Simpson chooses a safer path // Ditches TV for newspaper `conversation'

Richard Price; Sally Ann Stewart

10/12/1995

USA Today

FINAL

Page 03A

LOS ANGELES - O.J. Simpson has a history of picking his way through

obstacles, whether they're on football fields or in courtrooms, and he pulled it off

again Wednesday.

Hours after the former murder defendant backed out of an interview with NBC's

Dateline, apparently surrendering any chance of telling his tale to the American

public on his terms, Simpson delivered exactly that via The New York Times - a

story drawn from a 45-minute telephone interview conducted with Simpson

Wednesday.

In doing so, he fulfilled in print the predictions of critics who had warned that

Simpson would use a televised account as a means of denying guilt while

refusing to answer tough questions about the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson

and Ronald Goldman.

"I am an innocent man," he told the Times, adding he believes most Americans

agree with him and that he'll persevere against any further adversity.

"I've always found a way," he said. "I'm an American. I should have a right to

find a job and support my family."

Simpson refused to discuss the murders in anything but general terms, the Times

said.

Simpson gave the Times interview during a surprise call at the same time he was

backing out of the Dateline interview because the network was promising critics

they would ask pressing questions about the murder case.

Simpson had set up the Dateline interview to repair his public image and correct

what he perceived as inaccurate reports in the media. He had been seeking, in his

own words, "a conversation, not a confrontation."

Which is what he got in the Times article, says Leo Terrell, a civil rights lawyers

close to the Simpson defense camp.

"It's more therapeutic for O.J. because he needed to tell his story. O.J. needed to

express himself." Terrell said the article may not have satisfied Simpson entirely

but the Times "gave him . . . credibility. It's a well-known and respected

newspaper."

The Times article immediately drew a blast from frustrated Simpson critics who

had celebrated his withdrawal from the Dateline interview.

"Apparently, he feels there is no limit to our stupidity. How dare he try to con

us?" said former Los Angeles prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi. "Simpson has

elevated audacity to symphonic and operatic levels. He's acting like he's the one

who's been put out by the case."

Earlier, the collapse of the Dateline interview touched off a flurry of emotions

across the nation, ranging from triumph among womens' groups to relief among

Simpson's lawyers, but none was more common than the raw disappointment

expressed by millions of Americans itching for answers.

The seed for the Dateline interview was planted during a conversation between

Simpson and his old friend Don Ohlmeyer, president of NBC West Coast.

Simpson told Ohlmeyer he wanted to set the record straight on a series of things,

including an NBC Today show interview last week between Katie Couric and

Sheila Weller, who wrote Raging Heart, a scathing picture of Simpson's marriage

to Nicole.

Weller said that two days after the verdict Simpson returned his children Justin

and Sydney to their grandparents' house early in the morning without calling to

say they were on their way.

Simpson told the Times he watched the interview with his children at his estate.

Such alleged inaccuracies ate at Simpson. He wanted to fix things and thought

NBC could help. NBC President Andy Lack struck the deal Sunday.

Terrell, legal adviser to Simpson's sisters, said both sides expected controversy to

center on whether Simpson was paid. "People took it one step further and

demanded that if Simpson wouldn't testify in court, then NBC shouldn't let him

testify on TV."

That demand was spearheaded by women's groups, particularly Tammy Bruce -

local president of the National Organization of Women - who accused NBC of

turning the airwaves over to a wife-beater. She led hundreds in a protest outside

NBC's studios here.

"You are not welcome here," Bruce said. "You are not welcome in this country;

you are not welcome on our airwaves; you are not welcome in our culture."

NBC's Lack made it clear that Tom Brokaw and Couric would ask "tough"

questions. Simpson's lawyers said NBC went overboard by consulting

prosecutors in the case; Lack told The New York Times that Brokaw and Couric

would block Simpson "from giving long accounts of his feelings and emotions."

By Tuesday, Simpson's lawyers - including Robert Baker, the lawyer just hired

for his civil cases - were imploring their client to keep silent for the sake of the

civil lawsuits.

In a statement Wednesday, Simpson and his lawyers conceded the postponement

was their idea, but they put part of the blame on NBC.

"It has become clear," Simpson said in a statement read by his lawyer Johnnie

Cochran, "that NBC has, perhaps in an attempt to appease diverse public

viewpoints, concluded that this would be a time and an opportunity to retry me."

Nevertheless, analysts defended both NBC and the Times for its handling of the

latest Simpson saga.

`I love this story," said Robert Lichter, who directs the Center for Media and

Public Affairs in Washington, D.C. "Whatever you do it's wrong and it's

newsworthy. If they don't do the story, they're folding to pressure. If they do the

interview, they're pandering to tabloid entertainment. If it's too soft, they've gone

mushy. If it's too tough, they're biased. They can't win this one."

Contributing: Haya El Nasser, Gale Holland and Jonathan Lovitt

PHOTO,b/w,Kevork Djansezian,AP; PHOTO,b/w,Kathy Willens,AP;

PHOTO,b/w,Pool photo