Risky Bet Pays Off for BET’s Interview : Anchor Happy With the Outcome of a ‘No-Win Situation’

Ed Gordon woke up Thursday, looked in the mirror and felt good about the job he had done.

It was the morning after his involvement in one of the most highly scrutinized television events in recent memory: his one-hour live interview with O.J. Simpson on Black Entertainment Television.

For hours, legal pundits, media critics and callers to talk-radio shows had been weighing in with their impressions of the interview and Simpson. Many praised Gordon and his probing questions to the former football star, who was acquitted last October of the murders of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Lyle Goldman. Others criticized him, saying he was too soft on Simpson and did not press him enough concerning the mound of evidence allegedly linking him to the slayings.

Gordon, 35, had known going in that it was something of a no-win situation for him.

“But I think the interview went fairly well, all things considered,” he said. “We went in knowing that O.J. had been advised not to talk about certain things. But we tried to get him to deal with some issues and to speak from the heart. When he became angry as he was talking about the statements by the Goldman and Brown family, and about how people were saying he was not keeping a low profile, even the most skeptical viewer could see he was speaking from the heart.”

Added Gordon: “All I wanted was to wake up Thursday morning after the interview, look in the mirror and tell myself I did a good job and that I was fair. And I did that this morning.”

But that’s not all that happened to Gordon after he woke up. The newsman, who in seven years as BET anchor has attracted relatively little attention despite his interviews with President Clinton, Nelson Mandela and media-shy singer Janet Jackson, found himself facing a whirlwind of nonstop interviews with national morning news programs, radio talk shows and newspaper journalists--catapulted to the center ring of the media circus that is O.J.

“Yes, people are clearly ‘discovering’ me,” Gordon said. “It’s a little tiring. But every journalist hopes that one day they get an interview that generates this much interest. I just didn’t want to become part of the story.”

Becoming part of the story generated more than a little aggravation for Gordon and BET, the cable network targeted for African Americans that is seen in more than 44 million households. Already criticized for its predominant focus on music videos and entertainment, many people wondered whether Gordon would grill Simpson as intently as they felt a so-called mainstream television journalist would.

Much of that criticism was prompted by BET’s steady airing of a commercial for a video Simpson is selling by mail order for $29.95 that supposedly goes into great detail about his side of the story surrounding the murders. Simpson agreed to the BET interview largely to promote the video.

“I was frustrated and a little disappointed on two ends,” Gordon related. “I felt that I just should have been allowed to conduct the interview, then people could have said, ‘He threw softballs and it was a waste of time’ or ‘He did a good job.’ Most of the journalists saying all these things about me beforehand, about me being compromised, didn’t know anything about me, had never seen me do an interview.

“Plus there were all these whispers that O.J. Simpson was going to get an easy ride from me because he was being interviewed by a black man. With that reasoning, you could say to a white person, ‘Did you pick a white interviewer because they would be easy on you?’ ”

Added Gordon: “It was a no-win situation no matter what happened. People would say, ‘The kid was great’ or ‘He stunk.’ I can’t think about that. All I can do is go out and do the best job that I can. One of the hardest situations is to conduct a live interview with millions of people watching. All you can do is do your best.”

To prepare for the interview, Gordon sequestered himself and did research, calling up journalists he respected to get advice. “On Wednesday, in the hours before the interview, I spent a lot of time alone, gathering my thoughts,” he said.

He said he was not horribly nervous as the time for the interview neared. But the butterflies in his stomach became a bit more active when Simpson was caught in traffic on the way to the Burbank studio and didn’t show up on time.

“I had all this adrenaline that was ready to go, and it had to sit on hold,” Gordon said.

Then Simpson arrived and the pair quickly went on the air. Although Gordon stumbled a little over his first question, he settled down and the session proceeded smoothly.

Although he stayed focused during the interview, Gordon said he found himself looking outside at the event during certain moments.

“When his emotions came out, his remorse, his in-your-face to the media, I really felt, ‘This is O.J. Simpson talking. This is not a guy trying to sell a video.’ When those moments were there, it was worth all of the scrutiny and all of the knocks that we took.”

Gordon has been BET’s anchor since 1988, having previously served as the network’s Detroit reporter. He is the host of “Conversations With Ed Gordon,” a one-on-one interview show, and “Lead Story,” a round-table talk show.

Although the Simpson interview brought the network an unprecedented amount of publicity, “I am mindful that memories are very short. We will go back to being just BET in everyone’s eyes tomorrow. In two weeks, we will be just BET.”

And as for him? Gordon said he has no plans to capitalize immediately on his moment in the spotlight.

“BET has offered me an opportunity to do fantastic things,” he said. “The networks are looking at me now, and I want to grow in my career. I don’t see retiring at BET, but I won’t say I’m walking out the door tomorrow. Whether others come shopping, that’s on them.”