Report nearly gets King trial press room closed
Asserting that the station violated a court order prohibiting the audio or video broadcast of any courtroom proceedings, U.S. District Judge John G. Davies threatened to close the courthouse press room and briefly stripped KCBS reporter Bob Jimenez of his press credentials.
Davies relented later in the afternoon after CBS attorneys convinced him that an audio portion of Wednesday's proceedings had been "inadvertently" transmitted over the air.
The incident that spurred the judge's action came at 2 p.m. Wednesday when Jimenez delivered a live report about jury deliberations being delayed after one of the panelists took ill (the juror returned Thursday for a sixth day of deliberations).
L.A. TV stations went to live coverage in the mistaken belief the jury had delivered a verdict in the highly charged civil rights trial after Davies summoned the attorneys and defendants to his courtroom.
As Jimenez listened to Davies' words over a speaker system in the press room during a live report, viewers could hear the judge's voice in the background. Several called to complain about it, forcing Davies to issue an order read to reporters by a U.S. marshal.
"Certain courtroom proceedings have been recorded in or transmitted from the press room," Davies wrote. "Said transmissions appear to be a violation of the court's Feb. 8, 1993, order."
The judge added: "Interested parties are hereby ordered to show cause in writing ... why the press room should not be disassembled and closed."
Closing the press room would have shut off the proceedings to dozens of media organizations. The judge has allowed 44 reporters into the courtroom, while about another 50 reporters listen to the proceedings from the press room.
Shortly before Davies rescinded his order and reinstated Jimenez's credentials, the reporter found himself in a surreal situation. As he explained the day's happenings to viewers during a live report on KCBS' noon newscast, dozens of reporters poked microphones in his face while cameramen surrounded him.
Jimenez told viewers the station had been "faithful and in no way tried to violate this court order."
Several KCBS sources told a different story, asserting that KCBS news director John Lippman had applied pressure to carry the audio portion of the verdicts live but that Jimenez resisted. Lippman called the allegations "preposterous."
During his report Thursday, Jimenez said the KCBS speaker in the press room was four or five feet away from him when he was on the air. He noted that he intentionally turned the intercom device away from the microphone just before the live feed began to minimize the residual sound.
Thursday's order was Davies' second complaint against the media in three days.
On Monday, the judge complained that he had "observed with concern" that some court sketches of jurors had too much detail to protect their anonymity.
