A New Low: The Goldman’s Use of the News Media to Bully Nicole Brown Simpson’s Kids

In the past thirty years we have seen so many ordinary people who have done extraordinary things for the greater good and others in the wake of the murder of a loved one: John Walsh, Maureen and Richard Kanka, Mark Klaas, Patty Wetterling, Lorrain Taylor, Beth Holloway, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin and Sharon Rocha; to name a few men and women whose heartbreaking losses attained significant media visibility.

From the creation of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to lobbying lawmakers to create a the creation of the national registry of sex offenders to the countless legitimate organizations that were founded to help and support other families of murder victims.

In the wake of their incomprehensible loss, so many of the families of murder victims have transformed their unspeakable heartbreak into helping others, and have done so with passion, conviction and grace as a way of honoring of their deceased love one. Although we are familiar with the efforts of the families of those individuals whose murders became national news, countless other families of murder victims whose stories did not receive national media attention have acted selflessly to make a difference and honor the memory of their loved one.

On June 12, 1994 Ronald Lyle Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson were brutally murdered as the Simpson children, eight year old Sydney and five year old Justin, slept just yards away.

The children’s father, O.J. Simpson, was immediately suspected of having committed the murders but was exonerated following a lengthy trial.

Prior to his June 17, 1994 arrest, Mr. Simpson wrote a letter to the public which included a very specific request of the media:

“Please, if I’ve done anything worthwhile in my life, let my kids live in peace from you; the press.” – From O.J. Simpson’s letter which was read by Robert Kardashian at a news conference on June 17, 1994.

Los Angeles Times medical editor Sheryl Stolberg described Mr. Simpson’s letter in a June 19, 1994 article:

The letter was a classic suicide note, most experts said. There were telltale clues: Simpson spoke of himself in the past tense. (“I’ve had a good life.”) He declared himself unable to continue. (“I can’t go on.”) He tried to ensure a good future for his children. (“Please . . . let my kids live in peace.”) Los Angeles Times. June 19, 1994.

Throughout the twenty three years since Mr. Kardashian read Mr. Simpson’s letter on national television, O.J. Simpson has been steadfast with the request that the media let his children live in peace:

The only topic off-limits for Mr. Simpson’s post-acquittal interview was his young children.

In 2000 when Mr. Simpson lent his name to a website to help raise money for charity, his young children was the only off-limits topic:

Promoting the website, Mr. Simpson reiterated to Katie Couric that his children were the only topic off-limits:

Appearing with Greta Van Susteren in June 2004 Mr. Simpson again shares that his children are off-limits:

Mr. Simpson even mentioned his efforts to keep his children out of the media spotlight during his 2013 parole hearing:

The youngest children of O.J. and Nicole Simpson, Justin and Sydney, have always cherished their privacy.

Neither Justin nor Sydney Simpson maintain public/known profiles on social media.

They have never participated in media interviews or done anything that could be construed as entering the public arena. In fact, neither Justin nor Sydney Simpson has ever thrust themselves to the forefront of particular public controversies in order to influence the resolution of the issues involved or done anything to invite attention and comment. The current case law is clear – neither of the Simpson children come close to meeting the standard to be classified as a Limited Public Figure. There is no valid argument that Justin and Sydney Simpson are anything other than private citizens.

However, on Monday, July 31, 2017 the New York Post published a front page story about Justin and Sydney Simpson that is based solely on rumor and innuendo from an attorney for Fred and Kim Goldman. The two-page article, written by Post reporters Laurie Mizrahi and David K. Li, claims that the children of O.J. and Nicole Simpson went on a real estate spending spree using money that the Goldman’s believe had been hidden away by their father years ago. Although the article is based on nothing more than delusions and no legal document has been filed to substantiate the assertion by Goldman family attorney David Cook, the New York Post decided that this merited coverage.

In the article the attorney for the Goldman’s states that Justin and Sydney Simpson’s “loss is no greater than Fred’s, but Fred’s loss should be no greater than theirs.”

There is nothing more reprehensible than Fred and Kim Goldman having their attorney attack two private citizens whose father is hated by the Goldman’s and whose mother was brutally murdered as they slept just feet away.

In each of the countless media appearances they make, Fred and Kim Goldman speak as if they live virtuous lives who maintain the moral high ground. However the Goldman’s using the media to attack Justin and Sydney Simpson makes one question the standard to which they hold themselves — Even the Mafia holds itself to higher standards than Fred and Kim Goldman: La Cosa Nostra’s code prohibits going after the wives and children of an enemy.

Fred and Kim Goldman’s use of the media to attack the Simpson children before obtaining one iota of evidence to substantiate their claim is a new low even for the Goldman family – it places them on the same level as the New York Post who splashed what at this point is nothing more than an allegation dreamed up inside the minds of Fred and Kim Goldman.

Unlike most other families of murder victims whose story received national attention and responded by acting selflessly to honor their loved ones through help others and the greater good; Fred and Kim Goldman have only worked to help their bank accounts grow.

GOLDMAN PROFITS

In 1996 the Goldman family signed a book contract, with a guaranteed advance of $450,000 and received additional funds based on the sales of their book.

In 1996, Fred Goldman left a 30-year career in sales to pursue those goals by taking a $100,000-a-year job with the nonprofit Safe Streets Coalition.

Since 1998 Goldman and his second wife, Patti, have been living off book profits, speaking fees.

Both Fred and Kim Goldman are represented by Garson & Wright Public Relations, Inc. The firm acts as the Goldman’s agent responsible for booking Fred and Kim to deliver keynote speeches to those organizations willing to pay them significant speaking fees.

In 2007 the Goldman family earned 90 percent of the proceeds from the sale of the rights to O.J. Simpson’s book “If I Did It”

Kim Goldman is a public figure who has her own website and radio show.

On her website Ms. Goldman claims to be ‘the founding Co-Chair of The Ron Goldman Foundation for Justice,” an organization that does not exist according to the Internal Revenue Service and Secretary of State of: California, Arizona, Nevada, Illinois and Deleware. In fact, the Internal Revenue Service revoked the Foundation’s tax-exempt status in 2011 and The Ron Goldman Foundation for Justice has never, ever filed a tax return documenting how they spent the funds that the public generously donated to Fred and Kim Goldman’s “foundation.”

Fred and Kim Goldman’s shameful smear of Justin and Sydney Simpson is a new low; even for them.

The New York Post deeming what at this point is nothing more than some Fred Goldman conspiracy theory to be news and sensationalizing this drivel before a single legal document has been filed, speaks volumes of what passes for “journalism” at the News Corp-owned tabloid.

To Fred and Kim Goldman:

How are you honoring the memory of Ronald by using your platform to bully his friend Nicole’s children?

You have done nothing to use his memory to inspire others – there’s no Ronald Lyle Goldman scholarship for youth whose dream is to open a restaurant, no tennis tournament in his name and nothing in his memory that helps others.

Honor his legacy, don’t publicly bully two young people whose mother was murdered with Ronald. Stop paying yourselves and start paying it forward.