Letters to the Editor: Televise Trump’s trials? Be careful what you wish for

To the editor: Permitting live television cameras into the courtrooms where former President Trump will be tried invites a chaotic repeat of the O.J. Simpson fiasco.

Instead, permitting live, uninterrupted radio coverage would allow the country to hear each moment of the proceedings, absent anyone’s commentary.

The country needs a straightforward sharing of each participant’s words in court, live, permitting each listener the individual experience of hearing with their own ears what was said, including their tone, inflection, pauses and so forth.

Otherwise, judicial posturing is unavoidable in the presence of cameras, resulting in a daily contest of who glistens in the spotlight of television news entertainment the most.

The truth of the proceedings deserves unfiltered audio sharing, not a repeat of the O.J. Simpson visual circus.

Robert E. Clark, Los Angeles

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To the editor: Law professor Laurence H. Tribe and former federal prosecutor Dennis Aftergut make a compelling case for allowing an exception to the “no cameras in the courtroom” rule imposed by the judiciary and allowing the Trump trial to be televised.

The televised Senate Watergate hearings in 1973 provided the public with facts and procedures concerning the corrupt practices of the Richard M. Nixon administration. In addition to providing information, the hearings allowed people to see the legislative branch in operation.

In the United States of America vs. Donald J. Trump, unlike most federal prosecutions, the testimony, arguments and outcome deeply affect everyone in the country. Letting the public in on the proceedings demonstrates how the rule of law and the judicial branch operate.

Whatever the verdict, we will have a better-informed electorate, sorely needed in a time when so much disinformation is being fed to the public. If ever we had a right to know, this is the time.

I beseech Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. to allow us to see the proceedings.

Barbara H. Bergen, Los Angeles

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To the editor: Who doesn’t recall the daily performative distractions staged by the attorneys in the O.J. Simpson trial? However inadvertently, live television breeds the sliver of “reasonable doubt” that enables a factually culpable defendant to escape a guilty verdict.

How about a compromise? Have a TV crew film Trump’s trials, but do not televise any proceedings until after a verdict has been rendered.

That would serve to preserve historically valuable images, but not be so likely to prod performative behaviors by the attorneys.

P. Jane Weil, Sacramento

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To the editor: Of course Trump’s trials should be televised, but who will watch? Unless Fox News is mandated to show the trials, the former president’s followers won’t turn on a real news channel to watch.

But for those of us who can differentiate fact from fiction, bring on the cameras.

Barbara Rosen, Fullerton