Not exactly grace under pressure

As it was a holiday Monday, I spent the latter part of the evening watching TV. Of interest was Nancy Grace's CNN show. She spent the hour long show dealing with new released video of OJ Simpson. I have never witnessed a sadder display of journalism than I did for this hour.

Don't get me wrong, in general, I like Nancy Grace. I would not like to be interviewed by her. I would not like to go against her in court. But for a television legal analyst, she makes me laugh. She has such strong opinions and makes no effort to hide them. I can respect that.

Her reputation when she started on CNN was that, as a lawyer, she never lost a felony case at trial. However, since then, a number of her convictions have been overturned on appeal and her professional ethics have been called into question by higher courts. As a matter of fact, a March 2006 article in the New York Observer has suggested that Grace lied about the details of the 1979 murder of her fiance to help her look like a better advocate in the public eye.

Getting back to her show last night, it was all about these new videotapes of OJ Simpson. Regarding Simpson, I am not going to get into his guilt or innocence. Her blood, his car=he's guilty. Simple as that. However, he was tried and found not guilty. So be it. Don't blame OJ, blame the system (and Christopher Darden who had OJ try on the glove during his trial). Yes, he was found guilty in a civil court and has to pay the families money but that is another story altogether. Guilt is easier to prove in civil courts so that is another story altogether.

There were three video clips that Grace kept showing over and over throughout her hour long show. The first was OJ at some bar where three woman are sitting on his lap and giving him a lap dance. And he drunkenly says something like "I love my life." Really, it was kind of pathetic but hardly earth shattering. The next was him being interviewed on a radio show where he refused to answer questions about his cocaine use prior to five years ago but relented that he definately hadn't done any lately. Again, "yawn". The other two were even less earth shattering as one is OJ sitting at a bus stop waiting for a bus and another in the backseat of a car again complaining about Mark Fuhrman.

How Grace could have an hour long show regarding these clips and interspersing it with interviews of other legal analysts commenting on how disgusting it all was laughable. She even had Simpson's current attorney on but he clearly knew the whole show was a joke. She didn't ask him any questions that weren't laced with innuendo and he did not divulge anything. If this whole show did anything, it made Simpson look like a victim (trust me, I hate writing that about as much as you hated reading it).

Simpson's post trial career has been pathetic. There have been plans for various types of reality shows like an Osbourne's slice-of-life type thing or a hidden camera show where he walks up to people unexpectedly and the show being about those people's reactions. Neither of them really panned out. Probably due to lack of companies wanting to advertise during those shows. I mean seriously would you watch that? Though I am sure it would prove to be better tv than last night's Nancy Grace embarrassment.