‘If I Did It’ is done
TEXT OF STORY
SCOTT JAGOW: Rupert Murdoch has obviously made a lot of good business decisions in his life, but now he admits publishing a book by O.J. Simpson wasn’t one of them. Murdoch’s News Corp. has decided to stop the presses a week before the book was supposed to come out, and Fox won’t be airing a TV interview about it either. The book, “If I Did It” were about Simpson how Simpson would have carried out the murders of his wife and her friend had he done it. More now from Ashley Milne-Tyte.
ASHLEY MILNE-TYTE: News Corp was hit with a blizzard of criticism from the victims’ families and members of the public, but also from Fox affiliate stations and advertisers.
Porter Bibb of Media Tech Capital Partners says the comments of Bill O’Reilly and Geraldo Rivera may have tipped the balancea€¦
PORTER BIBB:“It was his own top media stars who are not known for any lack of sensationalism who urged him to back off of this ill-conceived project.”
In all, News Corp will lose about $3 million by scrapping the book and the TV interview.
John Higgins is with Broadcasting and Cable Magazine. He calls the O.J. project tasteless, but says the cancellation gives him pausea€¦
JOHN HIGGINS:“It is a little on the scary side when a really big, massive TV network can be ploughed under by just, you know, public screaming.”
He worries that future outcries could result in the pulling of content that actually deserves to be made public.
In New York, I’m Ashley Milne-Tyte for Marketplace.
John Higgins, editor of Broadcasting and Cable Magazine, died Monday night of a heart attack. He was 45.
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