THE O.J. SIMPSON MURDER TRIAL : Reporting on Ruling a Trial by Fire for Media

The Johnnie show drew its biggest crowd in weeks Friday morning, but the star had nothing to say.

The arrival of chief defense attorney Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. was heralded by the excited shouts of KCBS reporter Harvey Levin: “Johnnie’s here! Johnnie’s here! Johnnie’s here!” Another television journalist outside the Criminal Courts Building exclaimed, “All right, show time!”

Cochran strode grimly down a broad outdoor corridor, with the reporters kept behind yellow crime scene tape on one side and rope on the other. Cochran dispensed with the first-name banter that usually accompanies his walk from his car to the courthouse. He was still angry over Judge Lance A. Ito’s decision to allow just two snippets of the many racist comments that retired Los Angeles Police Detective Mark Fuhrman made to aspiring screenwriter Laura McKinny.

The reporters weren’t in a mood to banter, either. Ito’s decision was too explosive for lighthearted comment. And the journalists were still tense and tired from their efforts the night before to get the complex story finished for their publications and broadcast stations.

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Ito’s decision was announced about 4:30 p.m., at the worst time, and in the worst form, for the media.

There was just one copy of his 10-page order. Copies would be made for the press corps but with just one copier available in the 12th-floor press area, the process would take many precious minutes. Ito released his decision at a time when newspapers across the country were nearing their deadlines and television stations on the West Coast were beginning their dinner hour news shows.

Michael Fleeman of Associated Press was designated to read the order to his colleagues in a hot and crowded pressroom.

It was a tough job for Fleeman. The Associated Press provides news to publications and broadcast stations around the world. At any moment of the day and night, any number of them are on a deadline, so an AP reporter must be fast as well as accurate. Fleeman had to file his story on the judge’s decisions and brief the other reporters, more or less at the same time.

He quickly scanned the decision and sent a bulletin out on his computer. The other reporters, under heavy pressure from their own bosses to file their stories, wanted Fleeman to give them details. “Let him file! Let him file!” shouted a sympathetic Michelle Caruso of the New York Daily News. Fleeman dictated more details to the AP, his phone cradled on his shoulder as he leafed through Ito’s order. The other reporters wrote down what Fleeman said and when he finished with the phone, he gave them a more complete briefing. Finally, more copies of Ito’s decision arrived in the pressroom.

A few feet away, by the bank of elevators, reporters for six television outlets were starting their reports. The pressure on them was even greater than that faced by the print reporters.

First of all there was the babel of voices because each reporter was broadcasting live. The deep voice of KNBC Channel 4’s Furnell Chapman boomed through the area. “The defense is livid,” he said, reporting on reaction from the Simpson team. The higher pitched voice of KCBS Channel 2’s Levin was a counterpoint. “Here’s what we found out about the ruling,” he told his viewers, on the air and reading it for the first time.

It was also a time for instant analysis. Professor Stan Goldman of Loyola Law School hit the air first, interviewed by KCBS and then by KTLA Channel 5. Jack Ford of NBC News called the decision a “significant victory” for the prosecution. Court TV’s Dan Abrams, more cautious, said: “The prosecution has something of a victory there.”

A cameraman friend explained that the pressure on the TV reporters was even worse than it looked.

They all had an earphone in one ear, receiving instructions from directors and producers at the station. The other ear was full of the sounds of their colleagues from other stations. At the same time, they had to coordinate their reports with the screening of graphics and old tape of Fuhrman.

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It had been one of the Simpson case reporters’ most difficult tests.

After the trial, there will be the autopsies. A cottage industry of media analysts and press critics will debate the coverage of Ito’s tapes decision for many months, along with the other aspects of Simpson reporting.

But for the Simpson press crew on Friday morning, Thursday night was history. The reporters didn’t have time for introspection. At the morning session in the courtroom, Cochran was blasting the ruling again. “With all due respect, there are some parts that are incoherent,” he said.

Another day, another story in a trial that has produced so many of them.