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Grex > Sports > #6: Live coverage of OJ simpsons car chase | |
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steve
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Live coverage of OJ simpsons car chase
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Jun 18 03:17 UTC 1994 |
I'm sitting here with my laptop perched on my lap, watching
what must be the most bizarre "live" converage I've ever seen TV
produce.
I am reffering to the the "chase" of OJ Simpson by the
police. As I write this, the car OJ was riding in has pulled
into OJ's home, and there is a lot of speculation as to what
exactly is going on.
What has me astounded is the use of technology in this whole
debacle. The car was traced by sniffing which "cell" the cellular
phone in OJ's car was using; the "Live!" coverage of his car
wandering through LA's freeways via helicopters with TV cameras
and microwave links; the TV anchors, some in LA, others in NYC.
But what is it all doing now? Should we be able to watch
this new form of entertainment, the possible last minutes of someones
life?
Is this news?
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| 48 responses total. |
omni
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response 1 of 48:
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Jun 18 03:47 UTC 1994 |
It is, but I would venture to say it is sick and tawdry. Humans love a train
wreck, and no matter how many times you tell someone to stay away,
people are gonna watch.
Welcome to the age of Pandervision.
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jep
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response 2 of 48:
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Jun 18 04:12 UTC 1994 |
Larry Niven's "flash crowds" and Permanent Floating Riot Club come to
mind.
O. J. surrendered to police a few minutes before midnight.
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rcurl
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response 3 of 48:
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Jun 18 05:20 UTC 1994 |
Steve, you were watching all that on your laptop? You must already have
the next generation laptop.
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scg
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response 4 of 48:
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Jun 18 06:49 UTC 1994 |
Certainly would have made interesting viewing, but again I have to ask why
the media would be able to track him down before the police. I'm not sure
whether doing this sort of thing is right or not, but I think TV will get
bored with it and move on if it starts happening too much. Then again, I
was one of those people who was asking who OJ Simpson was a few days ago.
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bdh
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response 5 of 48:
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Jun 18 07:33 UTC 1994 |
CNN had at least two 'live' feeds in 'real time'
Larry King was forced to do 'voice over' the network feed.
Is there anyone at this point that isn't sure OJ offed his wife
and the other dude?
Personally, I wanted to see OJ pull the trigger on the freeway and
see it live from the overhead helicopter.
I wanted to see the white car full of niggers sweve off the road as
{the dude that fucked the white chick offed himself.{
I wanted to see justice in action. Iwanted to see the LAPD do it.
Larry King didn't have bucks, I wanted to see the same thing only
Prime Time.
{
I wanted to see Cival Rights Violations in action.
I was disappointed.
I wanted to see something diffderent than Chavez Chavez Puto last
weekend in LA or Yuo Yuo Dude here in Chicago.
zI wanted to see that ther was a difference if a famous person did
a stupid thing---I wanted to see the famous person be treated just
{like me...I guess I was stupid. I guess I expected equality.
Thank goodness, ...thank god they caught OJ...
What was the difference again?
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bubbles
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response 6 of 48:
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Jun 18 07:42 UTC 1994 |
When I turned on the TV to watch X Files they were instead filling the
time with this O.J. Simpson business, showing the crowd gathered around
his home, tapes of the earlier chase, live helicopter views of the
motorcade taking the captured suspect off to jail (with the anchors being
unsure which freeway they were seeing at that moment, but speculating it
was probably the Santa Monica eastbound), reporters asking each other if
anything new was happening, etc., etc. I watched enough of it to make
sure they weren't going to show X Files, then turned it off.
What action did I need to take on this that couldn't've waited for the
morning paper? None that I know of, unless they wanted me to go to the
police station to join the crowd (O.J.'s home is way across town). If I'd
been planning on taking freeways somewhere else this might have been
helpful in avoiding traffic problems caused by all this, but for freeway
condition reports I generally turn on the radio, not the TV.
Hopefully this will be out of the spotlight when I turn the TV on again
next Friday for X Files.
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rogue
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response 7 of 48:
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Jun 18 13:50 UTC 1994 |
#1: Curiosity is a desirable characteristic. A grasshopper would not be
interested in a train-wreck. (I can't stand people who slow down on the
freeway to look at accidents in the *other* lane, however.)
#4: You didn't know who OJ Simpson is? What are they teaching in high
schools these days? :-)
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ethan
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response 8 of 48:
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Jun 18 16:11 UTC 1994 |
That dumb fuck. The news is a government trained piece of shit. They have\
to say what a big deal it is, though in cities throughout the world people
are fuckin' each other up left and right. O.J. Simpson is no more important
than a serial rapist and murderer and might I add you don't see the Ann Arbor
reports showing up on ABC with Peter Jennings standing on Seventh at the scene
of the latest rape.
I can see it now...rather than call Al Micheals, they call the rapists gym
teacher, and the nation watches as he pulls his car off the highway towards
his apartment...
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tsty
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response 9 of 48:
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Jun 18 19:32 UTC 1994 |
It was a drama in real time, the likes of which would get a fiction writer's
script rejected fro being published.
The "chase" was no more than "following/stalking" until the suspect vehicle
came to a stop. The following series of events was fraught with potential
of the worst kind, while negotiating a less disasterous outcome.
For good or ill, the outcome was non-violent. Rodney King could have been
treated thusly, but he was a nobody in a landof somebodys where "equal
treatment" is a farsical concept, only effectd when there is a non-cop
trail-of-evidence (they can't control it ... yet).
