My local newspaper, The Daily Herald, featured an editorial this last Sunday that just got my blood boiling. Why is it that some publishers will sell their souls to make a buck? This seems the perfect example to me.
It seems that O.J. Simpson is publishing a book entitled, “If I Did It,” which gives a fictional account of how he killed his wife and her friend as if he had undertaken the task. His publisher, ReganBooks, is labeling the book a “confession.” I don’t know what to label it, but the first thing that comes to mind is “insane.”
Simpson claims to be a loving father and he also claims to be innocent of this crime. Yet for some reason, he has chosen to write this book speculating about how he would murder the mother of his children.
The article states: “It is crass in the extreme, an end-zone victory dance on the graves of his victims and on the lives of his own children. It is a boast characteristic of the ever arrogant O.J. that he got away with murder.”
It continues: “It is disturbing that any publisher would accept Simpson’s manuscript and offer it to the public. ReganBooks has become a moral accessory after the fact to the murders – not only by seeking to profit from them but to profit in an utterly exploitative and callous way.”
There are those who will read the book eagerly, much as they devour tabloid headlines and stop to stare at car accidents. There is something deep in the human psyche that enjoys such spectatorship. I can do very little but shudder. Why even joke about such a thing? Apparently to Simpson it’s all a big laugh. I’m not laughing.
My job is to review books. This is one book that I will not be reviewing. This is one book I wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot-pole, and I sincerely hope that the American public will be smarter than to line Simpson’s pockets as a reward for this display of immoral, selfish greed.
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