O.J. Simpson Blasts Media For Excessive Celebrity Coverage

[matcom]

:rofl:

<snip>

NEW YORK It's not every day you get a phone message from O.J. Simpson. But in the process of completing a story for E&P's next print issue about Associated Press reporter Linda Deutsch, the longtime AP scribe known for her courtroom coverage revealed that she was among the very few reporters to whom Simpson still spoke.

So I called Simpson for a comment about Deutsch, and he returned the call. He confirmed his admiration and appreciation for her fair reporting during his 1995 murder trial. He was acquitted of murdering his wife and her friend Ron Goldman then, but subsequently lost a civil suit brought by the Goldman family. But that tribute to Deutsch turned into a lengthy commentary about the media, with Simpson claiming celebrity coverage has only worsened since he went to court.

"When Paris Hilton was going to jail last week, more people knew about that than knew that we were sending people into space that day," Simpson said in a phone interview from Miami. "It has replaced what is real news. There was always a place for it, but it was Rona Barrett. Now it is the equivalent of Edward R. Murrow reporting it today."

Simpson, who spoke on his cell phone while returning from an early morning round of golf, said he still gets up to five calls a week from reporters seeking comment -- but declines virtually all of them. "People ask me about Paris Hilton, when Ricky Williams was in trouble, Pac Man Jones," he said. "Everything went through, I know about. But why do I want to talk to the media? If I comment, it becomes a story."

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003597024

[kwassa]

1. OJ loved being a celebrity, and still does.

Aside from his own courting of the media, I used to see him around Westwood, West LA area in the years before the murder. He liked being in public and being recognized, just ate it up.

It turns out that my bank on San Vincente in Brentwood was also his bank, and where his wife kept her safe deposit box. I saw him there a couple of times. I also got stuck behind him in traffic on Wilshire; he drove a red Ferrari Testarossa, with the windows down so he could be seen.

[johnnie]

2. Well, he's right

No?

[RetroLounge]

3. I would say, yes, he is correct...

RL

[DarienComp]

4. Pssst, OJ....

...you're not helping.

[nini]

5. "If I comment, it becomes a story."

ahhh.. he'll never change - I knew if I read far enough in this it would some how become about him in some way :puke: