Submitted by: kirkland on Tuesday November 21st, 2006 at 04:09 PM EST

After a firestorm of criticism, News Corp. has scrapped its plan to release a controversial O.J. Simpson book and television special, with chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch taking the extraordinary step of personally apologizing for the pain it might have caused the families of the victims of 1994 double murder.

"I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project," Murdoch said in a statement Monday. "We are sorry for any pain this has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown-Simpson."

"If I Did It," the book in which the former football star "hypothetically" discusses how he would have committed the murders if he had done them, was to be published November 30 by ReganBooks, an imprint of News Corp.-owned HarperCollins Publishers. The publication was to have been promoted with a two-part, two-hour interview of Simpson by ReganBooks publisher Judith Regan. It had been scheduled to air on News Corp.'s Fox Broadcasting Co. over two nights, November 27 and 29, the final night of the November sweep.

» Full story @ Reuters