The Los Angeles Times was called out for accidentally inserting former President Trump’s name into an obituary for O.J. Simpson.
Reporting on the death of the former NFL running back whose high-profile double murder trial caught the nation’s attention in the mid-90s, the Times detailed the armed robbery that took place more than a decade after he was acquitted of the murders. In 2007, he was found guilty of robbing a memorabilia dealer at gunpoint. While he was sentenced to 33 years, he was released early on parole.
Here's how the section of the obituary originally read:
On Sept. 13, 2007, he assembled a rogue’s gallery of ex-cons to confront memorabilia dealers Bruce Fromong and Alfred Beardsley, whom an intermediary had lured to a room at the Palace Station Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Told to expect a “mystery buyer,” they were stunned when Simpson burst into the room with his ragtag band of cohorts, two of whom brandished guns as Simpson demanded the return of a number of items he said belonged to him. He left with a bag full of mementos, including an All-American team football and three game balls inscribed with the dates he used them to break records.
Simpson was arrested three days later on charges including armed robbery and kidnapping.
At his trial, there were empty seats in the courtroom.
At his sentencing, Simpson was contrite.
“In no way did I mean to hurt anybody, to steal anything from anybody. I just wanted my personal things,” he told the judge after hearing his sentence. Then, with wrists shackled to a chain around his waist, he was taken to his cell.
Long before the city woke up on a fall morning in 2017, Trump walked out of Lovelock Correctional Center a free man for the first time in nine years. He didn’t go far, moving into a 5,000-square-foot home in Las Vegas with a Bentley in the driveway. (LA Times)
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The paper issued an editor's note a few hours laters, indicating "an earlier version of this obituary used the wrong name when describing Simpson leaving Lovelock Correctional Center. The error has been corrected."
Social media users were quick to react to the faux pas.
Quite a mistake. https://t.co/s85xdoVa4T
— Byron York (@ByronYork) April 11, 2024
Someone needs to talk to their shrink https://t.co/twKDFrywRF
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) April 11, 2024
Freud lives: https://t.co/LQKf7Sb3u5
— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) April 11, 2024
Unbelievable. The LA Times is out of control: https://t.co/d9ifpDqoh6
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) April 11, 2024
And I bet they still won’t understand why trust in media is at an all-time low https://t.co/GzNixF61As
— Jake Schneider (@jacobkschneider) April 11, 2024
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