Without the videotape, even that story in the hands of fiction writer
would be rejected. There *is* a sub-class of cop who +will+ vent sadistic
treatment *IF* she/he thinks "no oneis looking."
When someone is watching, it's all prettiness and light, see?
Maybe, though, it took a Rodney King event to, apriori, prevent the LAPD from
shooting OJ down like a dog on the freeway. With the official charges filed
as they were, and OJ having been cnfirmed to be carrying a revolver, the LAPD
certainly would have been with "its rights adn the law" to end the event
with gunfire and clubs on the freeway.
But! Someone was watching! And OJ is no Rodney, freeway or not.
And then the Chief negotiator, the one I will assert kept OJ alive, his friend
who was driving his car with OJ as passenger, (but whose name I forget), got
HIS ASS arrested. Friendship is ILLEGAL! Assistance to temper and molify
a dangerous, life-threatening event is ILLEGAL. Critical, compassionate,
intelligent intervention in a crisis is ILLEGAL. Fuck that!
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bubbles
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response 10 of 48:
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Jun 18 20:40 UTC 1994 |
How much attention has this been getting outside the Los Angeles area?
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davel
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response 11 of 48:
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Jun 18 21:23 UTC 1994 |
More than it deserves.
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steve
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response 12 of 48:
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Jun 18 21:24 UTC 1994 |
Well, since CBS (and others) gave it something like 2 hours og
continuous coverge without commercials, I'd say a good percent or
two of the world saw this unfold, at least briefly.
Interesting thought about the LAPD being "nice" because of the coverage
given the case.
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canis
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response 13 of 48:
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Jun 18 22:22 UTC 1994 |
Wel yeah of coarse, they are gonna go easy with this, if they would have
found another murderer, then the whole world would have seen them fuck up
really bad. OJ has been getting way too much attention, he will probably
plead insanity, win or at least not lose. Be out in 5-10 years, and everything
will be fine. I'm still not really convinced that he did it. Sure he bolted,
but er but hey I would. Here I am big celb<sp> my wife and her lover(?) have
just been killed the media has got me peged for it, and now they are seeking
the death penalty, the first thought for me would be to leave fast. Find my
friends, and take off. Second thought if this fails, I'm as good as dead, might
as well off my self, kids will get some money, maybe the house, and might not
have to grow up with a father in jail, or on death row.
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aaron
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response 14 of 48:
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Jun 18 22:26 UTC 1994 |
re #9: Been drinking?
re #10: Channel 4 -- All O.J., All The Time!
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janc
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response 15 of 48:
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Jun 18 23:01 UTC 1994 |
What the futz is all this? I guess I should watch TV sometimes.
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aaron
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response 16 of 48:
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Jun 18 23:25 UTC 1994 |
Jan -- unless you are of the mindset that finds "irony" in O.J.'s consumption
of a glass of orange juice before turning himself in... you are probably
better off without TV.
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wjw
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response 17 of 48:
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Jun 19 00:28 UTC 1994 |
I thoroghly enjoyed the whole thing. It was like an action/adventure
movie only it was the *real thing*. I was marveling at the technology
involved in getting the story into my living room, such as:
Satellite relay of tv broadcast
Airborne tv cameras in at least 3 choppers
Police scanners with reporter relaying information she heard as
it happened.
Cellular phone technology
Cable tv system
Who knows what else.
I'm glad there was no further tragedy, of course. That wasn't what
I was looking for.
If you claim this is not news, I'm sorry, but I disagree. If the public
is intersted, it's news. If the public isn't interested, they don't
watch, and the networks quit showing it. This *is* news.
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scg
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response 18 of 48:
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Jun 19 00:37 UTC 1994 |
After reading all of this I'm starting to get into this. Does anybody
have a tape of it?
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chelsea
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response 19 of 48:
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Jun 19 01:05 UTC 1994 |
I find it disturbing that anyone could watch someone's life
exploding for two hours as entertainment and then respect
themselves in the morning. O.J. isn't the only one with a
problem.
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danr
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response 20 of 48:
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Jun 19 01:20 UTC 1994 |
re #19: my sentiments exactly.
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sun
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response 21 of 48:
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Jun 19 02:22 UTC 1994 |
I agree...
I am sick of the media. They have been in the court room, bed room, and EVERY
other room that they can get their little lense into. I am sick of it. It is
his life...let him lead it. Just becasue he was a good athlete, does NOT mean
that they have the right to follow him like trained dogs, OR bring up his
entire history for all to hear. UG!
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aruba
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response 22 of 48:
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Jun 19 02:57 UTC 1994 |
Re #17: wjw, your definition of news sounds an awful lot like how
I would define "entertainment".
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scg
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response 23 of 48:
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Jun 19 03:31 UTC 1994 |
I saw a large chunk of the car chase replayed on TV today, along with
other "continuing coverage" of the OJ Simpson story. Sure this is a guy
with problems, but there are lots of such people out there. With all
that's going on in the world right now is this really the most important?
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srw
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response 24 of 48:
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Jun 19 06:22 UTC 1994 |
I have a bone to pick with the folks out on the streets and in the bars
who were rooting OJ on. "Go Juice!" "Go Juice!" There appears to be
no respect for the victims in this case. I was mortified by the behavior.
As far as news vs. entertainment goes, I've kind of given up on hoping
for a distinction to be drawn there. The "news" is on commercial TV,
so it's going to be shown if people watch. I agree with wjw.
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