As was inevitable, OJ's hypothetical confessional has been cancelled... reaffirming the tiny bit of respect I still have for the American people. The Associated Press doesn't seem to understand the real issue, however.
After a firestorm of criticism, News. Corp. said Monday that it has canceled the O.J. Simpson book and TV special "If I Did It.""I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project," said Rupert Murdoch, News Corp. chairman. "We are sorry for any pain that this has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson." ...
For the publishing industry, the cancellation of "If I Did It" was an astonishing end to a story like no other. Numerous books have been withdrawn over the years because of possible plagiarism, most recently Kaavya Viswanathan's "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life," but a book's removal simply for objectionable content is virtually unheard of.
The problem isn't the content, it's that people shouldn't profit from evil, either their own or others'. There have been a slashillion books about OJ's murders that probably had far more content than this book would have had, and they weren't objectionable because OJ didn't create them to profit off his evil.
If I know anything about Judith Regan, the would-be publisher will shop the manuscript around at other companies now that her boss has axed the project.
