The manslaughter trial of Michael Jackson’s doctor, Conrad Murray, began this week and CNN’s Don Lemon is one of hundreds of journalists covering it from the courthouse in Los Angeles. TVNewser talked with Lemon this morning. He shared his thoughts on the media frenzy surrounding the trial:
I’m not a news executive, but I think the people making decisions may equate trial coverage to Casey Anthony ratings, and I don’t think that is necessarily so. It depends on the circumstances around all of it. I think the Casey Anthony trial caught a lot of news organizations off guard. Just because something is sensational or has great ratings we shouldn’t devote our entire resources to it, and I think CNN realizes that. With us, we can have [sister network] HLN go all out and do trial coverage all the time, while on CNN we’re covering the death of Anwar al-Awlaki, and we still have balance. So that’s a plus for us. I think with the idea that every trial, every big name, every scandal results in ratings, you risk a burnout from the audience if it’s overdone.
We’ll have more of TVNewser’s interview with Don Lemon on Monday.