OJ Simpson

There’s nothing shocking about Fox Network’s hype of its upcoming two-part interview in which O.J. Simpson titillates millions with his so-called fictional account of how he would have butchered Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. A Simpson sighting or one of his periodic quips has always touched off tittles among some in the media.

A couple of years ago Fox News duked it out with NBC to see which one would be the first to land and air a Simpson interview on the tenth anniversary of the murder case. So Fox’s latest Simpson media dance is not merely a cheap stunt by a network to cash in on the notoriety of a disgraced superstar turned double murder defendant. The case punched and continues to punch every hot button in the book, race, class, celebrity and sports idolatry, domestic violence, and especially tabloid sensationalism.

The major TV networks and newsweeklies took the tabloid's favorite obsessions: sex, drugs, violence, the antics of high profile celebrities, and eagerly applied their shock reporting to the Simpson case. In the process, they turned much of the public into gossip junkies. In the decade since Simpson’s acquittal, newspapers and the TV networks have force fed the public with a bloated diet of Simpson style gossip, and rumor in the Laci Peterson, Robert Blake, and Phil Spector and other celebrity or sensational murder cases. This was a carbon copy of the type of overkill saturation coverage they perfected in the Simpson trial. The skewed tabloid depiction of Simpson, helped generously by Simpson himself, subtly, and sometimes openly, conveyed the message that Simpson was guilty.

This made most Americans expect and demand that Simpson be convicted. The carefully orchestrated TV shots of jubilant blacks high fiving the verdict reinforced public anger. The avalanche of books on the trial pounded hard on the injustice of the verdict, and in highly publicized interviews their authors rammed home the notion that a black murderer walked free.

The public longingly hoped that the jury in the civil trial that followed the criminal trial would nail Simpson. It did, but it was a pyrrhic victory. He was not jailed, and for a decade has not paid a penny of the millions that the jury awarded the Goldman’s and Browns. This further enraged millions.

Simpson’s acquittal and the stiff of the victim’s families confirmed that the rich, famous and powerful have the deep pockets to hire a "dream team" defense team, a small army of high priced, high profile attorneys, expert witnesses, experts, and investigators that routinely mangle the legal system to stall, delay, and drag out their cases, and eventually allow their well-heeled clients to weasel out of punishment and payment.

Since most Americans can't afford anything resembling the type of legal star treatment Simpson got, it affirmed their belief that justice is for sale and that the rich, famous and powerful will always escape punishment. Even when prosecutors manage to win convictions against celebrities such as Winona Ryder, and Martha Stewart, their money, fame, power, and legal twisting often guarantee that they will do minimal jail time in a cushy country club prison, or none at all.

Prosecutors in the trial skillfully painted Simpson as an irresponsible, abusive and violent husband. This shoved the issue of spousal abuse and domestic violence from bedroom privacy to public outrage. A number of states passed stiff laws mandating arrest and jail sentences for domestic assaults. Police, District Attorneys and judges nationwide promised to arrest, prosecute and sentence domestic batterers. Fortunately, the Simpson case insured that domestic violence would remain a compelling public policy issue that the courts, lawmakers and the public could never again ignore.

Then there’s the interminable racial divide. If a poll were taken today, a majority of whites would still rage that Simpson is a murderer who skipped away scot free, and that the trial and his acquittal were a farce and a blatant travesty of justice. In the same poll, a majority of blacks would rage that Simpson was victimized by a white racist criminal justice system and the verdict was a just one.

The periodic news clips of Simpson in the years since the trial have shown a cheerful, and relaxed Simpson golfing, vacationing, signing autographs, and football collectors cards, and taking an ill fated stab at a reality show.

Simpson comes off as a devil-may-care guy that laughs at and thumbs his nose at the public. This hasn’t done much to endear him to anyone, let alone make the case go away.

In the decade since the media labeled the Simpson case, the “trial of the century,” race continues to divide, celebrity chit chat, tabloid sensationalism sells bigger than ever, and justice more often than not is for sale. The Simpson case hit too many social, racial, and emotional hot buttons for it to ever permanently die away. Whether Simpson ever fantasy confessed on Fox and cashed in on a multi-million dollar book deal as a result of it or not, the mere mention of him and the case would still be enough to get tongues wagging.

BlackNews.com columnist Earl Ofari Hutchinson is a political analyst and social issues commentator, and the author of The Emerging Black GOP Majority (Middle Passage Press, September 2006), a hard-hitting look at Bush and The GOP’s court of black voters. For order information, see www.blackgopbook.com

For media interviews, contact:
Mr. Hutchinson at 323-296-6331 or hutchinsonreport@aol.com

 

So what if he did it? Personally, I believe he did, but so what?

