
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 21, 1994                    TAG: 9406210025 
SECTION: FRONT                     PAGE: A10    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: Medium 
DATELINE: 940621                                 LENGTH:

HAVE MEDIA OVERPLAYED STORY?\

{LEAD} Have print and television media overplayed the O.J. Simpson story? It was a question being asked even as the white Bronco carrying Simpson and driven by Al Cowlings was leading a procession of police cruisers across southern California and back to Simpson's Brentwood estate on Friday evening.

The answer is no. How is it possible to overplay a story containing the explosive brew of murder, sex, money, jealousy and celebrity? The Fatty Arbuckle murder case, the only one even remotely similar to Simpson's in terms of prominence, kept the nation transfixed for months in the early 1920s. The substantial ``true crime'' sections of almost any bookstore show that there is a powerful fascination among the reading public about the real and alleged misdeeds of the rich and famous.

{REST} It is not hard to see why. Most ``everyday'' crimes have ready explanations, or at least appear to have them. Poor people steal the property of others, sometimes killing the owner in the process. Someone is killed accidentally in the midst of a heated argument. That doesn't make such crimes excusable, of course, but the motives or circumstances surrounding them can be understood by most people.

The Simpson case, however, is different entirely. Fame and fortune are supposed to place celebrities above desperate acts such as murder. Why would anyone with a mansion in Brentwood, several cars in the driveway, a lucrative career and, presumably, access to as many women as he could want, take a knife to the mother of his children, as well as another innocent person? The ``why'' is what tantalizes.

The shock and disbelief phase of the Simpson saga ended on Friday, and the circus phase began with Simpson's bizarre flight and subsequent return to his home. The chants of ``Go, O.J., go!'' by some onlookers startled many, but there is also a long American tradition of rooting for the outlaw on the run. The depths of public psychology in this case have yet to be plumbed.

Two people are dead and two small children have effectively been orphaned. A former star football player and cultural icon finds himself in a cell charged with a crime that could carry the death penalty. An emotion-charged trial is all but certain.

Such things just don't happen every day. Until the public gets a satisfactory answer to the critical question of ``Why?'' heavy coverage of the case until its end is assured, and justified.

by CNB