How O.J. Simpson’s Impact on Media Coverage Still Leaves Mixed Feelings Among Broadcast Journalists
variety.comMichael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Dan Abrams has enjoyed a tremendously successful career, which currently includes roles as chief legal analyst at ABC News and host of NewsNation’s “Dan Abrams Live.” But he knows it was the O.J.
Simpson murder trial almost 30 years ago that put him on the map — and he has complicated feelings about it. “I’ve always had a little bit of guilt about the idea that the murderers of two innocent people helped start my career,” says Abrams, who was working for Court TV at the time. “But it was a legal event, and I was covering the legal story.” Abrams obviously wasn’t the only one.
There has never been a media frenzy quite like the one that surrounded Simpson, a once-beloved sports icon who was accused of killing his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ron Goldman.
Although he was acquitted of those charges, Simpson was then found liable for their deaths in civil court. Simpson’s death on April 10 — of prostate cancer at age 76 — gave journalists a reason to reflect on the lasting impact of Simpson on TV news both in Los Angeles and nationwide. “It was not a great story to cover.
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