THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 4, 1995 TAG: 9510040563
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BOB MOLINARO
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
What I'll always remember about the O.J. Simpson trial is the former defendant's semi-alibi concerning his whereabouts on the night Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were murdered.
It must be the sports writer in me.
First he said he was taking a nap. Then he said he was hitting golf balls in his back yard.
I can see how he could get the two activities confused. I believe that it is entirely possible to play golf while asleep. It might even be recommended.
Apparently, members of the Simpson jury share my understanding of golf.
Now that Simpson is free again to use nine-irons, mighty attempts will be made to locate a message behind the madness of the last year and a half.
Naturally, the rocks of race and domestic violence are being turned over again for examination. Attention must be focused on serious matters as they pertain to the long-running Simpson television show. Otherwise, somebody may begin to get the idea that America's Nielsen families have been watching for sheer idle amusement and vicarious pleasure.
The day Simpson was arrested, people with a healthy cynicism and an understanding of America's culture of celebrity believed that the defendant would walk.
Seventeen months later, these original predictions have come true. Those of us who predicted an acquittal long ago shouldn't feel smarter than the rest, though. Maybe we're only more jaded.
Throughout, television trivialized the proceedings so that they took on the feel of a sporting event, complete with cheering sections, color commentators, second guessers and a preoccupation with who was ahead on points.
What was it Woody Allen once said?
``Life doesn't imitate art, it imitates bad television.''
This trial fit the description. But it also imitated sports, a bad thing most likely. A dangerous thing if you're talking about a country's self-respect. Sports is about a lot of things, but justice isn't one of them.
For what it's worth, in my presence, no sports figure, not even Don King, has relied on the sort of bloated rhetoric, rancid logic and irresponsible speculation used by the lawyers and commentators during the trial.
People whose jobs bring them in contact with big-time athletes do, however, have a working knowledge of human nature as it pertains to celebrities and their worshipers.
You don't need a law degree or a broadcasting license to figure out what Simpson had going for him in the courtroom besides millions of dollars and the Dream Team.
Hang around a locker room after a game. Look into the bulging eyes of the kids and adults as they wait outside, searching for their heroes.
It is the grownups who are truly frightening.
If, in the Simpson case, celebrity trumped evidence, the trial was simply real life moved to a courtroom. No one should have been surprised.
The murders and the trial contained no other message that hasn't already been covered better by the Old Testament. Or handled more gracefully by Shakespeare.
With the verdict in, Judge Lance Ito began to thank all the people in the courtroom who made the trial possible, though he left out Simpson.
As Ito ticked off the names of bailiffs and clerks and what have you, he could have been reading the credits for a bad TV show.
A TV show that, thankfully, will not be renewed for another season.
KEYWORDS: O.J. SIMPSON VERDICT REACTION by CNB