Rupert Murdoch took the unusual step of bowing to public opinion on Monday when he scrapped plans to publish and broadcast a ”hypothetical” account by OJ Simpson of how he might have committed the 1994 murder of his ex-wife and her friend, after a national uproar.
In an apparent attempt to contain a public relations debacle for his media empire, News Corporation, Murdoch apologised to the families of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman, and described the planned publication of a book by Simpson entitled If I Did It, and an accompanying two-part television interview, as ”an ill-considered project”.
The book and interviews, due to go out next week, were intended to describe the 1994 stabbings of the two victims in hypothetical terms, ”if he were the one responsible”, heavily implying Simpson’s responsibility without formally admitting guilt.
The former American football star and film actor was acquitted in 1995 after one of the most notorious trials in United States history, but in a civil trial he was later ruled responsible for the death of Goldman.
A dozen local affiliates of Murdoch’s Fox television network had already mutinied over the issue, refusing to air the interview, and some of the best known broadcasters on Fox News had denounced what was widely seen as a stunt to boost audiences, during the commercially critical ”sweeps month”, when viewer numbers are monitored and used to assess advertising fees.
Some bookshops said they would refuse to stock If I Did It. Others said they would donate the proceeds to charity.
The victims’ families were furious that Simpson was to get more publicity. ”He destroyed my son and took from my family Ron’s future and life. And for that I’ll hate him always and find him despicable,” Fred Goldman told ABC’s Good Morning America programme.
Nicole Brown Simpson’s sister, Denise Brown, accused the publishers of ”promoting the wrongdoing of criminals” and commercialising abuse.
Judith Regan, the head of one of News Corp’s publishing arms, ReganBooks, issued a long, rambling defence of her decision to commission the book. She said she had been physically abused by her ex-husband, and wanted to talk Simpson into a confession for her children’s sake.
”I wanted them, and everyone else, to have a chance to see that there are consequences to grievous acts. That the consequences of pain and suffering will ultimately be brought upon its perpetrators,” Regan wrote.
Simpson was paid $3,5-million for the book and interviews, but Regan insisted that the money had gone to a ”third party” and she had been told it would go to OJ and Nicole Simpson’s children.
She said the media ”have all but called for my death for publishing his book and for interviewing him”.
In his statement on Monday, Murdoch said: ”I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project. We are very sorry for any pain that his has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson.” – Guardian Unlimited Â