More O.J. Simpson fallout: book editor fired

Yeah, I find it hard to believe Murdoch didn't know about this book before the controversy hit the fan. Regan was a controversial figure, though, I wonder if the OJ thing was just a convenient last straw for getting rid of her.

Stuff like OJ always is like walking a tightrope; most people want to see it and hear about it, but they won't admit it. Obviously a lot of people wanted to check out the book, though they'd probably deny it. My guess is they'd condemn it in public but read it in private, where no one could see them.

I don't know about all of that. All of that could have been fabricated too! I am one of the ones who cried foul! There is no way that criminal should be profitting...and Murdoch should never allowed anything like it. Todays society is sick, all about money!

How about the International Space Station?

I totally agree with you. It is one thing to try to make money buy writing a book, but it is another thing to try to make a fast buck. How would anyone think that this would book would be a good idea? The first time I heard about it I figured it was a joke...
I guess she deserved to be fired, dragging their company through the mud like that. Foolish.

There's not even anything wrong with making a fast buck, in my opinion. But doing it by exploiting a murder--and how he*would* have done it--is just disgusting, to me.

But as I said in a comment above, is it really possible that Murdoch didn't know about this book beforehand, a book this big and this controversial? Regan was famous for being belligerent and for signing up some racy books (including Jenna Jameson's porn star book), but also handled some quality authors. Wonder if the company was getting tired of her act anyway.

The worst thing would be if Murdoch knew about the book and OKd it, but when the heat got too much he sacrificed Regan. If Murdoch really thought that book was terrible and he had gone along with publishing it, he should have resigned. (Not that you'd ever see that happen.)

Does this remind anyone of the Dan Rather brouhaha, where all these CBS producers were fired for saying President Bush didn't serve his national guard duty in the "60 Minutes" piece? They always need a scapegoat. Judith Regan probably would have gotten a big fat Christmas bonus if this thing had played out and they sold all those books. It was only when there was such a backlash that her fate was sealed.

Regan and Murdoch should have realized that there would be a huge outcry over the book, I think. Simpson's previous attempts to cash in on his notoriety sparked the same reaction, I'm not sure why the publisher thought this time would be any different--especially since the book specficially addressed how Simpson would have actually committed the murder.

Everyone on Mylot does! And we all want to know whether he drinks Coke or Pepsi, and what the first thing is that he does in the morning!

He'd do just about anything for money, I reckon. I wonder if he gets to keep his advance from the book?

The TV show was already filmed, I'll bet you it'll surface on cable or pay per view somewhere.

Yes. He did keep the advance on the book. Supposedly (according to him in an interview) his ghost writer got 100,000 and his kids got 700,000. He then got his kids to give him some of the money to pay bills (again, according to him).

they should never have given any kind of advance!

Simpson probably did the book just so he could get an advance, so he could pay his bills and give money to his kids. Maybe the deal should have had a clause saying he had to give at least some of the money back if the book ended up not being published.

If that's the case, I wonder how he could face his children after admitting that he killed their mother and nearly cut her head off.

Yeah, you'd think that a book this controversial would have been brought to Murdoch's attention very early on. You're right about the title--that certainly could have been seen as truth in advertising!

She had done some controversial books before, and also had a reputation as a very abrasive person to work with and for. Murdoch would have had to know about it, he can't be that much of a hands-off manager, especially concerning something that could so seriously affect the reputation of News Corp. as a whole, not just the publishing division.