Among the rednecks of America, which there are many more than people seem to realize, it was terribly damaging. I got blamed for O.J.'s acquittal.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
If O.J. had been accused of killing his black wife, you would not have seen the same passion stirred up.
I made no pretense of doing balanced reporting about murder. I was appalled by defense attorneys who would do anything to win an acquittal for a guilty person.
Well, what happened is that I had been the subject of vicious attacks by Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh.
That's the misconceptions that people have, that Chuck Berry went to jail. They're just totally wrong. It might have said something in the large papers in the bigger city headlines and things. But, you take a look at any of the local papers, and you will see that I was acquitted. I never went to jail.
I think the O.J. Simpson case conjured all the paranoia, the racial anxiety, but also the racial fatigue that America has endured over the last half century.
I'm really busted up over this and I'm very, very sorry to those people in the audience, the blacks, the Hispanics, whites - everyone that was there that took the brunt of that anger and hate and rage and how it came through.
The grand irony, however, is that Southern segregation was not brought to an end, nor redneck violence dramatically reduced, by violence.
Certainly the O.J. Simpson case was a turning point in my career.
I was so affected by the tragic shootings that took place in Newtown, Connecticut, as we all were.
Despite the fact that there was not one shred of evidence that George Zimmerman 'racially profiled' Trayvon Martin, America's liberals have literally taken to the streets to denounce a verdict that was, by all accounts, a just one.