Court TV's Diane Dimond has been a lightning rod for Michael Jackson fans over the course of the great moonwalker's legal travails over the past 12 years (she first covered him for Hard Copy back in 1993). 

But now he's walked.

An excerpt from the NYT story:

Over the years it has been claimed that Ms. Dimond's coverage of Mr. Jackson was strident, biased, pro-prosecution. Questions about her objectivity have only increased during her two years as an investigative reporter for Court TV. The channel is also home to the talk-show host Nancy Grace, whose guilty-until-proven-innocent approach flies in the face of traditional television news.

Ms. Dimond "definitely engendered a great deal of anger from the public that attended that case and from other reporters," said Laurie L. Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, who has often appeared on CNN as a Jackson trial analyst. "She had very strong views about the case, and many people thought that she already made her mind up."

But Ms. Dimond, a married mother of one and a grandmother of two, remained steadfast. "I defy any of these people that say I'm pro-prosecution to point out one program where I don't give both sides," she said, her voice rising. "I've never said he's a pedophile. I've never said he's guilty. I have said that it's inappropriate for a 46-year-old man to sleep with other people's children. He says it's innocent. My response is that society doesn't see it that way."

If some were disappointed in Ms. Dimond's coverage, Court TV's chairman and chief executive, Henry Schleiff, was pleased with his reporter's effort. "So long as it is based on the evidence and not some other prior prejudice, I think it is perfectly fair for a reporter or an anchor to disclose their opinion," said Mr. Schleiff, who has no plans to temper Court TV's coverage in the future.

While covering the case, Ms. Dimond said, she was stalked by an undercover private investigator and subjected to verbal abuse from a handful of rabid Jackson fans. Among the publishable things she was called were "whore, liar, slut, racist, she-devil," said Ms. Dimond, who eventually won a restraining order against one particularly vocal Jackson supporter, B. J. Hickman. Ms. Dimond said that the jeers did eventually get to her one afternoon midway through the trial. "I don't know what caused it," she said, "but I just went into the ladies' room and had a cry, and then it was over."