Gag Order in Simpson Trial

* Re “Judge Bans Cameras From Simpson Trial,” Aug. 24:

Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki has it right! Banning TV from the courtroom is the correct action. The idiotic plea by the news media that banning TV from the courtroom will subject the public to the risk of getting an incorrect account of the trial tells us more about the inept news media and the whining ACLU than about our trial system, which was in place nearly 200 years before the advent of television, and an arrogant, poorly educated news media.

TOM WITMAN

Redondo Beach

* The Aug. 24 front page should have been subtitled “Constitution Trashed.” There were articles outlining how the executive branch was taking away freedom of expression and freedom of speech from an industry which generates billions of dollars of tax revenue from a legal product.

Then there was the article about the civil trial of Simpson where the judge has determined that he knows best--and has restricted not only freedom of expression and freedom of speech but also freedom of association by stating that any witness cannot speak about this experience in public.

While I may personally feel tobacco is bad for kids and adults (being an ex-smoker), and I may feel that Fred Goldman is full of hot air most of the time, I vigorously object to the restrictions placed on them by governmental subjects who know better.

CRAIG B. COOGAN

West Hollywood