Bryant media circus sets up all 3 rings
(USA Today)
Updated: 2003-08-09 13:50

Last week, the empty lot across the street from the Eagle County Courthouse was dirt and weeds. This week, it is TV satellite trucks, camera platforms and tangles of electronic cable.

And by the weekend, all of it will be gone — until basketball superstar Kobe Bryant's next court date Oct 9.

The Los Angeles Lakers guard, charged with felony sexual assault in an incident June 30 at a luxury resort near here, came to town Wednesday for his first court appearance in the case. "Camp Kobe" was in place: two dozen mobile satellite uplinks; several hundred reporters, photographers and technicians; and 120 phone lines.

Or, as one local newspaper suggested, "Cirque du Kobé."

The media circus had come to town. There was a big tent on the courthouse lawn for the overflow of news media and the public because the courtroom seats only 68. White canopies shaded the outdoor TV stages. Portable toilets and a parade of gawkers filled the street and sidewalk. A booth on one corner peddled hot almonds, pecans and hazelnuts for $4 a bag.

"Hey, what kind of circus would it be without fresh roasted nuts?" joked Lee Frank, a Denver radio reporter.

Ethan Sahker, 21, of Denver wore a yellow Lakers jersey and waved a hand-lettered sign — "I NEED TICKETS" — in the background of live TV shots. "I just need a ticket to the circus," he said.

The media encampment still has a long way to go to top "Camp O.J.," set up to cover the O.J. Simpson murder trial in Los Angeles in 1994 and 1995. But case watchers and veterans of past news events aren't surprised that the throng has grown so large so early in the Bryant case.

"Another summer, another scandal. Tabloid stories catch the public's attention," said Bob Lichter of the Center for Media and Public Affairs, a research group in Washington. "When you have a star basketball player accused of a crime that involves sex and violence — boom, that's the big story."

Lichter said that unlike Simpson, a retired football star, Bryant is an active player reaching his playing peak and in a constant spotlight. "People saw him as the next M.J.," he said, referring to basketball great Michael Jordan. "The question is whether they'll see him as the next O.J."

"This is O.J. Lite," said Carl Stein, a cameraman for stations KCBS and KCAL in Los Angeles. "This is a satellite city. Old news is four minutes ago, not four hours ago."

Jeffrey Toobin, a New Yorker writer and a legal analyst on CNN, said Camp Kobe "is a bigger media compound than anything since O.J." But he defended its size: "Viewers have come to expect that their reporters will be on the scene."

Jack Chesnutt, head producer here for NBC's various branches, said, "Intensive coverage of crime/celebrity stories didn't start here. It's part of an ongoing trend. Everybody who was at O.J. is here. Everybody who was at Laci Peterson is here. To not be here would be to abdicate a position in what's become a very competitive business."

Peterson is the Modesto, Calif., woman whose disappearance and death have drawn intense media interest.

Even the fledgling high-definition TV network HDNet is road-testing its "flyaway" mobile satellite dish with its first live remote telecast.

Camp Kobe's vacant lot wasn't the only prime real estate. CBS snagged empty office space next to the dusty lot. In addition to a patio, a rooftop deck for live shots, air conditioning and a dozen parking spaces, CBS had another Cape Kobe exclusive: flush toilets.

NBC's two-story, 16-by-20-foot stage on a separate parcel next to the courthouse had pine and spruce trees installed by a local landscaper to dress up the camera shots and hide one unsightly road sign in the background.

"It's just a little bit of landscaping," Chesnutt said.

After some initial tension, local authorities and news organizations reached an accord in planning for Wednesday's court session. "The press has been marvelous to work with so far on logistics," said Becky Gadell, Eagle County's assistant county administrator. "Obviously, they have done a lot of these deals before."