The backlash against O.J. Simpson's If I Did It, his publisher ReganBooks and Fox TV seemed to grow on Friday and over the weekend.
Late last week, Borders and Walden announced they would donate the net
proceeds of If I Did It to a "nonprofit organization that benefits
victims of domestic violence." (The booksellers are currently reviewing
such organizations.) Ann Binkley, director of public relations for
Borders Group, said the company will sell the book "because we believe
it is the right of customers to decide what to read and what to buy,
but we will not discount the title or promote it."
Other booksellers took a similar approach. For example, Michael
Herrmann of Gibson's Bookstore, Concord, N.H., was one of many
booksellers who added their names to the long list of retailers who
would donate profits from the book to an appropriate charity, in
Gibson's case, the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual
Violence.
Many booksellers won't stock If I Did It but will special order it. Russ
Lawrence, president of the American Booksellers Association and
co-owner of Chapter One bookstore in Hamilton, Mont., explained this
approach to Reuters,
saying, "Free speech is one of our basic values, but I have to say that
this book deals with some other values of mine which are in conflict
with that. We will order this book for anyone that wants it, but we do
not plan to stock it."
One creative suggestion for dealing with the situation came from Rayner
Krause of Southern Territory Associates, who wrote that his wife,
Kathleen, suggested that "stores that don't want to carry the book
could buy a copy and donate it to their local public library. The
stores have then fulfilled their obligation to be a conduit to the
dissemination of information and yet don't have to support such a
distasteful product."
Former bookseller Kuo-Yu Liang, v-p, sales and marketing, at Diamond
Book Distributors, said he didn't believe there is necessarily a
freedom of expression issue involved with the Simpson book. "Bookstore
buyers make decisions everyday on what to stock and not to stock at
their store. Reasons for not stocking a title vary, from lack of sales
history to bad cover design. So why are we putting a value judgment on
a buyer's decision-making process?"
Indeed, a few booksellers have said they simply won't sell the book. As
Karen Anna, owner of the Looking Glass bookstore in Portland, Ore.,
told the Willamette Week,
"I'm not going to support that kind of publication. It's a re-creation
of a really terrible incident. Whatever the motives of the publisher,
it's unconscionable."
Book
Passage, Corte Madera and San Francisco, Calif., is another store that won't sell the book. "We were tempted just to
keep [If I Did It] under the counter and have it available if people
asked," Elaine Petrocelli wrote. "But the more we thought about it, the
more disgusted we were about the whole idea."
Book Passage has a slightly different take on donating
proceeds to abused women's shelters. Petrocelli noted that she and her
husband, Bill, "have been supporting abused women's services for many
years," support that has included working with programs and holding
events and donating profits of sales to the organizations.
"We often do this for a variety of charities, but we do it with books
we love, not books we find disgusting," she explained. "For example, we
recently sold 1,500 copies of Barack Obama's Audacity of Hope and
donated $2.50 per book to the Marin Education Fund. Last summer, when
we sold over 1,200 copies of Al Gore's Earth in the Balance, we donated
10% to the Marin Conservation League."
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The outrage about the book has not abated. Some 96% of booksellers who
sell through Abebooks.com and who answered a query about the book said
they would not stock the book. Among the responses from 979
booksellers: "It lowers the book industry to a new depth." "O.J. and
whoever publishes this crap should be imprisoned." "I do not believe
people should be able to profit from their crimes."
Even some Foxes are appalled by the actions of their own company and other News Corp. companies. According to the Guardian, Bill O'Reilly, whose new book is Culture Warrior,
has called for a boycott of advertisers on the shows in which Judith
Regan interviews Simpson. And Geraldo Rivera called the deal
'appalling' and said he would oppose it. Likewise a handful of the 200
Fox affiliate TV stations across the country have said they won't air
the show.
Maybe in the end, few people will buy If I Did It. AbeBooks.com polled
visitors on its site about whether they would buy the book and 97% of
the 371 respondents indicated they wouldn't do it. Among written responses: "What a mockery
of humanity. I hope no one buys this book." And "he and his publisher
have no sense of decency."
Weirdly the hyped book may be hyped in a way few realize: it may
contain much less than Judith Regan claims, shocking as that concept
might be. Simpson's main lawyer, Yale Galanter, who said he was cut out
of the deal and doesn't know who dealt with Regan, told Newsweek the whole thing may be what Newsweek
called "something of a bait-and-switch. Only one of the seven chapters
deals with the murder, [Galanter] says, and nowhere does O.J. admit to
killing anyone." (More oddly, Galanter indicated Simpson's four children, including the
two he had with Nicole Brown, supposedly approved the deal.)