LA Riots Backstory: 'Gorillas in the Mist'
The video of Rodney King's brutal beating first aired on local news the night of March 3, 1991. Shocking as it was, its place in history was not guaranteed. Newsweek & The Daily Beast's Kathy O'Hearn was the LA bureau chief for ABC News at the time. She recounts the debate inside the newsroom as the nation's leading TV news organization broke a critically important piece of the Rodney King story.

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