Back in 1999, Schleiff took a hardline position, forcing New York state to reverse its prohibition of cameras in the courtroom and allow the network to televise the trial of four white police officers accused of fatally shooting a Haitian immigrant. To this day, he thinks giving viewers the opportunity to watch jurors sift through the evidence and reach an innocent verdict defused community tensions.

Yet here he is back at square one, lamenting the decision to bar cameras from the Michael Jackson trial. "The cameras may show the circus but they don’t create it," intones Schleiff. "I think we do ourselves an injustice, frankly, when we can’t give viewers an unfiltered view of what’s going on (in court)."