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A tidy two-hour drama

By CHASE SQUIRES
Published June 14, 2005

For television viewers, Monday's "Verdict of Michael Jackson" show went down almost like one of those Special Television Events.

After months of testimony, the final drama played out in a tidy two hours, starting with an O.J.-style SUV caravan as the tension mounted. Would Jackson leave Neverland Ranch? Would he get to the courthouse on time? Would he do something wacky?

But in the end, it almost seemed like it was scripted by defense attorney Tom Mesereau. Jackson appeared solemn before and after being acquitted, and so did the members of his famously fractious family who accompanied him.

Jackson avoided dancing on the roof of his SUV, as he did leaving court one day last year.

As the drama came to a close, news choppers followed the increasingly irrelevant King of Pop back to his Neverland Ranch a free man.

And when it was over, the networks and local news stations went back about their business. For cable news outfits, that would mean spending the next few hours on analysts, Jackson friends, jury interviews and anything else at all related. Local channels moved on to what mattered locally: a car chase in Hillsborough County, flooding in Hernando, drier air moving into the area.

It was all wrapped up well before primetime, so nobody's favorite shows got pre-empted.

It couldn't have played out better for TV, and news outlets let it flow naturally. With a verdict TV analysts agreed was too tough to call, the case generated its own tension.

For the more than 2,200 members of the media credentialed to cover the case, months of late-night deadlines, of living in a tent city around the Santa Maria, Calif., courthouse, everything condensed neatly.

There was an hour lead time as Jackson was given notice before the verdict was read. There was time to hear from analysts, to speculate on what reporters and observers agreed was a verdict that could go either way, then there was an unequivocal verdict: not guilty on all counts.

Cable was first to jump to live coverage when word of a verdict came about 3:30 p.m. That's as it should be, extra coverage for the news junkies.

Helicopters captured the moment Jackson left his compound in a caravan of four SUVs, and the cameras followed him moving in a slow parade to the courthouse where he was to learn his fate.

"This almost looks like a slow-speed chase, eerily familiar," remarked MSNBC legal correspondent Dan Abrams, hinting at O.J. Simpson's notorious drive 11 years ago. "But it's not."

As the broadcast networks jumped in, analysts reviewed the possible outcomes, ran through the charges and mumbled about the case defying speculation.

"People here don't have a sense of which way this is going to go," Abrams said.

"We simply wait for the verdict," ABC's Charlie Gibson said, finally out of stuff to say. "I can tell you, well, there's just no way you can overestimate the level of tension that is in a courtroom at a time like this."

With reporters unsure, it was hard for them to commit too far to either side, leaving them in the vacuum to exhibit restraint.

Fox News anchor Shepard Smith seemed to rue the calm. As Jackson's caravan made the slow journey to the courthouse, Smith mused, "If you are a man, who is accused of such activities ... of molesting little boys, do you take this opportunity to go to the jury and roll your dice, or do you take this opportunity to go elsewhere? We'll find out."

Jackson, of course, didn't run for the border. Fans who gathered outside the courthouse didn't go berserk; they cheered as a woman weeping with joy kissed caged white doves and set them free.

Jackson emerged from the courthouse - with much the same expression on his wan face as when he had arrived - and went home.

Perhaps the most interesting live event of the day took place after the verdict, as jurors volunteered to sit for a live news conference and revealed that they liked each other, but had a unanimous dislike for the the mother of Jackson's accuser that overrode any suspicions of what might have happened at the ranch.

"What mother in her right mind would allow that to happen, just freely volunteer your child to sleep with someone, not so much Michael Jackson but any person for that matter?" one juror asked.

"It's very emotional," said another, explaining her tears as the verdict was read. "After deliberating for as long as we did, the emotions that everybody goes through, you just realized that it's done, and we all could now go on with our lives as much as possible."

But by the time the jurors spoke, the broadcast networks had tuned out, leaving the story again to the cable news stations.

Handing the mantle back to his colleagues on cable news channel MSNBC, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams declared the story over.

"The nation can move on," he said. "Effective, tonight."

[Last modified June 14, 2005, 01:24:19]