Ito: 'What you see is what's there'

October 24, 1995

California State University-Northridge journalism student Gayle Gomer asked Judge Lance Ito if he would ever preside over another case with a camera in the courtroom. His replay:

"The question comes at a point where I have not fully had the opportunity to evaluate the impact of cameras in the courtroom. I know the pundits and the news media have carried a lot of commentary about cameras in the courtroom, and there's a lot of controversy about it as a result of the Simpson case. But I have not had enough time to step back and enough time to evaluate that.

"I have to say that my gut reaction today, 10 days after the verdict, is that the American public got to see for themselves every day, all day, how this trial progressed -- what the jury saw and what the jury wasn't allowed to see because of some of the rulings I made.

"And the American public was able to make up their own mind whether this verdict was a just verdict or not. So I think there's a lot of value in the public being able to see how the system works or doesn't work, so I think there's a definite value there.

"And if you take the cameras out of the courtroom, then you hide, I think, a certain measure of truth from the public, and I think that's very important for the American public to know.

"The problem with not having a camera is that one must trust the evaluation and analysis of a reporter who's telling you what occurred in the courtroom, and anytime you allow somebody to report an event, you have to take into consideration the filtering effect of that person's own biases. Whereas if you have a camera in the courtroom, there's no filtering. What you see is what's there."

Ito: 'What you see is what's there'

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