Several Fox affiliates won't air O.J. special

NEW YORK — Several Fox affiliates have chosen not to broadcast "If I Did It," the two-part special in which O.J. Simpson talks in hypothetical terms about his role in the 1994 killing of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.

Lin Broadcasting and Pappas Broadcasting, which own a combined nine Fox affiliates, have said they won't air it. Simpson's interview is expected to air Nov. 27 and 29.

According to its Web site, Fox's Seattle affiliate, KCPQ, is scheduled to air the program.

The television special precedes the Nov. 30 publication of a book in which Simpson talks about how he would have committed the murders "if he were the one responsible."

"After careful consideration regarding the nature of the show, as well as the feedback we received from the viewers of northeast Wisconsin, we determined that this programming was not serving the local public interest," wrote Jay Zollar, general manager of WLUK-TV, a Lin station in Green Bay, Wis.

Lin also owns Fox affiliates in Mobile, Ala.; Toledo, Ohio; Albuquerque, N.M.; and Providence, R.I.

The Pappas stations said they were uninterested in helping Simpson profit from the project. Pappas owns Fox stations in Omaha and Lincoln, Neb.; Fresno, Calif.; and Dakota Dunes, S.D.

There are about 200 Fox affiliates across the country.

Simpson was acquitted of murder in 1995 in a case that became its own television drama. He was later found liable for the deaths in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the Goldman family.