The Simpson trial defined millennials’ childhood in a way that is no longer possible with fragmented media.

By Meg Walter

The night of O.J. Simpson’s arrest in 1994, I was six years old and had gone to my friend Mallory’s house for a sleepover. Her parents had the TV on, probably watching the NBA finals, when the program was interrupted with breaking news and switched to live footage of a white Ford Bronco driving down a Los Angeles freeway. I had no idea who O.J. Simpson was, or why his alleged crime shocked the world. But his arrest, trial and eventual acquittal defined my childhood and the childhood of all elder millennials.

For the next year, every adult conversation I overheard was about O.J. Simpson. Every news hour featured anchors delivering information about the trial. Every late-night talk show host I overheard from the TV in my parents’ room mentioned O.J. in the monologue. As a first grader, I knew the names Johnnie Cochran, Marcia Clark and Judge Lance Ito. There was something about a glove that didn’t fit, and some disturbing controversy over a detective.

I was spared the horrific details of the murders of which SImpson was accused, but I knew the broad strokes of the allegations. Kids on the elementary school playground debated Simpson’s guilt or innocence, parroting whatever they had heard the adults in their life say at home. O.J.’s face even showed up on POG slammers, the hot toy trend at the time.

On Oct. 3, 1995, my second-grade teacher turned on the television and the class of 7-year-olds watched the jury deliver its verdict and heard the court clerk say “not guilty.” I remember feeling a vague sense of loss. Not because I had any clue about whether justice had been served, but because the spectacle was suddenly over. I wondered what everyone was supposed to talk about now. What was going to keep us entertained?

The answer, it turned out, was Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky.

https://www.deseret.com/opinion/2024/04/12/oj-simpson-death-trial-media-monoculture/