The local trial of Thomas Murray for the alleged murder of his wife is, as the defense attorney told potential jurors, “as serious as it gets.” The people in charge of fairness, decorum and discipline in the courtroom should leave no stone unturned to prevent the process from deteriorating into some kind of spectacle or, just as bad, an infomercial to be exploited by CBS News.

A crew from CBS’s “48 Hours” swarmed over the courtroom Tuesday, installing cameras and stringing cables with which to cover the trial.

The whole operation must meet with approval from District Court Judge Robert Fairchild, who is presiding at the trial. It is hoped he is demanding and strict about how the trial is “covered” by the high-profile CBS crews, as well as anyone else who is supposed to be doing some kind of media job. The last thing Fairchild should want on his record is that he allowed this proceeding to become the judicial joke that Judge Lance Ito helped perpetrate in the O.J. Simpson “trial of the century.”

There are reasons to allow cameras in courtrooms. They were first allowed in 1981 and television coverage can help inform and educate citizens about our courts and our judicial system — if coverage is properly handled.

Ron Keefover, the education and information officer with the state office of the judicial administration, is the media liaison for this trial. He, too, has a major responsibility. He favors televised trials because he thinks they encourage more public awareness of the judicial system. Defense attorney Bob Eye said he doubts attorneys will play to cameras and that jurors might do likewise. That’s the judge’s responsibility, of course, and if he has to crack down he should do so, hard and fast.

How much commercialization will CBS employ in its eventual presentation of the local trial on “48 Hours”? Are we going to get consistently objective coverage without attempts at dramatization and manipulation? Or will things deteriorate from education to entertainment and lead to an infomercial-type spectacle?

If Judge Fairchild feels pressure to keep things in the proper perspective, he should. How he and other principals in this case conduct themselves and force others to behave should reflect from start to finish the serious business at hand and eschew any efforts of a show business nature.