The Old Stab In The Back

What is this world coming to when you can't trust O.J. Simpson?

All of this led NBC News executives to charge that they had been victimized by Fox News and by the lawyer representing Mr. [O.J.] Simpson. "What annoys us is that people should play by the rules," said Allison Gollust, the spokeswoman for NBC News, which is owned by the General Electric Company. "We did, and Fox should, too."

Fox News executives had a simple response: What rules? "There was no agreement on which interview should go first," said Bill Shine, the vice president for production for Fox News, which is owned by the News Corporation.

That point was backed up by Yale Galanter, the lawyer for Mr. Simpson, who said in a telephone interview, "There were no agreements as to when, where or how the interviews would air."

But Mr. Galanter was quoted in The Chicago Sun-Times on May 28 saying something different. "One is on a major network, which comes out first on June 4; two are later on cable networks,'' he said.

That certainly was NBC executives' understanding of the order when they negotiated an agreement to devote an hour of "Dateline" to Ms. Couric's interview with Mr. Simpson. "We told them we wanted to be first, and they agreed," said David Corvo, the program's executive producer. Conventionally, significant interviews land on networks first because that is where they will reach the biggest audience.

Some people just lack basic moral values. The whole anniversary is ruined for me.