Coverage of the final day of the Paul Bernardo trial was littered with self-congratulatory drivel about the enormous challenges successfully tackled by the reportersassigned to the story. Well, maybe. But....
It was 8:30 on the morning of Friday, Sept. 1, what almost everyone gathered on Toronto's Amoury Street assumed would be the last day of the trial. A dozen televisioncamera crews and a small pack of freelance photographers, many two hours into their vigil, lazed about in the shadow of the courthouse, waiting for the sun and the temperature to climb just a few more degrees.
The line-up for the few public spaces in the sixth-floor courtroom was a short one -- only two so far. But the country's most competitive media market won't be caught napping. Nothing was going in or out of the building without inspection. This was the day. This, out-of-towners were reminded, was "our story."
9 a.m. One of those interlopers, CFRA's Lowell Green, saunters across that sacred ground to the Ottawa's station's raised platform at the far east end of the street. Like everyone else, he and co-host Steve Madely would have nothing of consequence to do for several hours.
9:30 a.m. The sun finally begins to shine on the ad hoc settlement known asCamp Bernardo. Global Television staffers have hung a pot of yellow flowers from their trailer's front steps. Ben Chin, Citytv's lead courtroom reporter, is among the first to take advantage of the weather, leaning back in a lawn chair and drawing lazily on fat cigar. A few hours later, he would pay homage to the media's hard work and exemplary behavior over the last 65 days, but this morning, the only anxiety comes from colleagues worried the jury might not be able to make up its mind in time for the long weekend. "An OBSCENE amount of overtime," corrects a bored CHCH-TV cameraman, as he responds to a query about the extra hours his breed has racked up. "Basically, this will pay for my vacation in Myrtle Beach."
10:10 a.m. One desperate camera crew traps a pair of middle-aged woman wandering down sidewalk in front of the courthouse. The answers, something about a "waste of taxpayer's money," doesn't enthuse the reporter, who begins to search for a way to wind down the interview. A couple of meters away, the still photographers are arguing, yet again, about the legal and ethical merits of revisiting Karla Homolka's plea bargain deal. Just behind them, a double-decker city tour bus trundles by for one last diversion past CampBernardo.
10:30 a.m. Don Young, a former CBC television reporter, drops by for yet another day recording the media's movements. He's producing "Need to Know," a documentary about the coverage of the trial. But he can't talk long. He has date with the host of Now the Details, CBC Radio's weekly program about the media. Which would make that an example of the media covering the media covering the media covering the trial. Which makes me an example of the media covering the media covering the media covering themedia....
11:10 a.m. The still photographers get their hands on photocopies of courtroom sketches of the jurors. "Is this as good as it gets?" asks one, worried that there will be nothing more substantial today. He places the copy on the pavement and snaps a couple of frames. Global's crew is also getting desperate. They record an interview with (surprise!) another journalist. This time it's the Toronto Sun's Scott Burnside.
11:42. a.m. The jury appears, walking down the street from its hotel. A verdict is at hand. Camera crews go wild, hours of pent-up mania explode as they rush into traffic in search of something useful. Veteran print reporters are more skeptical. They've seen this before. Could be a request for a clarification of a point of law. In any case, it will be at least a half hour before we get our hands on the lawyers, they say, returning to their war stories and fish tales.
12:12 p.m. Cellular phone companies see their revenues soar as reporters get the word: Guilty. Chaos reins. Citytv's Ben Chin launches into his standup, crowded against a scrum-in-waiting surrounding the microphone erected near the courtroom's main entrance. He's throwing to and from the station's anchor, who's standing barely 30 metres away on the raised platform with the best view of the building. Remember, "this is our story."
12:45 p.m. Barb Brown, the Hamilton Spectator reporter whose stories have formed the backbone of Southam (and therefore the Citizen's) coverage of the trial, breaks down in tears, head buried in the shoulder of her colleague, Wayne Brown. He comforts her and then heads over to interview a pair of young girls. "We aren't allowed to say how emotional we are, so we have to have someone else say it," he tells them.
1:17 p.m. Most of the main players having said their piece, the still photographers move down the driveway to wait for "Pauly." All they get is a windowless van. It's not much. But, hey, it's still early enough for lunch.
-30-