How the O.J. Simpson murder trial 20 years ago changed the media landscape
- last year
O.J. Simpson was found not guilty of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman in 1995. The investigation and trial lasted more than a year and included a number of memorable moments. Here are a few of them, starting with O.J.'s infamous car chase which took place June 17, 1994. (The Washington Post)
The cameras came on, and America stopped to watch. O.J. Simpson was in the back of a white Ford Bronco, former college and National Football League teammate Al Cowlings behind the wheel, and police cars were trailing slowly behind. Around 95 million viewers tuned in, reality playing out on jostling helicopter cameras, on handmade signs draped onto overpasses of Los Angeles freeways, Friday night programming interrupted on televisions across America.
“White, black, immigrants who were from different races, women and men, rich and poor — and everyone was glued to the television,” said Charles Ogletree, a professor at Harvard Law School who directs the school’s Institute for Race and Justice.
Twenty years ago this Thursday, Simpson’s ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and a friend, Ronald Goldman, were found stabbed to death in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles. Simpson, a famous actor, running back and Heisman Trophy winner who was one of the most recognizable personalities in the country, was implicated in the killings and would soon be charged with double murder.
What came next — the slow-speed white Bronco chase, round-the-clock television coverage, a riveting trial and not-guilty verdict that split the country along racial lines — offered the United States a gateway drug its residents eventually couldn’t live without.
“What I realized is, this is entertainment,” said Gerald Uelmen, one of Simpson’s defense attorneys. “This is not news.
In the years since, the lineage of so many cultural phenomena — the 24-hour news cycle, a never-ending stream of reality television shows and many Americans’ unquenchable thirst for celebrity gossip — can be traced to this nearly 16-month span.
Before the killings on June 12, 1994, CNN was 14 years old and had a foothold in households but wasn’t yet appointment viewing; Court TV was a startup network with a niche of drawing legal die-hards into courtrooms. Fox News and MSNBC were two years from their cable debuts. Prime-time programming in those days consisted of scripted entertainment; no one then could imagine that, two decades into the future, televising the trivialities of daily life would captivate the public.
The cameras came on, and America stopped to watch. O.J. Simpson was in the back of a white Ford Bronco, former college and National Football League teammate Al Cowlings behind the wheel, and police cars were trailing slowly behind. Around 95 million viewers tuned in, reality playing out on jostling helicopter cameras, on handmade signs draped onto overpasses of Los Angeles freeways, Friday night programming interrupted on televisions across America.
“White, black, immigrants who were from different races, women and men, rich and poor — and everyone was glued to the television,” said Charles Ogletree, a professor at Harvard Law School who directs the school’s Institute for Race and Justice.
Twenty years ago this Thursday, Simpson’s ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and a friend, Ronald Goldman, were found stabbed to death in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles. Simpson, a famous actor, running back and Heisman Trophy winner who was one of the most recognizable personalities in the country, was implicated in the killings and would soon be charged with double murder.
What came next — the slow-speed white Bronco chase, round-the-clock television coverage, a riveting trial and not-guilty verdict that split the country along racial lines — offered the United States a gateway drug its residents eventually couldn’t live without.
“What I realized is, this is entertainment,” said Gerald Uelmen, one of Simpson’s defense attorneys. “This is not news.
In the years since, the lineage of so many cultural phenomena — the 24-hour news cycle, a never-ending stream of reality television shows and many Americans’ unquenchable thirst for celebrity gossip — can be traced to this nearly 16-month span.
Before the killings on June 12, 1994, CNN was 14 years old and had a foothold in households but wasn’t yet appointment viewing; Court TV was a startup network with a niche of drawing legal die-hards into courtrooms. Fox News and MSNBC were two years from their cable debuts. Prime-time programming in those days consisted of scripted entertainment; no one then could imagine that, two decades into the future, televising the trivialities of daily life would captivate the public.