THE O.J. SIMPSON MURDER TRIAL : Scoring the Sound Bite of the Day

For Richard Belcher, anchor-reporter of Atlanta’s WSB-TV, covering the O.J. Simpson murder trial requires more than just getting the news.

He also has to make sure the camera catches his “mike flag,” the small box on the microphone identifying the station, as he asks a question. For Belcher’s presence at the trial is part of the station’s efforts to promote itself in the highly competitive Atlanta television market.

But his assignment is more complex than flying his station’s flag. Belcher, an Atlanta native and a reporter there since 1971, is constantly aware of the Simpson trial’s racial and social complexities as he sends back reports to a city that is one of America’s centers of black economic power, culture and education.

All those requirements came into play early Thursday morning as Belcher, photographer-editor Bob Page and producer Susan Stone set out to cover the third day of final arguments.

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About 7:45 a.m., the WSB-TV crew left the modular unit that houses ABC network affiliate stations and walked from Camp O.J., the television headquarters, to the Criminal Courts Building across the street.

If you were to cast a show about TV news, you’d pick this good-looking trio who mix Southern friendliness with journalistic competitiveness. L.A. is still a shock to them, although they’re getting used to the place after several Simpson case visits here.

The crowd in front of the courthouse has been growing in size and volume in the trial’s final days, and the atmosphere is tense. There is a sense of violence about to happen. “This market’s full of kooks,” said cameraman Bob Page.

Page, reporter Belcher and producer Stone took their place in “the Gauntlet,” the two rows of TV crews that line the steps to the courthouse. Those entering the courthouse have to walk through the Gauntlet, but the reporters and photographers were only interested in the Simpson defense team.

Belcher held the microphone, a red, blue, gold and white WSB-TV box at its base displaying to the world the station’s presence. The other reporters do the same, turning the Gauntlet colorful with their microphone flags.

The game started with the entrance of Simpson lawyer Robert Blasier. The winner of the game would be the reporter who asked a question that provoked a direct answer. The camera would catch the speaker talking into the station microphone, a shot that would not only be shown in the hometown, but might also be carried around the country, if not the world. Station promotion departments love it.

It was a few minutes before 9 a.m., and Belcher needed a sound bite for the noon news, about to begin in Atlanta, which is on Eastern time. Defense attorney Robert Shapiro headed into the Gauntlet. Belcher would have one shot at the sound bite he wanted, a prediction on how the day would go from the Simpson side. He stuck his microphone out and shouted, ‘What will be the score?”

It may not have been the kind of question they teach in journalism schools or praise in professional seminars, but it attracted the attention of sports fan Shapiro. “It will be a forensic funeral,” Shapiro replied, speaking into the WSB-TV mike.

Cochran was next, accompanied by his grim-looking Nation of Islam bodyguards. He said little, but the WSB-TV crew didn’t care. The Atlantans had their sound bite from Shapiro. They ran across Temple Street, darting between rush-hour traffic, not stopping until they reached their Camp O.J. headquarters.

Page quickly edited the tape, pulling out the Shapiro quote. Belcher slapped powder on his face and thought about what he would say on the air. Producer Stone called the station on her cellular phone, making arrangements for a spot on the noon news, by then already in progress. The three of them headed to a broadcast platform, directly across the street from the Criminal Courts Building. A technician made a satellite connection with Atlanta and the reporter began:

“This is Richard Belcher, live in Los Angeles.”

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As he tries to do in every report, Belcher stuck strictly to the facts, with little analysis. “You don’t have to be a genius in covering a trial,” he told me earlier in the morning. “It’s like covering sports. When you come to the last two minutes of the game, you do the big plays. That’s what you do here, the big plays. Nobody’s asking me to be Hemingway.”

It’s the big play at least four times a day--for the news at noon, 5 p.m., 6 p.m., and 11 p.m. Sometimes, Belcher is on the air more.

Atlanta has a huge appetite for Simpson news. Not only is the case itself fascinating, but the racial aspects have special meaning throughout the Atlanta area.

“The Atlanta Police Department may not be the Los Angeles Police Department, but don’t you think every African American person or family has had some bad experience?” Belcher said. “There have been incidents of racial brutality, not as many as in Los Angeles, but it happens.”

Cochran is a draw too. “He’s like a football hero,” said Belcher. ‘He’s a somebody.”

There are representatives of 35 local television stations across the country covering the Simpson trial, each with their own brightly colored mike flag and their eager crews.

Few, if any, of the reporters ever make it into the courtroom. They watch the trial from monitors and do scene stories from the streets of Los Angeles.

They grind out their reports several times a day, under heavy pressure from a home office that regards them as weapons in the war for ratings and profit. Where the networks offer just the half-hour nightly news, plus the morning shows, the locals provide one-, two- and three-hour daily news segments.

So this is how much of America gets its television coverage of the Simpson trial--by seat-of-the-pants reporting that puts as much a premium on promoting the station as supplying the viewers with news.