Ito Boots 2 Journalists for Talking in Court : Media: Reporters from Court TV, USA Today are permanently banned from proceedings. Jurors had complained that they were disruptive.

Kristin Jeanette-Meyers and Gale Holland on Thursday became the latest in a long line of journalists shoved into the spotlight of the O.J. Simpson trial--this time because both were shoved out of Judge Lance A. Ito’s courtroom.

Jeanette-Meyers, one of the principal reporters for Court TV and a legal analyst for CBS, and Holland, a reporter for USA Today, were unceremoniously removed and permanently banned from the courtroom after jurors complained that they were talking in court.

The ban came as a blow to both reporters, who declined to say much later.

Appearing shaken, Jeanette-Meyers made a brief statement to reporters after her removal, saying, “I have read the judge’s order, and I am very respectful of the duty he has to keep order in his courtroom. I have apologized to him. I hope he will accept it, and I hope he will change his mind.” She declined to take questions.

When asked late Thursday for a response to the ban, Holland would only say, “I sent a letter to the judge apologizing.”

An attorney as well as a reporter, Jeanette-Meyers has been seen frequently on Court TV during the network’s gavel-to-gavel coverage and has covered several major cases for Court TV, including both trials in the Rodney G. King case, the William Kennedy Smith rape trial and the Lorena Bobbitt trial.

Holland covered federal courts for eight years for Copley News Service, which publishes the San Diego Union, before recently moving to USA Today. Before that, she was a reporter for the Daily Breeze in Torrance.

Supervisors for Jeanette-Meyers and Holland said that both will continue to cover the trial outside the courtroom, and that they do not think the incident will affect their careers adversely.

“Other reporters have done what they shouldn’t do, and it hasn’t hurt them,” said Steve Brill, chief executive officer of Court TV. “The kind of mistakes that would hurt reporters have to do with integrity or not working hard enough. Kristin just screwed up. I think she’s learned her lesson.”

Brill added that the network had never before had a reporter kicked out of a courtroom.

“If the jurors complained about it, then the judge is right. [Court TV reporter] Dan Abrams is in there now, and you can be sure he won’t be talking in the courtroom.”

USA Today Editor Dave Mazzarella said sanctions against reporters should be made with some prior notice or warning. After the ruling, Mazzarella faxed a letter to Ito requesting that he reconsider his decision: “Obviously, we are disturbed. We think [Holland] was covering the trial in a highly professional manner.”

Staff writer Henry Weinstein contributed to this story.