This is about the upcoming specials on Fox in which O.J. Simpson will tell us that he didn't savagely murder two people but if he had savagely murdered them, here's how he would have done it…maybe.
A lot of folks are outraged about this and they should be…although as outrages go, it doesn't sound as bad to me as some of the things that are still causing human beings to die and will cause a lot more to perish in the future. I mean, O.J.'s killing spree seems to have stopped at two, whereas the Iraq War is getting people killed every day. So far, 2,850 have died and that's only counting American soldiers, which is all a lot of Americans count anyway. The rate of death is increasing and it will probably continue to increase as long as George W. Bush equates changing plans with losing. And Global Warming may well kill more people per second than Simpson has killed in his entire life. Even if it doesn't turn out to be quite the threat some make it out to be, the suppression of facts about the problem — and reluctance to deal with it honestly — should spark plenty of outrage.
But maybe some of us only have the capacity for outrage over lesser issues, and O.J. Simpson is one of the greater lesser issues. The other night on The Tonight Show, Jay Leno paused in mid-monologue to suggest a nationwide boycott of the companies that sponsor the broadcasts. And Bill O'Reilly told his audience that he will personally boycott the products of those who advertise during the shows. (Actually, since advertisers often buy blocks of commercial time without regard to specific programs, it would be more correct to say he's going to boycott the wares of anyone who doesn't specifically pull their ads from the Simpson shows.) Here are his exact words…
So here's what I'm going to do as a citizen. I'm not going to watch the Simpson show or even look at the book. I'm not even going to look at it. If any company sponsors the TV program, I will not buy anything that company sells — ever.
So here's my question: This is the stand of someone who wants companies to be financially discouraged from supporting things like the Simpson programs. But the corporation that stands to benefit most from those shows is Fox Broadcasting, owner of both the network airing the O.J. programs and the news channel that airs O'Reilly's series. Does it make a lot of sense to boycott Harry's Cheese Doodles because they bought a package of advertising on Fox and didn't demand that none of their spots air during the O.J. shows…but not boycott Fox for airing the shows at all? For that matter, those Simpson hours will contain commercials for other Fox programming. There'll be a lot of Fox promos if most advertisers pull their commercials. If there's an ad in there for Fox News, does that mean that O'Reilly will have to boycott his own channel? That he can appear on it but not watch it?
This could be interesting.