April 12, 2024

O.J. Simpson died this week at 76 after a battle with prostate cancer.

What else belongs in that sentence was a question newsrooms around the country tried to answer Thursday.

How do you adequately capture an all-American football phenomenon and larger-than-life Black celebrity who took a horrifying turn to murder suspect and then defendant in a “trial of the century” that galvanized a nation in front of the television; a 20th-century symbol and an enduring fascination?

The challenge of describing Simpson is a testament to just how complicated a figure he was. For its headline, The New York Times went with “Athlete Whose Trial Riveted the Nation,” while The Washington Post landed on “football great whose trial for murder became a phenomenon.”

The news of Simpson’s death was announced by his family on Thursday, prompting discussions of his life, legacy and what his trial and acquittal in the stabbing deaths of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and waiter Ron Goldman mean close to 30 years later.

The trial, with a beloved celebrity defendant, a backdrop of racial tension only a few years after the 1992 Los Angeles riots, a breaking news car chase and footage from inside the courtroom, made for a natural media sensation. Ethical case studies abounded from trial coverage.

Time magazine’s June 1994 cover, featuring Simpson’s mugshot with a dramatic filter overlay that caught flak for darkening his skin color to make him look more sinister — and guilty — is a classic example in journalism classes of the ethics of photo manipulation.

Judge Lance Ito’s decision to allow cameras in the courtroom, itself a tricky ethical decision at the intersection of due process and the media, made the constant trial footage compelling fodder for viewers (and a standout example for critics of televised trials).

That steady stream of footage also helped Court TV make a name for itself, a kingmaking moment for the young network following its coverage of the Menendez brothers murder trial.

And TMZ, which had the first media reports of Simpson’s death, was created by Harvey Levin, who came to prominence as a lawyer-turned-journalist at Los Angeles’ KCBS-TV while covering the Simpson murder trial.

Trial coverage also gave plenty of other reporters and commentators their big breakout moments: Jeanine Pirro, Greta Van Susteren, Geraldo Rivera, Jeffrey Toobin and more.

It’s hard to overstate how seismic Simpson’s trial and acquittal were. His death immediately led to reflections on that spectacle, the lasting impact on the news media, and the lessons journalists should remember the next time there’s a “trial of the century.” (Toobin, for his part, was doing just that in a recent Q&A with Politico about former president Donald Trump’s upcoming trial).

Here are some of the obituaries:

By Annie Aguiar, audience engagement producer

A cross-generational media fascination

As Tom Jones noted earlier this week in The Poynter Report while writing about the networks’ superior camera equipment during the total solar eclipse, some unifying moments are just owned by broadcast television.

I was born in 1998, years after Simpson was found innocent and the media circus had long packed up its tents. Occasional references permeated pop culture, and that passing knowledge calcified into an after-the-fact fascination in 2016 with “O.J.: Made in America” and “The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.”

Simpson was such an enduring media figure, it doesn’t matter that I wasn’t even alive to sit in front of the television watching the white Bronco: Today, I turned to broadcast news to hear about O.J. Simpson.

I tuned into CBS News’ streaming network live today on X. Apologies to the team at CBS News, which I’m sure is doing great work on a consistent basis, but I don’t know if I’ve ever done that before.

But today, in a way my elder Gen Z, TikTok-addled brain and sad little attention span usually cringes at, I just wanted to hear a steady stream of experts with relevant archival footage. CBS News delivered that to me — and about 7,100 other viewers on X by the time I was done.

By Annie Aguiar, audience engagement producer

Former DCist journalists tease new worker-led outlet

Several former DCist journalists are soliciting names for a “worker-led, community-based, local outlet — one run by the people who actually make the journalism, not a C-suite.”

WAMU, an NPR member station owned by American University, abruptly shut down local news site DCist in February, laying off 15 people. WAMU general manager Erika Pulley-Hayes told Axios at the time that the organization was looking to focus on its audio products. Since the shutdown, a group of former DCist reporters have teased the possibility of starting their own worker-led outlet on social media.

“We’re committed to representing what it really means to live in D.C. Our coverage will serve the whole city: every ward, and each community that lives in and loves the District,” reads a Google Form asking people to help name the new outlet. “Our reporting will be guided by justice and equity, tackling the complex issues facing our city, like housing, safety, and education, from the perspective that all residents deserve these fundamental rights. Of course, we’re also going to be funny, curious, and irreverent at times… honoring the DCist tradition.”

Name options include 51st News, DCish, The DC Star, DC Free Press and WashRag. The group is also seeking suggestions for a tagline for their new outlet.

As layoffs in the industry abound, more and more journalists are starting worker-owned models with their former colleagues. Last year, reporters from Vice Media’s Motherboard launched 404 Media after Vice declared bankruptcy. Meanwhile, several staffers at Kotaku, owned by G/O Media, started their own outlet, Aftermath. The Colorado Sun, Defector and the current iteration of The Appeal have similar origin stories. The trend of journalists regrouping to start new ventures after a media outlet crash has long been a trend in the nonprofit news world, according to Poynter contributor Amaris Castillo.

By Angela Fu, media business reporter

Media tidbits and links for your weekend review

More resources for journalists

Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.

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Annie Aguiar is an audience engagement producer for Poynter’s newsroom. She was previously a state issues reporter for the Lansing State Journal and graduated from…
Annie Aguiar
Angela Fu is a reporter for Poynter. She can be reached at afu@poynter.org or on Twitter @angelanfu.
Angela Fu
Ren LaForme is the Managing Editor of Poynter.org. He was previously Poynter's digital tools reporter, chronicling tools and technology for journalists, and a producer for…
Ren LaForme

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