Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 23, 1995 TAG: 9503230079
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Did we say trial? The trial itself is but one part of a cultural event that has spawned an industry. Cable News Network's coverage has driven up its Nielsen numbers about 600 percent, producing a feast for TV advertisers willing to pay to partake. And they are willing. The Wall Street Journal reports that Turner Broadcasting is charging $24,000 for 30 seconds on CNN at 4:30 p.m., a spot that normally sells for less than $3,000. The network is expected to make about $15 million in ad profits from the trial coverage in the first quarter alone.
The other major networks - CBS, NBC and ABC - also are spending heavily, and presumably are profiting nicely. And some of the tabloids - those that run stories favorable to Simpson - are seeing revenues climb. All anticipated that interest would be intense enough to warrant sensational coverage, and the response has justified their judgment. No surprise there. How wonderful it would be if the public, just once, surprised the moguls.
The media, however, are hardly alone at the table.
The case has generated what The Journal refers to as an O.J. GDP approaching $200 million.
Simpson himself is spending $20,000 a day on lawyers, plus at least $1 million for a jury consultant, paralegals, investigators and other lawyers, these specializing in DNA testing. Just how does the ordinary citizen accused of killing a spouse or other loved one get a fair trial?
Then there is the $7 million tab Los Angeles taxpayers will be picking up. And the books and miniseries and, at $3,395 retail, bronze statuettes of Simpson. More than $5 million worth of those have been sold.
And - this is really odd - the "Ask A.C." 900 phone line. Dial it and, for $2.99 a minute, inquiring minds can hear the thoughts of Al Cowlings, the former football player who drove Simpson around, with Los Angeles police in slow pursuit. If Cowlings has anything to reveal, perhaps it should be done on the witness stand, for free.
Hucksterism surrounding a sensational trial is something of an American tradition, if not necessarily an honored one. But in the end, how well will be served another tradition - the one called justice?
by CNB