Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. made the right decision Monday in canceling O.J. Simpson’s “If I Did It” book, in which he recounts how he would have carried out the 1994 killings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman if he had, um, done it.
Right. Just an intellectual exercise while O.J. continues searching for the real killer.
In announcing the decision to scrap both the book and a tie-in TV special, Murdoch said that he agreed with the American public that this was an “ill-considered project.”
That’s an understatement.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
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43 Comments
Consider for a moment, if this project had somehow been a success, how much money it would have made. OJ owes a huge unpaid civil judgment. It was suggested, reasonably enough, that if people gave money to this exploitation, at least there would be some shot of the suing relatives collecting it.
Here’s a thought: Send your checks directly to the plantiffs, folks. At this point, there’s no question they deserve it. And he will STILL owe the huge judgment.
P.S. BTW, I still regard the legal presumption of innocence as something precious and worthy of respect. This asshole has basically declared himself guilty.
Right. Just an intellectual exercise while O.J. continues searching for the real killer.
Yeah, playing golf in Florida is really indicative of O.J. searching for the real killer!
He was found guilty in civil court of murder so it’s okay to call him a murderer.
ON one of the anniversary’s of the murders, I watch a special I believe on PBS. A law professor often uses the O.J. case as an example of how the system can go wrong. I will never forget the response of one of his student’s while they were filming the class. To the question of how the case was blown, a student said, “They try to frame a guilty man”.
“He was found guilty in civil court of murder so it’s okay to call him a murderer.”
Doug, I would guess you were responding to Will’s golf comment, right?
But just to clarify: I would spit upon anyone who agreed with that statement.
Hell, let it die the death it never should have needed.
I suppose it could be method to get a confession out of him, although it probably wasn’t their original plan, it did work.
Did not we beat this “dead horse” enough last week? Ill-conceived ? Even the most adamant pro-lifer has to agree that “aborting” this fiasco could not happen soon enough. And as was said last week, he wan found “not guilty”. He was NOT found “innocent”. Did anyone else see that video (a couple of years old that was floating around yesterday) where he was drinking, watching a football game, laughing and telling his buddies that as long as his name was in the headlines, he was “making money and that was the important thing”? It was disgusting. He is not doing life without parole because the LAPD and the LASO could not track a herd of buffalos through a telephone booth in three feet of snow.
I really hope this book bombs and NOBODY buys it.
From what I’ve read, the books will be destroyed and will never hit the shelves. I’m glad the American public has refused to tolerate his exploitation of HIS crime. I’m pleasantly surprized!
what book?
Fox news, what more could you expect?
Why is it such a crime for O.J. to publish this book? According to this countries legal system he was found not guilty. Even though the majority of the people in the country think he did it, but he was found innocent by his peers. So my question again is why the big uproar? We here in america need to stop pretending that we dont benefit off of tragedy, this country was founded off of tragedy and misfortune.The O.J. siuation is a prime example of how free enterprise and capital gain at the expense of others is widely accepted and allowable. So america needs to get over it!!! Because if we go back in history we can find several O.J.’s
2REL4U: Try reading … you might learn something ! O.J. was never found INNOCENT … nor has any other defendant. The system found him NOT GUILTY. If you can not grasp that difference, you have no business trying to discuss this issue. The chasm between the two is wider than the Grand Canyon.
Considering the publicity hound OJ was in his prior life and his need to be loved/accepted by the public and his fans, his life since 1994 has to be his own private hell. Poetic justice?
Dave S,Fox News has nothing to do with this.
News Corp., is the parent company of book publisher HarperCollins and the FOX network.
Are you a liberal, Dave S? Because, this is the kind of segway that only a lib would make.
segway…segue…
You know what I mean.
This is an outrage! Is Scholfield trying to say that 90% of our Black brethren are wrong concerning the guilt of OJ?Another example of The Man forcing lies down our throat!OJ didn’t do it!Word.
When OJ decides to write the “I did it” book….I think it would get major attention, however if he does that he also needs to forego all profits to his children.But, even then, that’s, blood money.
But seriously,The writer of the book calls this OJ’s “confession”. If that is the case, why not allow it? If somebody comes forward with a credible “confession” for, say, the murder of JFK or MLK, why not let them? It also might turn around the 90% segment of our population who don’t believe he did it.
