More OJ, America Says “Yes Please”
The American public remains transfixed on OJ Simpson. The Fox network was the latest to capitalize on this obsession last night when they aired a nearly 12 year old interview of the former football star and actor. The program included original footage of Simpson discussing the book “If I Did It” which was ultimately published with the word “If” in barely visible font. The font change was implemented by the family of Ron Goldman who were awarded the rights to the book as part of a wrongful death lawsuit that awarded them millions of dollars (most of which have yet to be collected). The book contains a chapter where Simpson describes the “hypothetical” murders in grisly detail.
On Sunday night, Fox aired “O.J. Simpson: The Lost Confession,” a two-hour special that the network has been promoting for weeks as a shocking, must-see interview that was recently “found.”
Originally shot in 2006, the conversation between Mr. Simpson and the publishing magnate Judith Regan was intended then to promote the ReganBooks release of “If I Did It,” described as a “hypothetical” explanation of how the N.F.L. Hall of Famer might have murdered his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman — a crime for which he was acquitted in 1995.
Thanks to the likes of the Oscar-winning documentary “O.J.: Made in America” and the Emmy-winning drama series “The People v. O.J. Simpson,” interest in Mr. Simpson and the Brown/Goldman killings is at a new peak. So this interview wasn’t so much “rediscovered” as “pulled off the shelf,” to take advantage of a trend.
Still, “The Lost Confession” did offer a rare chance to hear Mr. Simpson’s own perspective on the murders (which he never testified about in the original criminal trial). And Fox tried to make the old interview relevant to today’s news by putting it in the context of powerful, famous men abusing women.
Hosted by Soledad O’Brien, “The Lost Confession” alternated clips from the interview with new commentary from a panel that included Ms. Regan, Christopher Darden (the lawyer who helped prosecute the original case), Jim Clemente (a retired F.B.I. profiler), Rita Smith (a spokeswoman for the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence), and Eve Shakti Chen (a friend of Ms. Brown’s).
Whatever explanations Fox has given for the existence of this special, there’s more to it than just, “Hey, look what we found!” What’s the actual story behind the interview? Why are we just seeing it now? And did we really learn anything from it?
