Is Vitale murder case a media frenzy?

Blair visit a big publicity boost for Schwarzenegger in election year

Phillip Matier & Andrew Ross

Sunday, July 30, 2006

British Prime Minister Tony Blair's visit to California was quite an election-year coup for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Schwarzenegger is expected to get a big photo op with Blair today when he introduces the prime minister at that star-studded corporate conference down in Pebble Beach. It's hosted by News Corp. publishing mogul Rupert Murdoch and features the likes of Bill Clinton, Al Gore, U2's Bono and Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres. Everything from the environment to poverty to AIDS will be addressed.

The even-bigger show comes Monday in Long Beach. That's when Arnold, who has been trying to buff up his eco-credentials, will join Blair and the likes of British Petroleum chief Lord John Browne and Virgin Group CEO Sir Richard Branson to announce a new agreement to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions involving British and California businesses.

Speaking of green, Blair's visit is certain to cost San Francisco taxpayers plenty for all the police protection -- especially after the feds warned the department of a "high threat level'' and strong possibility of demonstrations.
"They've really ramped up the security,'' said one station captain, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the visit.

The department has mustered the full complement of 25 motorcycle cops to usher Blair around town -- the standard treatment for a U.S. president or visiting head of state.

There are a number of extra cops assigned to guard his Fairmont Hotel digs around the clock and deal with any protests.

Police sources say the call went out for no less than 400 hours of officer overtime -- at anywhere from $47 to $65 an hour -- and that's just mostly for the hotel detail. Down in the southern end of town, there were 80 more hours or so of overtime planned to cover Blair's visit today to the Delancey Street Foundation.

The motorcycle cops on duty today are planning on working 14-hour shifts -- not only escorting Blair in the morning and late at night, but keeping watch over the San Francisco Marathon in between.

While the bill for the Blair visit isn't in yet, you can bet it will easily match or surpass the $105,000 tab that police ran up during Prince Charles and Camilla's visit to the Bay Area in November.

Attention deficit: Maybe it's the wars in the Middle East -- or maybe America wants a break from celebrity trials -- but whatever the case, the murder trial of Scott Dyleski isn't turning into nearly the media circus that court officials had envisioned.

The 17-year-old Dyleski is accused of murdering Lafayette resident Pamela Vitale, wife of attorney and TV court commentator Daniel Horowitz. The killing in October got the national media's attention, partly because of who Horowitz is and partly because of the school photo that circulated of a stringy-haired, Goth-bedecked Dyleski.

Early inquiries from national media had Contra Costa County court officials bracing for wall-to-wall TV coverage. To accommodate the expected onslaught, officials set up a special media "spillover" room for reporters who couldn't get seats in the Martinez courthouse, barricades to protect the anticipated TV trucks, plus all the other technical hook-ups needed for high-profile coverage.
To help cover the costs, officials sold tickets to the media -- $120 guaranteed a seat every day of the trial, and $500 bought a TV truck space for a month.
So far, however, the tale has proved pretty much a national bust.
The court has sold only 19 seats (including one to The Chronicle) and five of the eight available truck passes. Two of the five have gone to local TV stations -- CNN, Fox and Court TV are representing the national electronic media, but even they're not giving it the heavy chatter.

"From what I've been told, other things started dominating the news -- the Middle East, the heat wave -- so the attention hasn't turned out to be nearly as heavy as we thought, '' said court Assistant Executive Officer Bill Darden.
Lawyer and court TV analyst Paula Canny gave a little broader picture.
"For one, a lot of the cable shows that used to do a lot of the court hoopla are no longer on the air," she said. "Two, unlike Scott Peterson, there aren't a lot of questions about did he do it or how he did it, so there isn't a lot of tabloid coverage.

"And three, you're talking about a 17-year-old kid, whose Mr. Goth picture makes people think of Columbine. And no one wants to think about something like that."

Go for the gold: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is trying to keep a good game face, but Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval's call for a referendum in November on whether the city should even bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics was just about the last thing he needed.

"He might have at least waited until we got out of the second round,'' said the mayor's press secretary, Peter Ragone.

Sandoval needs the backing of at least three other supervisors to get the measure on the ballot. So far, he has two -- Chris Daly and Ross Mirkarimi.
"And I have one more, but I'm not ready to disclose the name just yet,'' Sandoval said.

The fear in the mayor's office is that even going to voters to ask whether the city should spend millions on the games will reinforce U.S. Olympic Committee suspicions about the political will around here to host the event -- something that could kill the Bay Area's chances.

Newsom's aides also see a bit of payback in the play by Sandoval, who has been at odds with the mayor ever since Newsom opposed his bid to be city assessor.
"This has everything to do with politics and nothing do with policy,'' Ragone said.

Sandoval insists the Olympic question is all about policy -- specifically, the costs involved.

As for any paybacks: "I'm still a supervisor,'' Sandoval said, "and as a supervisor, my job is to ask the tough questions -- all the way to the end of my term."

On the job: "What is Karl Rove up to?" was the question former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown asked when he got back from watching the signing of the new Voting Rights Act at the White House this past week.
"President Bush only showed up for about 10 minutes, but Rove was working the crowd like nobody's business," Brown said. "He knew all of the brothers and sisters by first name and was all over the place. He was really on the job.
"He came up and said, 'Hello,' when I arrived, came up to me when I sat down -- then came back to say goodbye when I was leaving," Brown said of Rove. "And each time he repeated that he was coming out to San Francisco soon and wanted to get together."

Brown and Rove together?

Now that's a scary thought.

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