The New York Times was forced to edit O.J. Simpson’s obituary after it outraged readers: “His world was destroyed when he was charged with murdering his ex-wife and her friend.”
Simpson, a former NFL Hall of Fame running back who went on to become a movie star and celebrity salesman for brands such as Hertz, was acquitted in 1995 of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. received the verdict.
He passed away on Wednesday at the age of 76 after a battle with prostate cancer.
in Simpson’s obituary in the Times, Gray Woman writes: “He achieved football fame on the field and made a fortune in the movies. But his world fell apart after he was charged with murdering his ex-wife and her friend.”
Following backlash from readers online, the wording was changed to read: “He achieved fame in football and made a fortune in movies. His trial for the murders of his ex-wife and her friend was a turning point in racial issues in America.”
The Times article sparked a scathing backlash on social media.
Darren Haber sarcastically added of X: “Leave both sides to the Times.” “Critics see him as a violent sociopath, while others see him as a cornered and vulnerable person and scream “horrible”.”
Another X user posted an image of Brown Simpson and Goldman and wrote: Their world was destroyed. ”
The Times also changed another sentence in the obituary. “This infamous case held America in a black-or-white mirror, but while Mr. Simpson was acquitted, his world was ruined.”
That line was changed to, “Although the jury in his murder trial acquitted him, the case was a cracked mirror for black and white Americans and changed the trajectory of his life.”
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For notification of changes, Mediaite reported. The Post has contacted the Times for comment.
The Times was not the only national media outlet to fabricate Simpson’s obituary.
The Los Angeles Times confused Simpson with former President Donald Trump, leading to national ridicule.
The LA Times incorrectly wrote that Trump was released on parole in 2017 after serving nine years in a Nevada prison.
“On a fall morning in 2017, long before the city woke up, Mr. Trump walked out of the Lovelock Correctional Center outside Reno, free for the first time in nine years,” a left-wing paper somehow told the presidential candidate. I mistakenly wrote that it was Reno’s presidential candidate. Disgraced former NFL player.
“He didn’t go far, moving to a 5,000-square-foot home in Las Vegas with a Bentley in the driveway,” the obituary added.
The LA Times corrected the embarrassing gaffe and replaced Trump’s name with Simpson’s.
“An earlier version of this obituary contained a typographical error that used the wrong name when describing Simpson’s departure from Lovelock Correctional Center,” the Los Angeles Times said in an editor’s note. I wrote.
“The error has been corrected.”
In 2008, Simpson was sentenced to 33 years in prison for robbing a sports memorabilia vendor at gunpoint at a Las Vegas hotel. He was released on parole after serving a nine-year sentence.
Additional reporting by Yaron Steinbuch
