Murder, a televised manhunt and the Kardashian dynasty: The OJ Simpson saga was a uniquely American moment

NY: The pitiful moan of a dog. A court couplet turned into a cultural slogan about gloves. A judge and lawyers who became media favorites and villains. A slightly bemused guest rose, briefly, into a slightly bemused celebrity. Disturbing questions about race that still resonate. The beginning of the Kardashian dynasty. An epic slow motion highway chase. And, let’s not forget, two people whose lives ended brutally.

And the United States observed: a very different United States than today, where the voracity for reality shows has multiplied. The bystander mentality of those confusing days of 1994 and 1995, then novel, has since become an intrinsic part of the American fabric. Right at the center of the national conversation was OJ Simpson, one of the most curious cultural figures in recent American history.

Simpson’s death, almost exactly three decades after the murders that changed his reputation from football hero to suspect, evoked memories of a strange moment in time (no, let’s call it what it was, which was deeply strange) in which a country no smartphones He craned his neck toward old-fashioned televisions to watch a Ford Bronco creep down a California highway.

“It was an incredible moment in American history,” said Wolf Blitzer, anchor of CNN’s coverage of Simpson’s death. What made him so far removed from tabloid culture and the fundamental news value of such a famous person accused of such brutal murders?