Sandwiched between a thin red border, bright-blue bands extend across six columns of newsprint. The words “Los Angeles Sentinel” are centered inside the largest band, rendered in bold white letters.

Red, white, and blue.

The graphic design of the Los Angeles Sentinel's nameplate resonates with the basic American values the newspaper celebrates. First, capitalism: the Sentinel, the nameplate proudly informs the reader, is “the largest black-owned newspaper in the West [emphasis added].” Education, another core value, is (re)affirmed on the nameplate by a simple slogan: “‘Education will lead to the truth.’” Finally, truth, that basic object of American journalism's objectivity ideal, is also celebrated by the slogan.

Each week following the Bundy murders, the newsworkers behind the Sentinel negotiated these values and others as they constructed news narratives about the unfolding Simpson case. These narratives would be circulated on Thursdays, the day of the week that issues of the newspaper hit the streets. Underscoring the power differentials between the mainstream and alternative press, the Sentinel had a paid circulation of only about 25,000, – puny compared to the Los Angeles Times's daily circulation of over 1 million (see chapter 5).

But the newspaper did have significant influence in the black community. As the only black-oriented news organization to share a regular seat in Judge Ito's courtroom, the Sentinel quickly became the eyes and ears of other black media in Los Angeles and beyond.