Media Coverage of the O.J. Simpson Trial

The O.J. Simpson criminal case had all the ingredients that tabloid journalists crave. Simpson was, of course, a celebrity. In addition, he was attractive, as were the murder victims. Spicing up the case were the added, forbidden elements of race and sex: "America's dirty little secret--the obsession with race and sex that had haunted the nation since the days of slavery and was always just below the surface of civilized discourse."

The O.J. Simpson criminal case was the victim of a media snowball effect. Television stations that aired the trial were rewarded with sensational ratings: "CNN's ratings increased five-fold when it televised the Simpson proceedings." Once competing television stations started airing the trial, other stations had no choice but to follow suit. As the competition frenzy deepened, television stations resorted to leading off their news broadcasts with minor trivia related to the trial. Coverage of the Simpson trial often pre-empted news of much greater importance to society, a pheno

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Simpson case before it went to trial. Even though jurors pledged their impartiality and their willingness to disregard prior information, it was almost impossible to eliminate the pre-trial effect of the massive media coverage of the case. For this reason, Judge Lance Ito, who presided over the legal proceedings, ordered the jurors not to view pertinent media publicity, and isolated them during the trial. Granted, the Simpson trial had some benefits. In fact, the trial was akin to a "full employment act" for legal analysts and minority journalists. Every television station employed a battery of legal experts to interpret the complexities of the trial. As one critic observed, "CNN alone has hired approximately 500 legal analysts to help make sense of it all. They even give daily grades to the prosecution, the defense, and, of course, the witnesses." These legal experts included former and current defense lawyers, judges, prosecutors, and U.S. Justice Department officials. Likewise, cognizant of the racial overtones of the trial, newspapers and television stations trotted out all available minority journalists on staff to cover the case. Another benefit of the media was their role in bringing to light the Mark Fuhrma
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1916
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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