Fleet: O.J. could “confess” …. period. And no court could touch him legally. Former New Orleans D.A. Jim Garrison supplied the answers to JFK, and he was harrassed by the government to the point it killed him. They might as well have put a gun to his head and blew his brains out. James Earl Ray died in prison for the death of MLK. Is it mere coincidence that most of the critical JFK and MLK files will not be declassified in our childrens’ lifetime … children who were not even born 20 years after JFK was assasinated?
And why was O.J. tried at Parker Center? No rocket science there … the jury pool downtown is 90%+ black. In Brentwood, where it should have been tried, it’s 98% white. The outcome was pre-ordained the day the venue was changed. Couple that with the incompetence exhibited by the LAPD, LASO, and the “expertise” of Frick, Frack, Darden and Clarke, and O.J. was a walk from Day One.
“From what I’ve read, the books will be destroyed and will never hit the shelves.”
Book burning in action? Censorship? Now that’s kind of sad.
Guys, he already has the advance money on the book. I’m sure it was obscenely large, considering his name. If I were O.J., I wouldn’t be counting on any royalties. Those are only paid out AFTER sales amounts reach beyond the advance. Most celebrity authored books never make it that far.
Put the books on the shelf and watch them NOT sell. Believe me, the publishing company will be taking a huge loss on this one. There will always be those who will shell out the money for yet another “tell-all” book, mainly because they want to brag to their friends that they bought it. They won’t actually read it. Give it 6 months and keep an eye on the clearance shelves. ;)
RM,
I intend to live long enough to see those Warren Commission files.
“Upon its release in 1964, all files of the Warren Commission were sealed from public view for 75 years (until 2039) by executive order of President Johnson. According to the Assassination Records Review Board, Kennedy assassination related documents that have not been destroyed are scheduled to be released to the public by 2017.”
Unless Bush has sealed them permanently, that is.
rm-Why do you say the verdict was pre-ordained?What does that mean?
fleet, not pretending to answer for rm, but to me the verdict was preordanined once the change in venue occurred. Reason: see rm’s population statistics. Stir in the friction existing between the LAPD and the African-American community, season with incompetent police work (who believed, rightly or wrongly O.J. was their man), top with poor trial presentation by the DA’s office, and the outcome was inevitable.
Thanks Vaughn … you said it much better than I obviously did the first time around !
RB: I hope you do. You’re probably much younger than me. But then again, lately it seems that everybody is younger than me !! :)
Now, a word from the Brown family:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/11/21/oj.cancel.ap/index.html
RM, not much younger. Only 5 years. But, if I don’t make it and unless man should wipe us off the face of the earth or our country should fall, I feel certain my offspring will see those papers.
As I’ve said before, interesting times we live in. :)
You see what happens when you’re a Heisman Trophy winner? You can kill your wife and gloat about it in your book.
Ain’t this country grand?
That’s an interesting link, Vaughn, but recalling some of the tripe spouted by Denise Brown and Fred Goldman back when this was actually current headline news, their credibility leaves much to be desired, too … not nearly as much as O.J.’s, certainly, but I don’t think that’s the test either. That’s not meant to hammer home any point. More like just thinking out loud ….?
Agreed, rm; posted the link so anyone interested could read and “think out loud”.
The publisher is recalling the books to be destroyed.
Any bets some of those books won’t make it back to the publisher to be destroyed?
Future collector’s items, ya think?
If I had one, I’m sure I could “lose” a copy or two.
Sad to say, GMC, no doubt that will happen … and they’ll show up on e.Bay, as you say, “collectors’ items”. And the same sick bastards that bought John Wayne Gacy’s “artwork” will snap them up. Regrettably, there’s no accounting for taste … nor the lack of the same.
KSGoofNut–
Fox News, Fox Programming, and HarperCollins are all part of the same company.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15723351/
“The book, “If I Did It,” is being published by ReganBooks, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. It goes on sale Nov. 30. Fox, which like Harper Collins is owned by News Corp., is airing a two-part TV interview of Simpson on Nov. 27 and 29.”
To will yourself to believe a falsehood is so typical of you people. You put the CON in CONservative.
Man, I burn so much time finding evidence that what you CONS say is false.
You really should do your own homework.
But then, I guess if you actually thought things through and did real research, you wouldn’t believe the horse sh*t you do . . .
