Gee, Ya Think?

Someone over at News Corporation - chairman Rupert Murdoch, for one - should have realized a long time ago that this would end badly. Very badly.

HarperCollins, a publishing company owned by Murdoch, announced that they would publish If I Did It, by former football star/actor/double murderer O.J. Simpson. And Fox, a television network also owned by Murdoch, announced that they would air a two-part interview billed as his "confession."

Yes, O.J. Simpson, You know, the guy whose "Trial of the Century" for killing Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, his ex-wife and her friend, captivated America during the mid-nineties. The guy who to this day scours the golf courses of Florida looking for "the real killers." That O.J. Simpson.

Where most Americans see someone who literally got away with murder, HarperCollins publisher Judith Regan saw dollar signs. More dollar signs, in fact, because she was the person who would have interviewed Simpson for the Fox special. Indeed, the entire spectacle reeked of greed, ratings and publicity.

Not only that, there are reports that News Corporation attempted to buy the Brown family's silence with millions of dollars in hush money. And the company is reportedly attempting to sell the book to another publisher.

Granted, bad taste has never stopped Murdoch before. After all, his Fox network brought us such televised abominations as:

• Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire?, featuring a "millionaire" with restraining orders filed against him by numerous ex-girlfriends
• The Swan, in which the "winner" of a beauty pageant whose contestants underwent cosmetic surgery was served with divorce papers on live TV
• Who's Your Daddy?, where various men tried to con a woman adopted at birth into thinking he was her real birth father

But something about this one struck a public nerve. It was so crass, so tacky, so tasteless, that America responded with one gigantic retch.

For once, Murdoch listened. The TV special will not be aired. The book will not be published, although a couple of already-shipped copies are reportedly for sale on eBay.

Maybe it was because we're sick unto death of O.J. smugly insisting that he's innocent, all the while smirking at the thought there are some rubes out there who fall for it. Maybe it's the reported $3 million price tag, surely a low point in checkbook journalism. And maybe it was the sheer cheek of tabloid TV and tabloid publishing attempting to get away with ever more outrageous publicity stunts.

But whatever the reason, the American people have spoken, loudly and plainly. And good on us for it.