Murdoch cancels OJ interview

2006-11-21 07:28

Los Angeles - Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch on Monday cancelled "ill-considered" plans for a book and interview by OJ Simpson and apologised to relatives of the American football star's alleged murder victims.

In a dramatic climbdown that followed a wave of revulsion over the proposed Simpson media blitz, Australian-born magnate Murdoch said News Corp was pulling the plug on both a book and two-part television interview.

"I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project," Murdoch said in a statement.

"We are sorry for any pain this has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown-Simpson."

Fox Broadcasting said last week Simpson would conduct a two-part interview entitled If I Did It, Here's How It Happened, chronicling how he would have murdered his ex-wife and her friend in 1994 - if he were the killer.

Simpson, who always has vehemently denied the killings, was acquitted of the brutal slayings after a racially charged trial in 1995, a verdict that was greeted with widespread outrage across America.

The former sports star was subsequently found liable for the deaths in a 1997 civil suit and was ordered to pay damages to the victims' families totalling $33.5m.

$3.5m for book

According to one report, Simpson was due to receive $3.5m for a book titled If I Did It that was due to be published by ReganBooks, an imprint of News Corp's HarperCollins publishing division on November 30.

A statement from the publishers promised Simpson's book would deliver "a bone-chilling account of the night of the murders".

But news of the Simpson media blitz sparked howls of condemnation, with the families of victims leading a chorus of disgust.

Fred Goldman, the father of Ron Goldman, described the book as "sick" and "morally despicable", voicing astonishment that Simpson had found a publisher and a television network willing to give him air time.

The Goldman family welcomed News Corps decision to yank the book and television interview in a statement on Monday, but said they were still seeking an explanation over how the project had been conceived.

Criticism

The Simpson project also brought blanket criticism across the media, not least from several prominent Fox television journalists and affiliates.

Bill O'Reilly, the host of Fox News's The O'Reilly Factor, said Fox's decision to air the programme was "simply indefensible and a low point in American culture" while a Fox anchor in Los Angeles decried it as "disgusting".

O'Reilly later vowed to boycott the book, the interview and any companies that paid for advertising slots during the programme.

"I'm not going to watch the Simpson show or even look at the book," he said. "If any company sponsors the TV programme, I will not buy anything that company sells - ever."

- AFP