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Tuesday, Nov 10, 2009
Live coverage of a dazed Jackson and a crestfallen Sneddon (and press corps). But what's the encore?
Jun 14, 2005 | Cheesy trial reenactments. Endless commentary and conjecture. Terrible late-night jokes. Rabid fans holding vigil outside the courthouse. The three-ring circus surrounding the Michael Jackson trial kicked into high gear on Monday when officials announced that a verdict had been reached on the jury's seventh day of deliberations.
Nancy Grace of Court TV interrupted her four-month-long stream of speculation to cut to her correspondent Savannah Guthrie outside the courtroom who, against a backdrop of reporters scampering around behind her, described the scene as "pandemonium."
"People started running, I started hearing the fans screaming very loudly," she breathed.
While Grace demanded that someone in her group tell her what it all means, CNN's Ted Rowlands told us that, if convicted, Jackson could face 18 or more years in prison. Happy as always to speculate in ways that might stoke the fires of hysteria, Fox News correspondent Trace Gallagher bellowed ominously, "We have just been notified that there are some 50 or 60 police officers on the other side of the barrier, which is where the fans are, and they have just started pulling helmets out of their truck. No riot gear yet, but they are pulling helmets out."
News flash: No riot gear yet! No tear gas or billy clubs or warning shots into the air yet, but we're standing by!
Gallagher also reasoned that such precautions were probably necessary, since things have "gotten ugly" among the fans in recent days. "There was fighting among the fans, the German fans and English fans saying, 'We love Michael Jackson more!' They fought amongst themselves!" Somehow Gallagher sounds about as knowledgeable on this matter as armchair anthropologists clumsily ascribing motives about the nutty natives on some far-flung island.
Soon, all stations were offering a live feed of Jackson leaving Neverland Ranch in a parade of black SUVs. CNN showed us a split screen: On the left side of the screen, we were shown Jackson attorney Thomas Mesereau standing outside the courthouse, repeatedly looking at his watch and glancing down the street with all the subtlety of a street mime; on the right side, we were treated to overhead helicopter footage of Jackson's brigade of SUVs traveling down the freeway toward the courthouse. Couldn't someone just watch a few seconds of footage and tell Mesereau how close Jackson is to the courthouse?
Meanwhile, Fox News went with a full screen of nothing but the SUV feed, choosing to describe Mesereau instead of showing him. "He's looking at his watch, he's looking at his cuff links! He's a mess!" gasped Arthur Aidala, Fox's resident lawyer/commentator. "His heart's pounding through his chest, his client is late, the world is watching!" Wow, he's actually got a feed of Mesereau's vitals? Way to get the story, Arthur!
It would be easy enough to disparage such coverage, if we didn't crave it. Ever since O.J. Simpson's white Ford Bronco cruised down the freeway as a phalanx of cop cars followed, we've been addicted to the suspense of breaking news, unfolding live before our eyes. Plus, we've all been primed by years of watching courtroom dramas, so much so that we're more addicted than ever to the suspense of the legal play-by-play. Despite the suspense, though, the gathered pundits weren't quite willing to make any predictions, gearing themselves up for a bevy of "We knew all along" punditry the second the news hit. Instead, pundits wondered out loud when the live audio feed from the courtroom would start.
On Court TV, the ever-outspoken Grace, who hasn't made her belief of Jacksons guilt any secret, speculated about whether the jurors would look directly at Jackson when they entered the courtroom. If they did look at him, the reasoning went, he would probably be acquitted. If they avoided eye contact, he was probably screwed.
