Cal Thomas weighs in on the aborted O.J. special:
"Even more bizarre than the prospect of O.J. Simpson "confessing" to the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman in a book and TV show and getting a few million for it (proving crime can pay) was the cancellation of both by Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corporation. The most often heard indictment of this project was that the deal had 'crossed the line.'
"Ultimately, O.J. Simpson getting millions to spill his guts after being convicted in a civil case and in the public consciousness of spilling the blood of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman should not surprise anyone. It is what happens, not when a line is crossed, but when a line has been erased."
That was more or less Rush Limbaugh's take on the situation, though his viewpoint was actually a thinly-veiled defense of his former publisher Judith Regan.
But both Thomas and Limbaugh are right. Look at what people are doing on TV these days. I was just thinking about that as I looked down at the urinal at a rest stop somewhere in Virginia. I haven't seen anyone lick a toilet bowl on TV for a million dollars, but they've performed equally gross acts. And Thomas ceretainly has a point about women mentioning male body fluids on TV. I admit "Sex and the City" is one of my favorite TV shows, mostly because the acting and writing are excellent. But I'm amazed at what TBS considers to be the sanitized version of the show it airs every Tuesday night. They've cut out the "f" word and frontal nudity, but that's about it.
If you remember a couple of years back, another famous social outcast spilled his guts to the world, and the world reacted quite harshly. I personally was shocked at the indignation expressed by many to Pete Rose's admission that he bet on baseball. Fellow fans told me how sick it made them, his book was trashed by critics and there's no indication baseball will reinstate him. I found his book very entertaining and still don't understand why, with the love-your-enemy mentality in this country, baseball and society can't forgive Rose. What he did was wrong, but at least he didn't kill two people.
So while "the line" has faded, there still is a line. O.J. just can't say "if I did it." He's going to have to say "I did it." Someday he will, and I guarantee that interview won't be cancelled.