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Sacramento Bee Governor's election story upstaged by Jackson jury What happens if you call a special election and a Michael Jackson verdict breaks out? The governor had tabbed Monday as his time to call a special election on evening news programs statewide. Schwarzenegger even scheduled his speech for 5:01 p.m. to coincide with the start of news broadcasts . Less than three hours before the speech, the King of Pop crashed the Republican governor's party. Jurors in the Jackson child molestation trial chose Monday afternoon to deliver acquittals, commanding news attention throughout the world. Just like that, Schwarzenegger's Big Day wasn't the topic du jour even among Capitol insiders. And television news directors faced a huge dilemma - air the governor's entire three-minute speech live or go full bore with the biggest pop culture legal development of the year. In the biggest marketwide snub, every major Los Angeles station took a pass on the governor and didn't air his speech live. Actually, Schwarzenegger was lucky to get attention at all - KABC aired only bits of his speech 16 minutes into its broadcast. And KNBC waited a half-hour before going to the governor. In Sacramento, two stations - Channel 3 (KCRA) and Channel 13 (KOVR) - chose the governor. Sure, they led with Jackson footage for two minutes, but they switched live to the governor when he began. They didn't get back to Jackson until 15 minutes later. "Our newscast starts early enough to give us time to do both stories," said Dan Weiser, KCRA's news director, noting that the evening news actually starts at 4:58 and change. "The governor's speech was live, and we felt it was very necessary to cover it live." Channel 10 (KXTV) did not. The station mentioned Schwarzenegger before leading with nearly 15 minutes of Jackson coverage. KXTV showed the governor's speech on tape delay, only after showing footage of Jackson jurors and a commercial. In the Bay Area, three stations showed the speech live, while two used tape. Margita Thompson, the governor's press secretary, had no comment on the timing of the day's events.
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