The only reason why it's such a huge deal, and why people won't stop whining about it, is because he's a black celebrity. It's pretty damn obvious if you think about it, because if he were a white celebrity, or some everyday, run-of-the-mill psycho white guy, who goes off on a killing spree for no reason at all, like Timothy McVeigh, Jeffrey Dahmer, and countless others out there (who are mostly white males of course) then the American Public would've just seen it as something that's 'not that big of a deal', because since the guy is white "oh, we'll just lock him up for life, or give him the death penalty, and then move on with our lives, and then the world will be safe again" yadda-yadda, but since it's a black man this time around, in spite of the fact that his crime wasn't anywhere near as heinous as the ones from the white men I mentioned above, he is still black, so it is AUTOMATICALLY much worse in O.J.'s case, and apparently to America, that's all there is to it.

 

co-sign. People never talk about Robert Blake. OJ really needs to stay out of the news for a couple of years. Maybe he needs to move out of the country if all possible.

 

Jack Johnson's ghost hangs large when it comes to OJ Simpson. He is the man who beat the system and the media will not forget that defeat just like the Jefferies/Johnson fight of the fourth of July,1910. Right and Left white men pundits are foaming at the mouth of OJ and of course Mark Furhman threatens to pull out of Harper Collins pubs because of it. All because of a fiction book and no question Darden,Clark,and others made more money than OJ in their books on the case including the hypocrite/racist Furhman.

 

O.J is a G for real :lol: The guy gets away, they can't seize shit from him and he gets to talk about the incidents. The guy's crazy. :lol:

P.S. SardonicGenie, i thought you knew by now that white criminals are bad "persons" whilst black criminals are bad "people".

 

Crazy like a Fox.

 

I did, that's why I wrote what I did earlier. Isn't that obvious?

 

The fact that no ones screams about Robert Blake proves their hypocrisy. Also no one cares what Robert Durst got away with and Phil Spector is next. I once told a white man we'd never be discussing OJ had his wife been black or if it was white on white murder. He disagreed but I know it's true.

 

I have to somewhat disagree. He was pretty famous so there would be discussion. But I doubt it would go to the heights it did during the trial. If it wasn't about race.

 

The point is they aren't nearly as incensed over Robert Blake and others who get away with murder. It's a travesty anytime someone walks on cases such as these.

 

You're right. And race did play a big part. The media liked throwing fuel on the fire. Anything based on race and murder sells. And when it concerns the US oldest taboo. That must have been a wet dream for the media.

 

Lexington you just hit it on the head!!! Where is the outrage and the boycotts towards White male crimminals? Also include Klaus Von Bulow the guy who put his wife in a coma. He would never be treated like a pariah like OJ. When there is a Black man who beats the system the Whites get passionate on putting him in jail or make him suffer.

 

They do not get the same notoriety and shunning. I bet Robert Blake is going back to that very same restaurant with no problem. I read Klaus Von Bulow married once again and is probably a respected member of his community. If Phil Spector walks I imagine we'll see an outpouring of support for him. The only outrage might come from the family but that would be the extent of it.

 

Well... I'm white and so according to some ppl, if I have an opinion on anything related to a black man, I must be racist... but whaterver. You asked, so here's what I think:

I think that he's guilty and I base that soley on the fact that he had a history of domestic violence and battered women are very likely to be murdred by their spouses.

I've forgotten the details of the trial - it's been so long - but I think he's guilty... not because he's black, but because he's a wife beater!


According to the US Family Violence Prevention Fund:
-On average, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends in this country every day.
-Women are much more likely than men to be killed by an intimate partner. In 2000, intimate partner homicides accounted for 33.5 percent of the murders of women and less than four percent of the murders of men.

And, according to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control:

-One study found that 44% of women murdered by their intimate partner had visited an emergency department within 2 years of the homicide. Of these women, 93% had at least one injury visit (Crandall et al. 2004).
Previous literature suggests that women who have separated from their abusive partners often remain at risk of violence (Campbell et al. 2003; Fleury, Sullivan and Bybee 2000).

 

As you know the big man pulled the plug on the book and special. Hope someone got a copy of it and put it on the web soon.

 

Don't forget Scott Peterson. He's getting married again too...

so, where's O.J.'s 2nd wife? :roll: All of these other guys are still picking up women, so he should be up for a new bride by now.

 

No matter what white people think, i refuse to believe O.J. did it.

 

I think he did, but it was oversensationalized for obvious reasons.

 

I am not the perfect crime investigator, but looking at both sides of the case, there is reasonable doubt. I have studied criminal law for a long time and there are so many cases that seem straightforward when they are not. I, based on my knowledge of the cases with no holds barred, am still not convinced he did it but that is a matter of personal opinion. I do not expect anyone to agree nor disagree with me but i am sure that y'all would agree with me when i say that many white people, with or without any coherent understanding of the case, have all come to the same conclusion.