US turns on Murdoch over OJ

News that Murdoch organisations have scooped a book and TV deal based on the OJ Simpson case has prompted a US-wide wave of revulsion

Paul Harris in New York
Sunday November 19, 2006
The Observer


It must have seemed like a good idea to someone. The man most Americans believe is behind their country's most infamous murder agrees to a virtual confession in a book and TV interview. Surely it would be a ratings and publishing smash.
Not quite so fast. For in reality OJ Simpson has succeeded where millions of angry liberals have always failed: striking a direct blow at the media empire of Rupert Murdoch, and especially its controversial broadcasting arm, headed by Fox television.


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A wave of revulsion and open criticism, reaching a climax this weekend, has swept America in the wake of revelations that Simpson intends to capitalise on the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman with a book and TV 'confession' in a £1.8 million deal brokered by Murdoch-owned companies. So widespread is the condemnation that even some of the top names on Murdoch's own cable channel, Fox News, have urged viewers not to buy the book or watch the interview.
It is no surprise. In both book and interview Simpson describes how he would have murdered Brown and Goldman. But only if 'hypothetically' he had done it. He even describes the amount of blood that would have been caused by slashing the pair to death.

The extent of the reaction perhaps typifies a case that has both outraged and enthralled Americans.

Certainly, the public vilification of Simpson seems to have taken its toll on Judith Regan, the controversial US book publisher who conducted the interview and whose Murdoch-owned ReganBooks is behind the deal. She has issued a bizarre eight-page defence of the deal in which she confessed to being a battered wife and that she felt the spirit of the slain couple in the room with her as she spoke to Simpson.

Given the scale of the backlash, it is no surprise that Regan is feeling the pressure. Murdoch and Fox must have been taken aback at the sheer speed at which the publishing scoop of the century has turned into a potential public relations disaster.

Local TV stations have already been swamped by complaints from the public, prompting many to opt out of showing the interview.

The outrage has spread to the publishing world, where revulsion at the book itself, entitled If I Did It, has already seen some stores start sending it back.

The anger was sharpened by publicity stunts such as the colouring of the 'I Did It' part of the book's title in red, and the fading of the 'If' into a pale white. In California the owner of Brentwood Bookstore, near where the murders took place, has refused to stock it, while the Northern California Independent Booksellers' Association, made up of some 240 bookstores, has emailed its members suggesting cash generated by the book be donated to domestic violence charities. Even some of the biggest media names in Murdoch's own empire have joined the fray, though the cynical might interpret that as a clever media ploy to have one's cake and eat it.

Bill O'Reilly, the conservative and outspoken anchor of a talk show on Fox News, called for a boycott of advertisers who buy ad space during the two-hour long interview. Another Fox star, Geraldo Rivera, famous for his patriotic stance on the war on terror, declared that the Simpson deal was 'appalling' and vowed to oppose it.

The Fox channel has long been a liberal bete noire and the subject of numerous documentaries about its obvious conservative bias. But the Simpson scandal is different, with the sheer involvement of Murdoch's empire striking at the heart of middle America. It was controlled from the start by disparate elements of Murdoch's News Corp empire: ReganBooks is owned by Murdoch's HarperCollins. The interview is to be shown on two separate shows on Murdoch's Fox network, just in time for a vital ratings boost that will set lucrative future advertising rates. And news of the deal was first revealed in the Murdoch-owned New York Post last week.

The New York Daily News, bitter rival to the Post, immediately came out blasting both its editorial barrels at Murdoch and Regan. In an editorial directly addressed to Regan, the newspaper accused her and her boss of making blood money. 'He did it for buckets of bloody bucks, just as you and Murdoch are,' the paper thundered.

But Murdoch is used to media storms. Fox, too, has long revelled in controversial attention. Both have often trusted the old adage that there is no such thing as bad publicity, even when it involves Simpson's hypothetical confession of a murder that was all too real. But if millions of Americans still tune in to watch or buy the book, then Murdoch will have had the last laugh over his critics.

It would not be the first time.

Where are they now?

The lawyer
Johnnie Cochran, OJ's lawyer, attracted as much attention in the trial as OJ himself or the famous glove the footballer struggled to pull on in front of the court. Cochrane died in 2005.

OJ's home
The house in Brentwood, Hollywood, where the former football star once lived, was sold long ago and demolished.

The restaurant
Mezzaluna, where Nicole Brown Simpson, OJ's former wife, had dinner before her murder has been replaced by a coffee shop.

The condo
The house number has been changed on the condo where Nicole and friend Ronald Goldman were killed.

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