Plug Pulled on O.J. Book, Interview

If O.J. Simpson gives a pseudoconfession and no one hears it, does it still count?

That's the brainteaser of the day, as News Corp., responding to massive public outcry and severe criticism from the families of Ronald Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson, as well as the former football star's lawyer and even Fox News stalwarts Bill O'Reilly and Geraldo Rivera, has yanked his much-hyped book and TV interview.

Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corp. owns both Fox, which was set to air the stunt interview, and Regan Books, which was due to publish the would-be tell-all, made the announcement Monday.

"I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project," he said. "We are sorry for any pain that this has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson."

The sudden face-saving bout of good taste comes after 12 Fox affiliated nationwide pulled the plug on broadcasting the two-night special If I Did It, scheduled to air Nov. 27 and 29.

The one-on-one interview, in which Simpson graphically described to publisher Judith Regan how he would have carried out the 1994 murders of Brown and Goldman had he been the killer, was based on—and propaganda for—the book O.J.: If I Did It, Here's How It Happened, which had been slated to hit store shelves Nov. 30.

"The Goldmans acknowledge that while News Corp. has now accepted responsibility for its deplorable decisions made in the past, it does not undo the damage to the families of the victims," the family said in a statement. "The Goldmans look forward to continuing their investigation into the circumstances surrounding this book deal and holding those persons accountable who may have acted in concert with Simpson to defraud the Goldmans."

Simpson's attorney, Yale Galanter, told the Associated Press that his client was "totally indifferent about the fact that it's been canceled." Galanter said he didn't know the terms of Simpson's deal and whether the cancellation would affect any payment. 

Simpson was acquitted in a criminal trial for the 1994 murders but was later found liable for their deaths in a civil case and ordered to pay their families $33.5 million, very little of which has been handed over.

Earlier Monday, Pappas Broadcasting and Lin Broadcasting announced they were bailing on the interview. The former, which run stations in Fresno, California, as well as Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska, said it did not want to help Simpson profit from the project, despite Regan's assertion last week that all proceeds from the book would be donated to charity. Lin, meanwhile, said the TV special was not in viewers' best interests, and yanked it from stations in Toledo, Ohio; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Providence, Rhode Island.

The scuttling of the dual Simpson projects comes just a week after they were first announced and three days after Goldman's family launched an online petition urging the public to boycott Fox, Regan Books, Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com and several other companies that were allegedly facilitating Simpson to profit from book sales promoted by the interview.

The Website, www.dontpayoj.com, launched last week and had garnered upward of 47,000 signatures before News Corp.'s announcement. The petition listed the addresses and phone numbers for the companies involved in both projects and—successfully, it seems—urged users to contact the involved businesses and express their disgust.

"This man is a vicious killer," the petition reads. "He brutally murdered two innocent people. Now he wants to glorify and benefit from his crimes.

"He should be shunned and ignored by both the media and the public. If we are to live in a remotely just society, a line of decency must be drawn."

Ron Goldman's father, Fred, meanwhile, dubbed the book and the special "sick."

"He destroyed my son and took from my family Ron's future and life," the elder Goldman told ABC News. "And for that, I'll hate him always and find him despicable." 

Last week, Nicole's sister Denise Brown issued a similar sentiment.

"We hope Ms. Regan takes full accountability for promoting the wrongdoing of criminals and leveraging this forum and the actions of Simpson to commercialize abuse," she said in a statement.

Simpson's longtime lawyer Galanter has also taken pains to distance himself from the hypothetical tell-all, speaking with a plethora of willing outlets to pronounce his innocence in the project's conception.

In the latest issue of Newsweek, Galanter says he was kept completely in the dark about both the book's publication and the subsequent Fox special. He claims that the first time he heard about the projects was when the public had—last week, when promos for the special, in which Simpson described the copious amounts of blood that would likely have been at the crime scene, began airing on the network.

"I definitely would not have approved this," Galanter tells the magazine. "I wouldn't have done it for a gazillion dollars."

Dubbing any profits "blood money" and claiming he's "pissed" that Simpson kept him out of the loop, Galanter nevertheless admits that the would-have-been memoir was done with the blessing of Simpson's four children—two of whom he had with Nicole Brown—and that they, along with Regan, were the only ones who knew about the controversial deal prior to last week. All four children, however, have refused to speak about the book in public—a pact they're unlikely to break anytime soon.

Even Regan—who, along with Simpson, has become the face of the controversy, having both agreed to publish the book and conduct the TV interview—has tried to spin her role.

Last week, she issued a lengthy statement denying that her company paid Simpson or that he would in any way profit from the projects, claiming all proceeds were earmarked for charity. She declined to discuss who may have ponied up the reported $3.5 million Simpson received for his hypothetical musings.

What she did discuss was her motivation for pursuing the pact.

Regan, who admitted she was a victim of domestic abuse, said she wanted to coax Simpson, whom she liberally referred to throughout her statement as "the killer," into confessing to the two murders and to seek closure on her own history of violence. However, she took pains to make clear that her involvement in both controversial projects was not meant to be seen as support for Simpson.

" 'To publish' does not mean 'to endorse,' " she said. "I never lost my desire for his conviction. And if Marcia Clark couldn't do it, I sure wanted to try."

For all the publicity stirred up by Fox & Co.—and it was momentous—Galanter told Newsweek that the firestorm may have been much ado about nothing. Of the now-defunct book's seven chapters, just one of them dealt directly with the murder and at no point did Simpson even come close to claiming he was the killer.