Even though Fox Network has had the good sense (or enough public criticism) to cancel the O.J. book project and TV Special, it was delightful to read Christopher Hitchens on the topic before the news came out today. For example, he raises the seldom asked, but legitimate question... Who wrote this book? Certainly not this bumbling bozo:
Of the many things I can remember about the trial--one of them being a chat I had with a DNA specialist who told me the statistical odds against the blood being proof of guilt, which really weren't "odds" at all--one detail that sticks in my mind was the incidental disclosure that Simpson can barely read or write. This is, in other words, not just a decision to publish "his" book. It is a decision, which must have been taken some time ago, to get such a book written and to get him to cooperate with it. The title is, of course, illiterate to start with ("If I Did It, Here's How It Happened" rather than "If I Had Done It, Here's How I Would Have") as well as an admission (because, however modified or qualified, the "Here's How It Happened" still stands on its own) but both of those offenses are quite possible in today's publishing. It would still be mildly interesting to know who cooked up the idea and who did the inducement and the ghosting. The only thing that definitely didn't happen, rather like his ongoing search for the real killer, was Simpson bringing in a manuscript and submitting it for publication.
Sweet.
Posted by dan at November 20, 2006 11:25 PM