Simpson and Media: More Like a Sick Love Affair

Hardly anybody will run ads for his video, but O.J. Simpson doesn’t need them.

Without spending a dime, he’s taken control of the flow of news in his case, dominating print and the airwaves, becoming the newest and most celebrated master of spin.

Take Tuesday, for example.

At 8 a.m. he was on the morning radio show “House Party” on 92.3 FM, The Beat, plugging the video and answering questions for an hour about a number of matters, including his love life. (He hangs out with close friends and isn’t serious about anybody.)

The Beat’s Dennis Cruz told me that House Party show host John London had been offended by the media’s refusal to carry ads for the Simpson video. In view of the acquittal verdicts, London didn’t think it fair. So on Friday’s program, he invited Simpson to call and pitch his book for two minutes. Friends alerted Simpson, who quickly was on the phone to the station.

London invited Simpson to call again. That’s why he was on House Party on Tuesday, a lucky choice since The Beat was broadcasting to a New York station that day.

Finished with The Beat, Simpson turned to television. At 9:57 a.m. Tuesday, Greta Van Susteren and Roger Cossack of CNN’s “Burden of Proof” were discussing the Simpson story with their attorney panelists when Van Susteren exclaimed, “I’ve got to interrupt one second. We’ve got O.J. Simpson on the phone.”

Can you think of anyone in America, or the world, who could call up a network and get on the air immediately? Even President Clinton sometimes has trouble getting his press conferences on national television.

*

And Clinton couldn’t count on being welcomed with such enthusiasm and consideration.

“O.J., do you have anything to say?” asked Susteren.

It turned out Simpson called because he didn’t like what was said by one of the guests, Harvey Levin, who covers the case for KCBS, Channel 2.

The disagreement revolved around exactly when Simpson had placed a call to his girlfriend, Paula Barbieri, the night Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were murdered. Simpson said Levin was wrong about the time.

“He totally misrepresented it there,” Simpson said. “And that’s what they do time and time again.”

When Levin came back with what he considered documentation of his point, Simpson interrupted and said, “I’m gone, thank you, bye.”

Probably if President Clinton--and certainly if Hillary Clinton--had given such a brushoff to a questioner on national television, it would have set off waves of attack editorials and commentaries. But with O.J., it’s “Thanks for calling, thanks for being evasive, thanks for treating us like idiots.”

Our relationship with O.J. is more like a sick love affair than the usual dealings between media and sources.

With a few exceptions, O.J. doesn’t like the media. But, like a politician, he needs the broadcast and print press, especially now when he is trying to rebuild his image and sell videos in the face of the advertising blacklist. He can’t do without us.

And we can’t do without him.

Although the media has a legendary short attention span, we continue to be attracted to Simpson. In newsrooms around town, journalists joke about the phone calls--and hope they get one.

And here I am, as weak as the rest, drawn back to the Simpson story after I thought it had ended with the verdicts.

*

Fathoming this weird relationship is as difficult as understanding why some couples simultaneously love and hate each other.

When will it end? When will we be free of each other?

We’ll know on some future day in some unknown newsroom when the phone rings:

“Hi. It’s O.J.”

“Great to hear from you, O.J. Can you call me back? I’m on deadline.”