A Trying Time For the Media At Jackson Trial

Police ticket a line of TV satellite trucks last week outside the Marian Medical Center in Santa Maria, where Michael Jackson was recovering from the flu. (Michael A. Mariant -- AP)

Melville's restrictions are even more draconian than those in the Peterson trial. Correspondents here won't be able to send real-time data from the courtroom or from the adjacent media observation room, as was permitted in Peterson's trial on charges of murdering his wife, Laci, and their unborn child. Melville has banned all electronic communications devices from the two buildings -- no cell phones, no laptops, no BlackBerrys. So if news breaks, reporters have to race from the building to their camera positions outside, with other reporters standing by to run inside to take their place. "It's going to be a tag-team event," said Tim Sullivan, who oversees Court TV's daytime programming.

Behind the scenes of the Jackson legal drama, the news media are waging their own battle. A coalition of media companies, including The Washington Post and the New York Times, has formally objected to "media impact" fees of $7,500 per day that are being levied by Santa Barbara County officials. The county says the fees are necessary to recoup the costs of parking, additional security and the media "overflow" trailer to accommodate the extraordinary news coverage of the trial.

In a letter sent last week to the Santa Barbara County Counsel, media-pool attorney Theodore Boutrous Jr. characterized the fees as excessive and unconstitutional, and asked that they be reduced or eliminated. "We're not asking for a free ride," Boutrous said in an interview, "but none of these costs are related to anything that the media has requested or needs. It's part of the government's function to give the media access to a public trial. Charging the press for access amounts to a tax, and that's a violation of the First Amendment."

County officials have said that without the fees, taxpayers will bear an additional burden in a trial that will likely last more than six months and cost millions of dollars. Besides, the county points out, media representatives agreed last May to pay for some services.

Media fees -- and the controversy surrounding them -- have grown with each new high-profile trial. In Simpson's trial more than a decade ago, Los Angeles officials asked for and received "a reasonable fee" to rent a parking lot across from the criminal court building, said Jennifer Siebens, CBS News's West Coast bureau chief. During Peterson's 10-month trial on double murder charges, San Mateo County collected $75,000 from TV, radio and print outlets . The bill to the media for Jackson's trial already exceeds $82,500, says Boutrous, and could reach more than $1.1 million if the trial runs its expected length.

It's not just the issues of media access and the logistics of getting images to broadcast that make Jackson's trial a bit of a bummer for news organizations. Journalists have another big problem: The revulsion factor.

The trial is likely to elicit months and months of graphically detailed testimony about criminal sexual deviancy, not exactly the kind of fodder for Katie and Matt on your typical morning wake-up show. As with Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky, reporting on Jackson could be another moment that defines where The Line is in reporting certain uncomfortable details. Some of those details may just be left out altogether.

"Everyone is taking a real wait-and-see on this one because they're afraid of the story," said one network producer, who asked not to be identified because he's not authorized by his employer to speak to the press. "What's the worst [testimony] that you heard in Scott Peterson? That a headless torso washed up on the beach. With Michael Jackson, there are going to be witnesses testifying about masturbation and stains. At which point TV sets are going to be clicking off all across America."

Said CBS's Siebens: "These are very painful allegations. We have to handle it with kid gloves."

Court TV's Sullivan already knows people are squeamish. "If it were not for the celebrity of Michael Jackson, this would not be the kind of story that will cause a lot of talk," he said. "Pedophilia is not a very attractive subject. People don't want to hear about it or talk about it."

Sullivan says his correspondents will shy away from talking about the details of the testimony. They'll talk instead about legal strategy and tactics, such as whom the prosecution or defense might want on the jury, he says. This could make for some rather dull TV, no matter how famous the defendant.

"I used to think this was going to be a really big deal and now I'm not so sure," Siebens said. "I think it's all so distasteful. And he's so over with a capital O. I don't think this is another trial of the century."

True enough, certainly for now. Yesterday, the big news out of Southern California had nothing to do with Michael Jackson. It was about rain and mudslides.