Once O.J.’S Is Over, The Media Goes On Trial

Is there anyone in the media who believes O.J. Simpson is innocent?

Meet Don Ohlmeyer, NBC’s West Coast president, a longtime friend of Simpson’s who continues to phone and visit him.

Says Ohlmeyer: “I just find it incredulous that with all the media that we have in this country, that not one reporter, not one television (news)caster, no one has even just stopped and said: ‘Hey, wait a minute. Let’s forget about the presumption of innocence, what if he IS innocent?”’

Ohlmeyer thinks the media is in for some serious soul-searching after the case is closed.

“At some point, we’ll have to step back and say, ‘Is there no civility left? Is there no sordid detail, true or untrue, that we won’t put on the news? Is this the society we have become?”’

Loose talk

Basketball star Charles Barkley’s wife, Maureen, on white men who are upset by their interracial marriage (in Vanity Fair): “Look, if I hadn’t married Charles, I certainly never would have married you anyway, so, really, don’t worry about it.”

All you can really say is, she’s still here

Eartha Kitt turns 67 today.

Guess he’s trying to appear less Stern

Morton Downey Jr. promises in Inside Media magazine that his new syndicated talk show will be kinder and gentler. “There is nothing wrong with me going to a guy who is telling a lie and saying, ‘Come on, partner. Give me the truth,”’ he said. “What was wrong was (saying) ‘Come on, you fat, ugly slob, don’t give me that crap!”’

Preferably before autumn leaves start to fall

Jurors in the Simpson case won’t be entirely cut off from the outside world. Judge Lance Ito has reportedly taken pianist Roger Williams up on his offer to perform a private concert.

We imagine Elvis had the gold lame cards

Among the offerings at the “largest rock and roll auction in history” starting Thursday in New York City are Ringo Starr’s 1957 Chevy Bel Aire coupe, artwork by Kurt Cobain, Elvis Presley’s credit cards and Graceland’s very first Nativity scene.

She’s still showing a lot of cheek

“Sweet, sweet Connie” Hamzy, the Little Rock groupie immortalized in Grand Funk Railroad’s 1973 hit “We’re an American Band,” has been fined $50 after pleading no contest to exposing herself by wearing a thong bikini in a park.

In a pinch, Picard’s head might work

Kate Mulgrew, the new commander of “Star Trek: Voyager,” told TV Guide she “turned around on the set the other day and caught a photographer taking a picture of my rear end. Get this - to be used for my official action figure! There are 10,000 better butts in Hollywood - so I told him to go out and find one.”

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by staff writer Rick Bonino