Fox Broadcasting plumbed new depths of tastelessness in seeking to cash in on a bizarre and high-profile tragedy. Until public outrage -- even from some of Fox's own talk-show hosts -- caused its parent, News Corp., to back down, Fox planned to televise a two-part interview with O.J. Simpson to help promote his book, "If I Did It."
The book, an allegedly hypothetical account of how Simpson would have killed his ex-wife and a friend had he actually done it, was scrapped after 400,000 copies were printed and some were shipped to bookstores. No doubt those with a taste for the ghoulish will get their hands on it.
Rupert Murdoch, who owns News Corp., said he agreed the project was "ill-advised" and apologized to the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson, of whose murder Simpson was acquitted.
Was the lure of profits simply too great at a time when Fox's new shows aren't faring well? As for Simpson, after being protected by Florida law from having to pay millions in civil damages, couldn't he have had the decency to stay out of the public eye -- forever?
In a free society, people can partake of all manner of trash. There's at least some comfort in the fact that, this time, the level of tastelessness was so great that the public wouldn't stand for it.
ADVERTISEMENT
Sacramento (CALIF.) Bee
