We Won't Do It & Why She Did It
Several FOX affiliates chose not to broadcast "If I Did It," the two-part interview special scheduled to air Nov. 27 and 29, in which O.J. Simpson talks in hypothetical terms about his role in the 1994 killing of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.The television special was to precede the Nov. 30 publication of a book in which Simpson talks about how he would have committed the murders "if he were the one responsible."
Lin Broadcasting and Pappas Broadcasting, which own a combined nine FOX affiliates, said they wouldn't air it.
"After careful consideration regarding the nature of the show, as well as the feedback we received from the viewers of northeast Wisconsin, we determined that this programming was not serving the local public interest," wrote Jay Zollar, general manager of WLUK-TV in Green Bay.
Several prominent independent booksellers around the U.S. said they wouldn't stock the controversial book; many other were reluctant and resentful, some planning to donate any profits to charity.
Meanwhile, publisher Judith Regan defended her role in bringing the book and interview about because of abuse she suffered from her ex-husband.
Said Regan: "I made the decision to publish this book, and to sit face to face with the killer, because I wanted him, and the men who broke my heart and your hearts, to tell the truth, to confess their sins, to do penance and to amend their lives."
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NEWS EXTRA - Did The Devil Make Them Do It?
Does O.J. confess in new book & FOX-TV interview that's sending publisher Judith Regan into The Fiery Pits of Hell?
Editor's Note: One hour after we posted this story on November 20th, NewsCorp's cancellation of the book and interview was announced. We congratulate the FOX-TV affiliates who refused to run the interview, and the independent booksellers who refused to sell the book. Thankfully, they sent a message that there is a limit to how low broadcasters and publishers like FOX and ReganBooks can go.Not surprisingly, a few renegade copies escaped the shredder and have shown up at online sales sites. On December 11th, USA Today reported the book had appeared for sale at Alibris.com, Biblio.com, and eBay, and that one seller told the reporter he'd bought 11 copies for about $12,000 from a "guy who knows a guy who works in a bookstore."
On December 17th, the story came to an exciting conclusion, as Judith Regan got into yet another tussle with HarperCollins management and was fired. It was the end of a love/hate relationship fueled by Regan's overly aggressive style but salvaged by her numbers, estimated at 20% of HC's bottom line. The N.Y. Times reports that the final straw was an ugly phone call between Regan and HC president Jane Friedman, and may have been exacerbated by Regan's next project that again pushed the limits of decency -- a sleazy, fictional account of the life of legendary New York Yankee slugger Mickey Mantle. So ends a 14-year stint at HC, where she followed her breakthrough hit, Wicked, with such racy bestsellers as Juiced by Jose Canseco and How to Make Love Like a Porn Star by Jenna Jameson. Yes, she pushed the limits, sometimes too far, but she shook up the New York publishing world, and as a sad commentary on America, she knew how to give the people what they want.
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Okay, I've figured it out.
I know why the HarperCollins imprint, ReganBooks, is publishing that reprehensible O.J. Simpson book, If I Did It: Here's How It Happened, and why imprint publisher Judith Regan, known for sticking her neck out further than anyone else in mainstream publishing, is also doing a two-part Fox TV network interview with Simpson, who was aquitted of murder in the criminal trial for the 1994 deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald L. Goldman, but who was found responsible by a civil court, and ordered to pay millions to the families.
Both HarperCollins and FOX -- the network and the news channel -- are owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. The FOX network is known for pushing the envelope in cheesy reality TV, but the FOX News Channel is known for its conservative bent, and the two entities co-existing within the same corporation has always been puzzling. The corporate identity, however, is unquestionably conservative.
During sweeps, when TV advertising rates are set based on viewership, what would a conservative media company want to do to blow their competition out of the water?
Well, in this day and age, the best way to do that is to be the first one to announce The Apocalypse. And, in fact, to have the exclusive on it.
If the publishing of this book isn't the first sign of The Apocalypse, I don't know what is.
As a journalist, a writer, and an author...heck, as a citizen, I'm all for freedom of the press. I would never approve of banning or burning a book, no matter how offensive it was.
But, I have absolutely no problem with the idea of tarring and feathering a publisher, and that's exactly what Rupert Murdoch may do to Judith Regan when this blunder ends up costing HarperCollins millions.
Yes, people are curious. Yes, they'll watch the FOX interview just to see if that psychopathic bozo is actually stupid enough and narcissistic enough to admit to --and brag about -- murdering the mother of his children. But it doesn't cost viewers a penny to watch the interview.
Buying the book, though, is another matter. Shelling out bucks for the hardcover is putting money -- directly or indirectly -- into O.J.'s pocket, and few readers are terribly interested in doing that, especially when they don't have to in order to hear what he's got to say.
They can learn everything from watching the free TV interview. Other authors and publishers have learned the hard way that over-promoting a book can backfire and leave them with unsold and returned books when readers don't bother buying a book they've already learned nearly everything about from the author's TV gabfests with every interviewer on the planet. Even one interview, in which they tell all, or almost all, can kill book sales.
When O.J. talks to Judith Regan for two hours on FOX, he'll no doubt spill his guts on everything a reader would buy the book to learn. He can't sit sit there for two hours and not do that. Even the hint that he did it, and how, is enough to satisfy the curiosity of most viewers who will learn even more by the endless TV and print commentary that's sure to follow. Once readers know all of this, do they need to buy the book and put money in O.J.'s pocket?
Nope. And they won't.
The book will be on the bestseller lists by virtue of initial bookstore orders, but it will soon be de-throned when those books don't sell.
High TV ratings for FOX? You bet.
Big book sales for ReganBooks? Probably not.
And that means that Rupert Murdoch may find himself ripping apart his down comforter.
I have to go re-read Revelations to see if there's any tarring and feathering going on during The Apocalypse.