THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 4, 1995 TAG: 9510040599
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A13 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Long : 125 lines
Even before the jurors and other principals in the O.J. Simpson case gathered in Los Angeles for Tuesday's reading of the verdict, WAVY news director Gary Stokes was assigning reporters and photographers to canvass Hampton Roads for reaction to the finale of the ``Trial of the Century.''
It's the electronic version of one of the oldest games in journalism - the man-on-the-street interview.
About 3 p.m. Tuesday, Channel 10 reporter Lisa Parker and photographer Dave Bennett checked in from a mall in Chesapeake with this sampling: Woman No. 1, Gayle Taylor, said on camera that an injustice had been done. Woman No. 2, Ida Cantrell, said the opposite.
Cantrell was pleased with the verdict, which set Simpson free after 475 days in custody. From that point on, the three local network affiliates stayed on the story, localizing it as much as they could.
WAVY and WTKR clung to it all afternoon; WVEC bailed out at 3 p.m. to air the highly rated soap opera, ``General Hospital.''
WTKR had reporter Kurt Williams harvesting the reactions of a lunchtime crowd at a Virginia Beach restaurant. WVEC reporter Kathy Barnstorff did a remote from Hampton U., where many students stood and cheered loudly.
It could have been a pep rally.
WAVY at 5 p.m. checked in with a panel of experts in its Portsmouth studios. Same story on WVEC.
Channel 10 also used its ``Contact Ten'' feature to pull in viewers' comments from the telephones, fax machines and Internet.
With the verdict coming so early in the day - 1:09 p.m., Norfolk time - television producers had plenty of time to put together programs tied to the verdict.
Oprah Winfrey had her studio audience watching and commenting on the outcome in Chicago. That ``Oprah'' episode was beamed to WVEC here by 4 p.m. ``Hard Copy'' also had its ``The Simpson Verdict'' special produced and on the air at the same hour on WTKR.
Even the music channel, MTV, and both the sports channels, ESPN and ESPN2, cut away from regular programming to bring the verdict to viewers.
If you stopped the channel surfing and latched on to WVBT, the Virginia Beach channel which is programmed by the brass at WAVY, you would have seen coverage, Southern California style. Whenever anything big happens out there, they send up the helicopters.
And sure enough, there on WVBT was the feed coming from KTLA in Los Angeles - from that station's Sky Cam.
The television coverage was generally thorough, on the money. Of the little gems that often emerge from such wall-to-wall coverage, the one that still has me thinking originated in Dan Rather's conversation on CBS with Pete Neufeld, a member of Simpson's defense team.
Neufeld accused Judge Lance Ito of being ``hostile'' to the defense at times, and not only that. The judge was heard cracking O.J. Simpson jokes, said Neufeld.
The coverage of the trial's finale continued throughout the night on cable and broadcast TV. And it is not yet over. The folks from Comedy Central called to say that host Bill Maher will do a special live edition of ``Politically Incorrect'' tonight at 10 p.m. on the verdict.
What next, an assessment of the state of the lawn at the Simpson estate at 360 Rockingham in Brentwood by the Home and Garden Television?
Even before the jurors and other principals in the O.J. Simpson case gathered in Los Angeles for Tuesday's reading of the verdict, WAVY news director Gary Stokes was assigning reporters and photographers to canvass Hampton Roads for reaction to the finale of the ``Trial of the Century.''
It's the electronic version of one of the oldest games in journalism - the man-on-the-street interview.
About 3 p.m. Tuesday, Channel 10 reporter Lisa Parker and photographer Dave Bennett checked in from a mall in Chesapeake with this sampling: Woman No. 1, Gayle Taylor, said on camera that an injustice had been done. Woman No. 2, Ida Cantrell, said the opposite.
Cantrell was pleased with the verdict, which set Simpson free after 475 days in custody. From that point on, the three local network affiliates stayed on the story, localizing it as much as they could.
WAVY and WTKR clung to it all afternoon; WVEC bailed out at 3 p.m. to air the highly rated soap opera, ``General Hospital.''
WTKR had reporter Kurt Williams harvesting the reactions of a lunchtime crowd at a Virginia Beach restaurant. WVEC reporter Kathy Barnstorff did a remote from Hampton U., where many students stood and cheered loudly.
It could have been a pep rally.
WAVY at 5 p.m. checked in with a panel of experts in its Portsmouth studios. Same story on WVEC.
Channel 10 also used its ``Contact Ten'' feature to pull in viewers' comments from the telephones, fax machines and Internet.
With the verdict coming so early in the day - 1:09 p.m., Norfolk time - television producers had plenty of time to put together programs tied to the verdict.
Oprah Winfrey had her studio audience watching and commenting on the outcome in Chicago. That ``Oprah'' episode was beamed to WVEC here by 4 p.m. ``Hard Copy'' also had its ``The Simpson Verdict'' special produced and on the air at the same hour on WTKR.
Even the music channel, MTV, and both the sports channels, ESPN and ESPN2, cut away from regular programming to bring the verdict to viewers.
If you stopped the channel surfing and latched on to WVBT, the Virginia Beach channel which is programmed by the brass at WAVY, you would have seen coverage, Southern California style. Whenever anything big happens out there, they send up the helicopters.
And sure enough, there on WVBT was the feed coming from KTLA in Los Angeles - from that station's Sky Cam.
The television coverage was generally thorough, on the money. Of the little gems that often emerge from such wall-to-wall coverage, the one that still has me thinking originated in Dan Rather's conversation on CBS with Pete Neufeld, a member of Simpson's defense team.
Neufeld accused Judge Lance Ito of being ``hostile'' to the defense at times, and not only that. The judge was heard cracking O.J. Simpson jokes, said Neufeld.
The coverage of the trial's finale continued throughout the night on cable and broadcast TV. And it is not yet over. The folks from Comedy Central called to say that host Bill Maher will do a special live edition of ``Politically Incorrect'' tonight at 10 p.m. on the verdict.
What next, an assessment of the state of the lawn at the Simpson estate at 360 Rockingham in Brentwood by the Home and Garden Television?
KEYWORDS: O.J. SIMPSON VERDICT REACTION by CNB