O.J. Simpson -- dead

Wonder what percentage of the country will see it. I mean, A1s are pretty obsolete in a general sense.

 

Meanwhile, unsolved murders in the U.S. at record high. NPR link won't post.

 

I went to an inner-city high school, but one that was very diverse. All sorts of different people there. It was a great experience overall, but maybe made me a little naive on race. I had a few friends that went to suburban schools who probably never interacted with a black person. Crap, I have a friend as an adult who grew up in the same area who actually asked me a few years ago if I knew any black people.

Anyway, the day of the verdict, which was during my senior year, was such an eye-opener regarding it all. Rodney King was of course very understandable, but half the school cheering for the OJ result, and loudly like all the pretty common media pictures out there, was a pretty interesting experience. I just kind of soaked it all in. Not ever going to pretend to know what sparked that reaction.

 

Mildly. Also kind of serious. The dump button needed to be hit sooner, but they also are getting people who sound serious in vetting but then go crazy.

I also think in the 30 years since Stern played the greatest troll job in media history, they've gotten better about weeding the nonsense out.

 

You forgot the quotes

 

I don't care ... and I didn't care all that much back then either.

I get the prurient interest of it all. I watched the chase with college buddies and we were as captivated as anyone was.

However, the year-long obsession with it after the fact caused me a lot of disillusionment. It was definitely the breaking point for me in caring about celebrity culture, I found it so empty. I found the fascination with it depressing and inch-deep. I hate to reduce a murder case to a metaphor so comparatively trivial, but after a while, the constant coverage of it came off to me like an over-played song on the radio. I got so sick of it.

And I get it, he was famous, there was mystery involved, a beautiful victim, an innocent victim, etc., but the emotions it generated (and still does) just baffled me.

O.J. being free or in jail the rest of his life did not affect my life one iota, so why on Earth would I spend that much emotion on it? And not to sound callous, but Nicole Simpson being semi-famous and glamourous doesn't mean I was invested about who killed her anymore than the tons of anonymous unsolved murders that we never hear a thing about. That part of it bugged me too. The worship of celebrity is something I've always bristled at.

It also permanently made me cynical about our own business, even as I was just breaking into it. I had a class right before I graduated where the professor said that the OJ trial was validation that cameras belong in the courtroom. Even then, I was like, not necessarily. I saw a lot of playing to the cameras that had zero to do with jurisprudence or journalism.

The one thing all of the attention did create, but with years of hindsight to provide perspective, was the fantastic O.J. Made In America doc. That is one of the best docs I've ever seen. And given my animosity towards the subject matter? That made it even better because I was not pre-disposed to be into it.

 

I was at the office for the verdict. My coworkers and I ended up watching on TVs in different rooms, completely divided by race. We heard cheering from the room where my black coworkers were and our room - where the white staffers were - was stunned silence. Then we went back to our desks like nothing happened.

 

Stern was not in on it. He encouraged the Baba Booey calls, but he didn't plan them.

 

I'm too young to remember the actual start, I thought Stern came up with the idea and encouraged anyone to get on TV or radio and drop it. Not that he got on the air and said "hey there's breaking news, I need listeners to get on CNN" but rather started the fire and saw where it spread.

I'm happy to learn the actual start, however. That is just where I thought it came from.

 

This is the NYT online headline:

O.J. Simpson, Football Star Whose Trial Riveted the Nation, Dies at 76

WTF?