Now, some people may question why OJ Simpson’s sentencing is being blogged about. And here’s the rub: the OJ Simpson trail (the first one, not the current one) was the flash point for the melding of tabloid news and actual news.
Think about where you were when Orenthal J Simpson was declared not guilty by a jury. I was in a classroom, because they literally stopped class for the verdict. Not only that, but because of the media circus surrounding the day-to-day in the trial, the sudden celebrity status for the lawyers, and SNL skits of Judge Ito transformed the process in the public eye. When OJ got off, some saw it as a man getting away with murder and others as vindication that a jury of random people also saw inherent racism and misconduct by California Police.
If the OJ Simpson trail didn’t convince local and cable news shows that tabloid journalism sells when human interest stories come about, we wouldn’t have the same news we have today. Type “missing girl” into Google. 80% of those stories would go away, or at least be relegated to local news where reporting on them does some actual good, outside of locking people to the nightly news broadcast so you can pull on their heartstrings. Britney Spears being hospitalized would have gotten some coverage, but CNN wouldn’t have cut in with a live feed.
Paris Hilton going to jail? It wouldn’t have been that big of a deal.
Regardless of OJ being innocent or guilty of murder or this Vegas theft is irrelevant (though we’ll post full details under the cut), what’s important is that American Pop Culture’s news/tabloid focal point couldn’t stay out of trouble and learned the hard way that tabloid journalism has spun out of control in the years since his first crime.
We’ve never cared about OJ Simpson, but we’ll always care about murder trials, celebrity racism, mental breakdowns, cautionary tales of rehab, infidelity and missing children.
We bet that when OJ gets released, no one will write about it…
From CNN:
“I stand here today sorry, somewhat confused. I feel apologetic to people of state of Nevada,” Simpson began. At times, he appeared to be fighting tears as he spoke.
Judge Jackie Glass said she was surprised Simpson chose to address the court. She added that the words he spoke in court were not as powerful as his words, as caught on tape, during the confrontation.
“Everything in this case was on tape,” Glass said. ” And its your own words, Mr. Simpson, you own words … that that brought you here to this seat in my courtroom. The evidence in this case was overwhelming.”
She continued, “You went to the room. You took guns. You used force. You took property, and in this state, that amounts to robbery with the use of a deadly weapon.”
Simpson, who wore blue jail scrubs to court for Friday’s sentencing, did not testify during his trial. He was convicted of armed robbery, kidnapping and assault on October 3 — 13 years to the day after his acquittal in the killings of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Lyle Goldman.
Simpson’s tone became more impassioned as he insisted he never intended to intimidate people or steal property.
“I didn’t want to steal anything from anybody,” Simpson said, adding that among the items he sought to recover were a wedding ring for his daughter and family photos for his son.
“I just wanted my personal things. I was stupid. I’m sorry. I didn’t know I was doing anything illegal. I thought I was confronting friends. I thought I was retrieving my things. I didn’t mean to hurt anybody and I didn’t mean to steal anything,” Simpson said.
