However, neither the Government nor any defendant requested that the court instruct the jury to avoid newspaper accounts bearing on the case. Defendants now contend that United States v. Accardo, 298 F.2d 133 (7th Cir. 1962), and Margoles v. United States, 407 F.2d 727 (7th Cir. 1969), required the court to give such an instruction sua sponte. We do not accept this view of our decisions. Nothing in those opinions can be construed to place the responsibility upon the trial judge to caution jurors against this form of contamination as a matter of course.

United States v. Sababu, 891 F.2d 1308, 1334 (7th Cir. 1989) (quoting United States v. Williams, 737 F.2d at 613); United States v. McAnderson, 914 F.2d 934, 944 (7th Cir. 1990). However, when presented with reports of prejudicial publicity, a district court is required under Margoles v. United States, 407 F.2d 727, 735 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 396 U.S. 833, 90 S.Ct. 89, 24 L.Ed.2d 84 (1969), and Trapnell to inquire of the jurors about their knowledge, if any, of the reports. United States v. Thomas, 463 F.2d 1061, 1063-64 (7th Cir. 1972).

And, we have consistently rejected the rule proposed by the defendants here that an individual examination of the jurors be conducted in all cases where pretrial publicity is at issue. United States v. Kampiles, 609 F.2d 1233 (7th Cir. 1979), cert. denied, 446 U.S. 954, 100 S.Ct. 2923, 64 L.Ed.2d 812 (1980); United States v. Carter, 602 F.2d 799 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 967, 100 S.Ct. 457, 62 L.Ed.2d 380 (1979); Margoles v. United States, 407 F.2d 727 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 396 U.S. 833, 90 S.Ct. 89, 24 L.Ed.2d 84 (1969). We remain unconvinced that individual interrogation is a superior guarantee of impartiality; indeed "[i]t seems equally plausible that the average layman would become inhibited if he were called individually into the chambers of a federal judge as he would in the presence of his peers."

We did enunciate in United States v. Hankish (4th Cir. 1974), 502 F.2d 71, 77, and reaffirmed in United States v. Pomponio (4th Cir. 1975), 517 F.2d 460, 463, cert. denied, 423 U.S. 1015, 96 S.Ct. 448, 46 L.Ed.2d 386 (1975), the rule that, "when highly prejudicial information may have been exposed to the jury, the court must ascertain the extent and effect of the infection, and thereafter, in its sound discretion, take appropriate measures to assure a fair trial." In carrying out this duty, the court should follow, we held, the procedure outlined in Margoles v. United States (7th Cir. 1969), 407 F.2d 727, 735, cert. denied, 396 U.S. 833, 90 S.Ct. 89, 24 L.Ed.2d 84 (1969). There, the Court said that inquiry should be made whether any jurors "had read or heard" the prejudicial publicity and, if any had, that juror should "be examined, individually and outside the presence of the other jurors, to determine the effect of the publicity.

Moreover, the judge's response is to be commensurate with the severity of the threat posed. Margoles v. United States, 407 F.2d 727, 733 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 396 U.S. 833, 90 S.Ct. 89, 24 L.Ed.2d 84 (1969). In numerous cases, we have been required to consider what degree of prejudice must be shown to trigger the court's responsibility to investigate further by specifically questioning the jury, or to institute ameliorative measures, such as continuances or cautionary instructions, and finally, what kind of showing of prejudice will necessitate a new trial.

Although not dispositive on the issue presented here, those cases are instructive. In United States v. Perrotta, 553 F.2d 247 (1st Cir. 1977), we adopted the standard annunciated in Margoles v. United States, 407 F.2d 727 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 396 U.S. 833, 90 S.Ct. 89, 24 L.Ed.2d 84 (1969): [W]here prejudicial publicity is brought to the court's attention during a trial . . . the court must ascertain if any jurors who had been exposed to such publicity had read or heard the same.

Sequestration and control of news coverage are appropriate to control "gross abuses of the news media in the guise of `freedom of the press.'" Margoles v. United States, 407 F.2d 727, 733 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 396 U.S. 833, 90 S.Ct. 89, 24 L.Ed.2d 84 (1969). The trial judge was fully aware of the publicity surrounding the trial, but he was also aware of the substantial hardship that sequestering a jury for an estimated four to six weeks of trial could impose.

This admonishment appears as item C in the Appendix to this opinion. The following day the Sun Times and the Tribune carried a total of five stories relating to the defendant's unsuccessful attempt to plead guilty and the judge's comment about wasted time (R. 65 ex. C-G). That morning before the trial began the court held an in camera discussion with counsel regarding the possible exposure of the jurors to the publicity about the attempted plea. Defense counsel began to request in camera individual interrogation of the jurors, but the judge, relying on Margoles v. United States, 407 F.2d 727 (7th Cir. 1969), certiorari denied, 396 U.S. 833, 90 S.Ct. 89, 24 L.Ed.2d 84, concluded that he would first question the jury collectively. "If any of them say they have read it or seen it, then we go in camera, but not in the event no one has read it or seen it" (Tr. 355).

Where the problem has arisen elsewhere, most of the affected circuits have held that the judge is required immediately to conduct some form of examination of the jurors to determine whether or not they have encountered the information — assuming, of course, the court is first satisfied that the information is genuinely prejudicial. See, e. g., United States v. Pomponio, 517 F.2d 460, 463 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 1015, 96 S.Ct. 448, 46 L.Ed.2d 386 (1975); United States v. Hankish, 502 F.2d 71, 76-78 (4th Cir. 1974); United States v. Thomas, 463 F.2d 1061 (7th Cir. 1972); Margoles v. United States, 407 F.2d 727, 735 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 396 U.S. 833, 90 S.Ct. 89, 24 L.Ed.2d 84 (1969); United States v. Schrimsher, 493 F.2d 848, 854 (5th Cir. 1974); Mares v. United States, 383 F.2d 805, 808 (10th Cir. 1967). Cf. United States v. Vento, 533 F.2d 838, 869 n. 106 (3d Cir. 1976).

The Seventh Circuit had also rejected the proposition that individual questioning on voir dire is necessary whenever there has been significant pretrial publicity. Margoles v. United States, 407 F.2d 727 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 396 U.S. 833, 90 S.Ct. 89, 24 L.Ed.2d 84 (1969). Indeed, the court expressed doubt that individual questioning afforded greater protection than mass examination.