Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 21, 1991 TAG: 9103210105
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: HOWARD KURTZ/ THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The gritty tabloid, and most of the New England media, have been going wild over the trial of Pamela Smart, the New Hampshire woman accused of conspiring with her teen lover in her husband's murder.
"You be the judge," the paper said in a front-page box alongside its story on Smart taking the witness stand to deny plotting the murder. "Do you believe Pamela Smart was involved in the plot to kill her husband? Voice your opinion by calling the Herald hotline at 1-900-988-5483." The cost: 95 cents a minute.
Readers have rendered their verdict: 84 percent of the 644 callers declared Smart guilty. Could such a poll affect the Smart jury? "We talked about it," says Managing Editor Alan Eisner. "Our conclusion was that it would not influence the case. Everyone knows it's not a scientific survey. . . . It's only those people who are interested enough to call in."
Eisner dismisses any suggestion of profiteering, saying the paper made $160 on the 900 line and is donating the money to charity.
"It's in the old Hearst tradition of entertainment rather than news," says Ellen Hume, executive director of Harvard's Joan Shorenstein Barone Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy. "Here we are building on someone's real tragedy. . . . When there's a circus atmosphere, one worries about the effect on the jury."
There seems little doubt where the Herald stands. Under the screaming headline "COLD AS ICE," columnist Peter Gelzinis described Smart: "Lips so thin and tight as to be all but invisible. Eyes with all the warmth of two early-warning missile-detection screens. And not so much as the mist of a tear to be found." Gelzinis declared it "the general consensus of the overflow crowd huddled around that Pepsi machine in the waiting room" that "Pam" should "get the guillotine."
The ABC-TV affiliate in Manchester has provided live coverage of the trial, including its tales of blue movies, lost virginity and a rock'n'roll striptease.
"It's been the hottest thing in these parts for at least six weeks now," Eisner said. "Everyone's going crazy on it."
by CNB