Rupert Murdoch Does the Right Thing

I wasn’t going to blog about abominable book deal that OJ Simpson had with Harper Collins simply because I didn’t want to waste bandwidth on such a disgusting thing but now that Rupert Murdoch has pulled the plug and apologized for the deal I have to give him credit for that. I’m glad he did it and I’m glad he apologized to the families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman but there is one question that I’d still like to have answered: What in the HELL were they thinking when they planned it?

Actually, I know what they were thinking — big ratings and big bucks. The book was number 39 on Amazon a month before it was even published. Which says two things to me, 1.) Harper-Collins knew full well what they were doing and 2.) the public appetite for depravity is bottomless. I hope everyone who ordered it is ashamed of themselves but I know enough to know they won’t be. But how in heaven’s name could anyone with any kind of moral core at all think of publishing such an atrocity while the families of the murdered are still alive and still in pain? I just don’t get it.

I’m not going to go into detail about Simpson’s role in all of this. He got off due to some legal shenanigans that are a disgrace but, nonetheless, he’s a free man. Let him sink into obscurity where he belongs. But the publishing industry is another matter.

There’s a big question to be considered here — are Americans really depraved, sensation-seeking dullards who simply cannot get enough of scandal because that is who we are, or is this a monster that the media has created with its bottomless ability to sniff out and sensationalize anything that falls outside the most rigid of values. I don’t know. I grew up Catholic and had 12 years of Catholic education so it’s not like I haven’t been exposed to plenty of moral judgement. But what I learned in all of that is that, while it is our responsibility to avoid bad behavior and to discourage it in others, judgement, ultimately, belongs to a Higher Authority. That’s not really what the issue is though. The issue is the pornographic sensationalizing of bad behavior.

On the one hand I think it is a good thing that the abuse of children, women, employees — especially illegal employees — has been made public but the flip side is the chronic lust to expose behavior that is not appropriate but is between consenting adults and none of our business. Particularly in the case of unmarried adults involved in affairs of whatever nature. People have been copulating outside of marriage since marriage was invented — who doesn’t know that? When did it become our business? I’d be sick of all the Hollywood celeb couples if I paid attention to them but since I don’t know who’s mating with whom and who is making babies with whom I really don’t care. But apparently a lot of people do. What is all this fascination with scandal? Somebody please tell me.

See, I suspect there is a dark side. I love a good conspiracy theory as much as the next blogger and I think we’ve got one here. The media wants us to be fascinated by the mating habits of Hollywood nincompoops and the glorification of sensational crime so we don’t pay attention to what is going on in our government and in the world. We are in trouble folks! The coffers are being depleted in an unjust war, the environment is in big trouble, the Constitution is being undermined and eroded, our children and grandchildren are going to inherit a country deeply in debt with many, many enemies. These are not good things. We don’t want to think about them. So we divert ourselves with trash.

Who knows — maybe now OJ will have a shot at Dancing With the Stars...

Thanks for reading.