OJ craves attention, Fox craves ratings
Management and news staff at WGHP (Channel 8) may want to take a shower after two consecutive nights of O.J. Simpson interviews run at the end of the month.
O.J. wants the attention; Fox wants the ratings. And as each has proven in the past, either will do whatever it takes to accomplish those ends.
O.J. is pushing a bizarre book, in which he suggests how he about how he could have murdered his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman.
The two-part television interview with Simpson will be broadcast on Nov. 27 and Nov. 29.
The publisher of the book told The New York Times last week that she believed Simpson’s statements in the interview constitute a confession.
Blogs veteran African American sports journalist Roy S. Johnson:
"All I’ll say is this: Don’t Watch. Don’t Buy. Don’t Read.
"And for all of our sakes: Don’t cheer anymore. He didn’t deserve it then, and he certainly does not deserve it now."
As for Channel 8, it would be nice if the station chose not to play along with this sleaze fest and aired alternative programming in the O.J. time slot.
Update: News Corp. has canceled the O.J. Simpson book and TV special.
Comments (9)
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Bill O' Reilly and John Gibson of Fox News were damning this program also.
Posted on November 20, 2006 6:30 AM
OJ is pure slime...the type that is almost impossible to wash off----yuck.
Those that promote him run a close second and may lose me as a customer long term.
Good post Allen.
Posted on November 20, 2006 8:08 AM
Jim Goodman of WRAL and Fox 50 in Raleigh has defied Fox on sleazy reality programming before, choosing to pre-empt it.
Wonder if he will this time around.
Posted on November 20, 2006 8:47 AM
Thanks for letting us know that Roy Johnson is an "African American journalist" and not just a regular journalist.
Posted on November 20, 2006 8:52 AM
I thought about that very question when I made the post.
I decided to add the racial identification because some people may not know who Johnson is. And I considered it pertinent to what he blogged.
When he was referring to "cheering" for O.J., and "for all of our sakes," he was referring to African Americans' celebration of O.J.'s not guilty verdict.
Posted on November 20, 2006 9:12 AM
One of the weirder things in this sad affair is Judith Regan's personal experience as her motivating factor. The letter that she wrote was a twisted explanation for what she is doing. If she really is doing this for the reasons that she says, she has some issues that a medical professional could assist her with.
Posted on November 20, 2006 11:35 AM
I thought the same thing when I read Judith Regan's disjointed, irrational "explanation." It really reads like it was written by a mentally ill person - and I'm being completely serious when I say that.
My hope is that any money made on this sordid book goes to the families of the victims, who won a multi-million dollar civil judgment against Simpson. But word is that O.J. probably will be able to avoid paying them simply by shifting these book profits to an overseas account. That just isn't right.
Posted on November 20, 2006 12:09 PM
O.J. gets 2.5 million and the Goldman's get nothing. How in the hell can Fox put this on. He should be in jail. I've lost a lot of respect for them as a network and do not plan to watch any of the show. I thought the Divinci Code was terrible and was an attack on my Christian belief's. I wonder where these people will stoop next? It's all connected to money and ratings
Posted on November 20, 2006 4:29 PM
Fixed.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/11/20/oj.cancel.ap/index.html
Posted on November 20, 2006 4:50 PM