news.yahoo.com...;_ylt=AqJ8hX7OSd7bhxNmHsBeMM.ZGA4B;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
SANTA MARIA, Calif. - About 2,200 members of the media have received credentials to cover Michael Jackson's trial — more than the O.J. Simpson
and Scott Peterson murder trials combined and enough to form a vast, humming tent city outside the modest courthouse.
Reporters from every continent but Antarctica are covering a story that has attracted perhaps the largest-ever media contingent for a criminal
trial.
The satellite trucks and portable toilets function at all hours, since foreign correspondents must file past midnight to meet deadlines an ocean
away.
Major TV networks have committed dozens of staff members. Nearly four miles of television cables snake around the complex. The explosion of phone
calls that a verdict will trigger prompted some news organizations to install land lines for fear the region's cell networks could become jammed.
The reporters do their work as Jackson fans crowded behind a chain-link fence hurl insults. On Thursday, Court TV anchor Diane Dimond was granted a
restraining order barring an 18-year-old man from interfering with her work.
As jury deliberations in the child-molestation case reached the one-week mark Friday, about half of the credentialed crew of media members milled
around outside.
The crowd of reporters is distinctly international, a reminder that Jackson's popularity remains intense outside the United States. News
organizations from more than 30 countries are here.
unbelievable how one man be so important to the news.
[edit on 10-6-2005 by deltaboy]
