Common sense meets fair and balanced

Rupert Murdoch tested the wind this morning and quickly decided that the stench of his company's project with O. J. Simpson perhaps was getting a tad too strong.

Murdoch announced for the Fox Corporation today that it was cancelling plans for a book and television special with the nation's most famous acquitted celebrity. Calling the projcet as "ill considered", Murdoch lowered the boom, perhaps reacting to the outrage of some of his own networks affialiates who were refusing to air the show.

O. J. was going to engage in the timeless exercise of "What If", a rather surreal and disgusting bit of theatre which would have O. J. describe how he might have murdered his ex wife Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman on that infamous Brentwood day.

It's a rather despicable reminder to everyone that O. J. still walks the streets supposedly in quest of the "real killers" from that day. A reminder that seemed to touch a raw nerve in American society, as they recoiled in horror at the prospect of O. J. sitting down to explain how he might go about cutting someone's throat should he have been so inclined.

Suddenly the folks at Fox got the shivers, the always controversial Geraldo Rivera said that this was too much for him and even Bill O'Reilly spoke out against his paymasters regarding the project. Coming to the conclusion that perhaps Fox wasn't on the right side of the Angels on this one, Murdoch announced the cancellation of the entire concept.

O. J. will have received another blast of the media attention he seems to crave, Fox takes a black eye for even contemplating such a heinous adventure and the ex Mrs. Simpson and Mr. Goldman are still dead, their murderer(s?) still unconvicted in a court of law.

Now the court of public attention? The jury still out on that one, though they issued a judicial warning of sorts with their disgust at such a projcet.

All that's left to ask is why won't O. J. just go away. The only thing the world really wants to hear from the guy is a confession, or the unlikely premise that the results of his "search for the killers" has paid off. Self promoting blatherings at the expense of the surviving families most of us could do without out, we would hope. Though the sad thing is, most likely his book and TV show probably would have been successful in the sales department and in the viewers logs, the public's insatiable demand for scandal would guarantee it. Which probably says more about us than it does about Simpson.

We don't often find much positive to say about Fox and its approach to current affairs, but their conversion to the land of common sense this time around is welcome and should be applauded, though with a healthy bit of distaste for their coming up with the idea in the first place.