Rising Above Ridicule

Ads draw press comments.

Toyoto’s interview coup.

Graffiti contest.

12/9/94

Ito decides to judge the comments press folks scrawled on L.A. Times’ Channel 2 interview full-page ads that were pasted on the media center walls. He also awards prizes along with .

 

Final Violation, Rescinded

Ito press coup

Channel 2 pulls interviews.

No late-night reruns.

11/29/94

After CBS affiliate KCBS-Channel 2 officials violated the terms Simpson judge, Lance Ito, had set before he agreed to do an interview with KCBS reporter Tritia Toyota about camps where Americas of Japanese descent were interned during World War II, Ito learned that the station planned to rerun the interviews — the initial interview had been divided into six parts. Airing them again would also violate Ito’s condition that the interview would run only once. So, rerunning them also a violated Ito’s conditions. At Ito’s request, I contacted the channel’s news director, Larry Parret, and asked him to reconsider. Parret called back later to say that Ito was right and that they would not air the interviews again.

How an Interview Created a Train Wreck

This haiku, written 20 years ago today, marks the moment the wheels came off the tracks, which caused so much of the train wreck Simpson judge Lance Ito’s relationship with the news media — and his legacy as a result of the trial — is concerned.

The verdict is in.

L.A.’s new celebrity.

Judge this for yourself.

11/14/94

Judge Ito’s Channel 2 interview with Tritia Toyota airs.

Although this was the date the first of what turned out to be first of a six-parter aired, the debacle actually began weeks earlier, which I describe on pages 25-28 of Anatomy of a Trial: Public Loss, Lessons Learned from The People vs. O.J. Simpson. It was a situation beyond my ability to save.