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Tuesday, 28 November 2006 14:25 |
 News Corporation, the company that owns the Fox Network and Fox News, finally found the limit of Americansë tolerance for poor taste last week.
Amid public outcry and strong objections from many Fox affiliates, the company pulled the plug on a book release and televised interview with O.J. Simpson.
The book, titled "If I Did It," which was to be published by News Corporation subsidiary ReganBooks, is Simpsonës account of how he might have killed his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald L. Goldman.
While
falling short of confessing to the crimes ÇƒÓ of which Simpson was
acquitted in a much-televised trial in 1995 ÇƒÓ the former football star
and actor seems to be flaunting his freedom in the faces of the
victimsë families. And of course, the deal was highly lucrative for
Simpson.
We applaud the
companyës last-minute decision not to capitalize on a tragedy. However,
we find it disturbing that such a climate of tolerance for violence and
general lack of respect for life has become so pervasive that such an
offensive and distasteful idea could have made it as far as it did.
At the time News
Corporation Chairman Rupert Murdoch announced the decision to cancel
the project, many stores across the country had already placed orders
for the book ÇƒÓ some of which had been shipped and now will be recalled.
Unfortunately,
because the decision to cancel the contract came from the company,
Simpson will still collect a 50 percent advance on the book.
Whether or not
he committed the crimes, Simpson should not be allowed to profit from
further sensationalizing his wifeës brutal murder.
And networks should not continue to rake in huge profits by exploiting and glorifying violence.
However, the
real blame lies with the public, which is all-too-willing to encourage
this cultural morbidity by watching programming that trivializes both
life and death.
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