed, definitely a tribute to preparation.

The preparation would not have been as complete if the Simpson team had withheld its dirt on Fuhrman until just before the trial, or even later. The prosecution, which has trouble reacting to the unexpected, would have been sandbagged. An unrehearsed Fuhrman would have had to face F. Lee Bailey.

This may be an argument for lawyers trying their cases in the courtroom rather than in the media.