Monday, September 03, 2007

The Phil Spector Trial Through The Eyes And Ears Of Linda Deutsch

In Los Angeles there is the undisputed Queen of court journalism. She is the above all, copiously objective and avoids commentary on the cases she reports. She’s sharp as a tack and fair until it hurts.

I was blessed to be able to chat with this master wordsmith over a short lunch during the Robert Blake murder trial and learned a bit about Ms. Deutsch. I already knew she has a warehouse full of awards for her writings over the years.

Ms. Deutsch told me about her policy never to take sides or dare predict the too often unpredictable verdicts of the trials she’s assigned to cover. When you inquire about a story this gal is covering you never have to say, “Just the facts ma’am.”

Columnists and commentators are the ones that give their opinions to the masses. Reporters on the other hand are given the task to simply report the naked truth. Few reporters can mask their personal opinions and tell it like it is as Linda Deutsch does so well.

Here is a shot biography of Linda Deutsch:
Ms. Deutsch has been a special correspondent for the Associated Press in Los Angeles, California since 1967. She has been a journalist for 40 years reporting on many high profile trials including the criminal and civil trial of O.J. Simpson, for which she was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and awarded the Oliver Gramling award by the Associated Press. Ms. Deutsch covered the trials of Exxon Valdez skipper Joseph Hazelwood, Rodney King, the Menendez brothers, and of Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski. She has also covered Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, the assassination attempts on President Gerald Ford, and the evacuation of Vietnam after the fall of Saigon. She received her bachelor’s degree from Monmouth University in New Jersey. Ms. Deutsch has received many awards including the Missouri School of Journalism’s Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism and the Society of Professional Journalists’ First Amendment Award.

For the past four years Linda Deutsch has doggedly covered the Phil Spector case. She has reported on the good, bad and the ugly of this sordid tale. I think this time Ms. Deutsch’s brutal honesty has tipped her hand when She called the case an “intriguing murder mystery”. That tells me above all else, that the state was unable to prove their case

Here is Linda Deutsch’s wrap story on the end of the evidentiary portion of the Phil Spector murder trial.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yep it was a good piece. Where she said that Lana "became more famous in death." For me both she and Spector became famous in her death. I never heard of the man until then. And I was born in the late 50's.

I would say a hung jury. Howver since this jury has been imprisnned soo long. I suspect that the one of two that want to hang this trial, will go the way the majority votes. just to get home.

Anonymous said...

Here Here I second all of that and more! Linda is the TOP GUN at the AP.

JoyceDanelen@YAHOO.COM said...

Linda Deutsch, didn't you just love Phil Spector's home? Phil, had wonderful parties and once this trial is over with, I Joyce Danelen, will be at Phil's next party of his friends.
Thank you,
Joyce Danelen at yahoo dot com
818-906-3906

P.S. Phil Spector all of your friends love you. Can't wait to see you again.
Phil Spector, is innocent.

Anonymous said...

There can b no doubt that Lana Clarkson came to Spector’s house to engage in an act of prostitution. That fact know, by and covered up by Alan Jackson as he prosecuted the case. Clarkson knew Spector only an hour and had sex with him. The durg addicted Clarkson had the moral fiber of a hound dog at best.

She must have been going through Spector’s drawers like she did her own friends medicine cabinets and found the gun. Whatever you want to suggest here can only involve Clarkson sucking on the gun and pulling the trigger

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