Looks like he did it

Earlier this year, O J Simpson had a publisher, HarperCollins, and his book titled "If I Did It," a novel he co-wrote about the death of his ex-wife and her friend Ronald Goldman, was set to be released. Fred Goldman, Ron's father, led the very vocal protest to it's being released.

Even though there had been thousands of books pre-ordered, there were almost as many who felt that the Goldman and Brown families should not have to watch Simpson profit from a work of fiction with that specific subject matter. The book was pulled from distribution and many felt that it was gone for good. A federal bankruptcy judge has awarded the rights of the book to the Goldman family in July 2007 and instead of being burnt and permanently disappearing, it will be published.

Denise Brown has stated that she was shocked and horrified to learn that Beaufort Books, a small publisher in New York, will be publishing the book. The plan is to publish the book with O J's original manuscript intact and include commentary within the book. She also accused the Goldman's of hypocrisy for publishing a book that he had called disgusting and dispicable when Simpson had planned to publish it. It doesn't seem like just a case of hypocrisy to me, it seems like a continued case of greed canceling out commonsense.

I agree with Denise, why publish a book that Goldman had led the charge to destroy and never let it get published, to now, make a deal to sell it in it's original state? Fred Goldman has stated that portions of the sales will go to the newly formed Ron Goldman Foundation for Justice that is designed to help victims of violent crime. Strange that some of the money will go to a newly formed foundation......... and even stranger that Goldman seems so desperate to recoupe any money he can from Simpson, that he will publish such a "disgusting" book himself.



Update: posted August 31

Barnes & Noble had cited a lack of customer demand as to why it would not stock the soon to be re-released Simpson book, "If I Did It." In a reversal, which seems to be happening a lot in regards to the possibility of making money off what had before, been considered a horrible book, they have now stated that they will be stocking it on bookshelves.

I have never been a person to believe in banning any book and I am not in favor of banning this one either. What I don't enjoy is the "outrage" that came along with Simpson having the book published and now, suddenly, even though the book will not be re-edited, it is quite acceptable by the same people who were outraged by it but will now possibly profit from it.