GMC, rm, wonder how long it will be before the first copies hit Ebay? I’m sure inventory control will not be very tight, as GMC suggests; and, as rm suggests, the “market” for this tasteless self-aggrandizing drivel is likely without rational limit.
to ksgolfnut: A little something about fox news. They are owned by the same company that owns fox broadcasting, who was scheduled to do the show AND harper collins, the publisher of the book. They have the same chairman and the same owner. Fox news also does a lot of fox broadcasting material. And, to top it all off, fox news spent more time on the oj mess that CNN, MSNBC, and Headline News COMBINED! Yeah, there is a tie in there, bud.http://thinkprogress.org/2006/11/20/fox-oj-coverage/
More on fox news:http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2005/11.
In February 2003, a Florida Court of Appeals unanimously agreed with an assertion by FOX News that there is no rule against distorting or falsifying the news in the United States.
Back in December of 1996, Jane Akre and her husband, Steve Wilson, were hired by FOX as a part of the Fox “Investigators” team at WTVT in Tampa Bay, Florida. In 1997 the team began work on a story about bovine growth hormone (BGH), a controversial substance manufactured by Monsanto Corporation. The couple produced a four-part series revealing that there were many health risks related to BGH and that Florida supermarket chains did little to avoid selling milk from cows treated with the hormone, despite assuring customers otherwise.
According to Akre and Wilson, the station was initially very excited about the series. But within a week, Fox executives and their attorneys wanted the reporters to use statements from Monsanto representatives that the reporters knew were false and to make other revisions to the story that were in direct conflict with the facts. Fox editors then tried to force Akre and Wilson to continue to produce the distorted story. When they refused and threatened to report Fox’s actions to the FCC, they were both fired.(Project Censored #12 1997)
Akre and Wilson sued the Fox station and on August 18, 2000, a Florida jury unanimously decided that Akre was wrongfully fired by Fox Television when she refused to broadcast (in the jury’s words) “a false, distorted or slanted story” about the widespread use of BGH in dairy cows. They further maintained that she deserved protection under Florida’s whistle blower law. Akre was awarded a $425,000 settlement. Inexplicably, however, the court decided that Steve Wilson, her partner in the case, was ruled not wronged by the same actions taken by FOX.
FOX appealed the case, and on February 14, 2003 the Florida Second District Court of Appeals unanimously overturned the settlement awarded to Akre. The Court held that Akre’s threat to report the station’s actions to the FCC did not deserve protection under Florida’s whistle blower statute, because Florida’s whistle blower law states that an employer must violate an adopted “law, rule, or regulation.” In a stunningly narrow interpretation of FCC rules, the Florida Appeals court claimed that the FCC policy against falsification of the news does not rise to the level of a “law, rule, or regulation,” it was simply a “policy.” Therefore, it is up to the station whether or not it wants to report honestly.
During their appeal, FOX asserted that there are no written rules against distorting news in the media. They argued that, under the First Amendment, broadcasters have the right to lie or deliberately distort news reports on public airwaves. Fox attorneys did not dispute Akre’s claim that they pressured her to broadcast a false story, they simply maintained that it was their right to do so. After the appeal verdict WTVT general manager Bob Linger commented, “It’s vindication for WTVT, and we’re very pleased… It’s the case we’ve been making for two years. She never had a legal claim.”
I just heard on NPR this afternoon that the Brown family and the Goldman family were saying that they were offered money to remain silent about the OJ Book. The publisher countered they were offering the family profits from the book and there were no strings attached.
Interesting…
Dave S -I’ve already acknowledged that Fox News, Fox Broadcasting and Harper Collins are all owned by the same company. You’re not enlighening me at all by simply repeating… (although, that IS something the liberals love to do: repeat the same useless information over and over in a weak attempt to have a meaningful point).
I watch Fox news every night. I rarely miss Hannity or O’Reilly (unless the Jayhawks are playing), and BOTH of those men castigated Fox Broadcasting and the Harper Collins for this fiasco. I’m guessing you missed that – or – maybe you’re just choosing to ignore data that would run counter to your ongoing criticism of Fox News.
Either way – you’re wrong.
See, Dave, that’s all you have to do when you’re a CONservative:
state flatly that black is white. Then top it off with “period” or “you’re wrong.”
Evidence, they don’t need no steekin’ evidence.
And when you have evidence and they don’t?
Why, you’re just wrong, that’s all.
Period.
Fox news–spending millions in court to defend their right to distort and falsify the news.
Real effing nice . . .