Actor Robert Blake and record producer Phil Spector face murder charges in Los Angeles, but the real media circus is in Santa Maria, up in Santa Barbara County, where some 500 reporters have been credentialed for Michael Jackson-s child-molestation trial. There-s enough TV equipment to transmit a dozen signals around the world simultaneously. There are no courtroom cameras, but Jackson-s providing the entertainment, showing up in jeweled waistcoats and moon-walking on top of a car. Is there a chance for justice in an environment like this? What-s the message about celebrity culture and law? We talk to a former prosecutor, an expert on television and popular culture, and a journalist who's followed Jackson legal troubles for an entire decade. (An extended version of this program aired earlier today on
To the Point.)
- Reporters Notebook: Cuba Enacts Tough Anti-Smoking Regulations
Cigar exports are vital to the Cuban economy. Fidel Castro used to be a cigar smoker, but he gave it up in the mid-1980-s. Now, he wants other Cubans to do the same thing. Today, the government has adopted the world-s toughest anti-smoking regulations-at least on paper. Stephen Gibbs, who reports from Havana for the BBC, looks at Cuba's 500 year-old tobacco culture.
McMartin child molestation case, Court TV's Crime Library on
Gibbs' article on Cuban smoking ban
