CNN rolled out a carefully calibrated video package eulogizing disgraced NFL great O.J. Simpson minutes after his family revealed news of his death at 76 of prostate cancer.
News broke Thursday morning when Simpson’s family announced the death, but it took TV news a few minutes to catch up, confirm the news, and begin reporting on it.
On Thursday’s edition of CNN Newsroom, anchor Wolf Blitzer announced the news first, 38 minutes after the family’s post, and introduced an obit package narrated by CNN’s Stephanie Elam:
WOLF BLITZER: Hi. We’re following some important breaking news right now. O.J. Simpson has died at the age of 76. CNN’s Stephanie Elam has more on his life.
STEPHANIE EALM: O.J. Simpson soared to fame as number 32 for the Buffalo Bills.
O.J. SIMPSON: I’m sorry for all of it.
STEPHANIE EALM: And plummeted to infamy as inmate number 1027820 and the Nevada Department of Corrections. In between, Simpson led a life filled with more surreal drama than all of his various film and TV projects combined.
UNIDENTIFIED: OJ are you a suspect?
STEPHANIE EALM: Mass media experts say Simpson’s sensational televised low speed chase, arrest and murder trial — stand as the first reality show and perhaps the greatest three ring television phenomenon ever. At one point, the world heard O.J. Simpson’s ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson say,.
NICOLE BROWN SIMPSON: I don’t want to stay on the line he’s going to beat the shit out of me.
STEPHANIE EALM: Then later, Simpson was charged with the horrific murders by knife of Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman.
FRED GOLDMAN: Ron and Nicole were butchered!.
STEPHANIE EALM: The trial made lawyers and even witnesses household names or involved James Simpson not guilty of the crime of murder. When the jury freed Simpson, celebration erupted in parts of Los Angeles, but Simpson would never recapture his idol status. Simpson first Brennan into the national spotlight as the Heisman Trophy winning running back at the University of Southern California. Then 11 spectacular years with the NFL vaulted him to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Simpson cashed in on the popularity. Becoming a pitchman for Hertz and an actor. Becoming well known for the Naked Gun movies.
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STEPHANIE EALM: Simpson played a lawman on screen and ran into trouble with the courts off screen. He lost the multi-million dollar wrongful death suit brought by the families of his ex-wife, and Ron Goldman, then moved to Florida.
In 2000. Simpson was accused of assault in a road rage incident in Miami. He was found not guilty.
In 2005, he was found guilty and fined for stealing satellite television.
Then in 2007, in Las Vegas, police arrested him on several felony charges, including kidnaping and armed robbery. In that case, Simpson and armed accomplices raided a hotel room in what he called an attempt to just get back some of his stolen belongings.
O.J. SIMPSON: And I didn’t know I was doing anything illegal. I thought I was confronting friends and retrieving my property.
STEPHANIE EALM: The Nevada jury never bought his story and instead sent him to prison. He was released on parole nine years later in the dead of night, with no fanfare and no bright future, just the distinction of arguably the greatest rise and fall in pop culture history.
WOLF BLITZER: Thank you, Stephanie, for that report. Once again, we’re following the breaking news right now. O.J. Simpson has died at the age of 76.
Watch above via CNN Newsroom.
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