I had no assigned pass for opening day [of the Oliver North trial] and had to stand with the regular folks or miss the pageant altogether. I arrived at the courthouse at 6:33 A.M. on Tuesday, February 21, and still stood no better than ninth place on the line outside Courtroom Six. (As the trial progressed, I was able to finagle regular access to the courtroom.)

The size of the courtroom also limited the number of reporters, a fact that certain media eminences learned, to their chagrin, only after they showed up. One columnist from The Washington Post threw a tantrum when told he could not pass the threshold. A far more dignified figure was cut by the reedy white-haired gentleman who followed only five minutes behind me. Though probably the most distinguished trial journalist in the nation, Murray Kempton ceded the single Newsday pass to the paper's beat reporter. Kempton, dapper in a three-piece suit and a heavily starched cotton shirt, stood on line like any other citizen -- except that he was reading a battered volume of Proust.

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