What is left to say about O.J. Simpson?
I wish my job did not require me to care about O. J. Simpson. I am not a sport's fan. So I have no particular admiration or interest in his achievements as an athlete. I know Simpson primarily as a defendant in a double murder trial that turned into pop-culture spectacle that revealed this country's almost pornographic fascination for celebrity and crime. That fascination remains. "If I Did It" has Simpson's take on what, to most of us, would be unimaginable, and that book is upon this writing holding at No. 3 among Amazon.com's bestsellers. In an interview with FOX News yesterday, Thomas Ricco, the man who allegedly set up (and tape-recorded) the incident at Palace Station claims that in exchange for his efforts, Simpson had agreed to sign 200 copies of "If I did It" for Ricco to sell. It is interesting that this seems to indicate that even to sports-memorabilia dealers the most valuable use of Simpson's name is connected to murder, not athletics.
And, by the way, Ricco claims in that interview that he has many more hours of tapes connected to this event. My prediction is that excerpts from those tapes will appear piecemeal and be endlessly debated by the media in the days ahead. This is how the media have learned to keep the momentum of a story going even when the case doesn't have any new developments. There is going to be a wait before Simpson's trial. Through coverage like the remaining tapes, usually offered as new bombshells, the story continues outside the legal events. The news is the trial, but the interest is now and so there will be programming now.
Reality, crime and celebrity can't be beat as a nexus that brings hits to websites, viewers to television and even might offer some help to newspapers. Ultimately, there will likely be another O. J. Simpson trial, and almost garishly fitting, this one in Las Vegas (the best place on Earth to be on a major media expense account). This is an ideal time for the Las Vegas media to lead the way in putting the importance of O. J. Simpson into a reasonable perspective. There are vastly more defining, important and even interesting things than this man for Southern Nevada's residents to stay informed about.
Much programing on television today (from cable news coverage to "reality" shows) seems designed to sate the public appetites exposed by the O. J. Simpson trial. After his acquittal, the public has wanted more of the same. Now it has happened. This incident is a farce compared to the double murder trial. But the joy at the end is revenge against a man whom the public so reviles. A fantasy fulfilled, and a sequel. And this time they have him on tape; this time there is a mountain of evidence. Oh, wait ...
So, here I am writing about O. J. Simpson, but is there anything left to say?