Letter to the Editor:

To the Editor:

Peggy Noonan’s commentaries on events that highlight America’s newly faced realities and accompanying challenges are impeccable. Yes, O.J. Simpson’s explanations that he could not have killed his wife, Nicole, for he "loved her too much” illuminated what those (like myself) who work with abused and battered women know to be manipulative, seductive, and even delusional. And yes again, the reaction to being found innocent in Simpson's juried criminal trial for killing Nicole and 25-year-old Ron Goldman, whose devoted friendship most likely got her through many terrified nights, did fall along racial lines, documenting opposing beliefs in our criminal justice system. As a Philadelphian, I closely followed reactions at our two major law schools, the University of Pennsylvania, largely White, and Temple University, largely Black. The student body at the former was aghast, while the student body at the later cheered.

These astute observations noted, Noonan was incorrect in stating that the notoriety brought to Simpson's attorney and longtime friend, Robert Kardashian led to his shrewd former wife Kris's ushering in “the first reality-TV family.” This distinction belongs to the sensational “An American Family,” a PBS documentary produced by Craig Gilbert, which aired over 12 one-hour installments in 1973. “Family” mesmerized viewers, privy to the upscale Santa Barbara lives of a Pat and Bill Loud and their five children. We were there when Pat tells her philandering husband to get out and “take the Jag," and when their son, Lance, who later contracted HIV and died of AIDS, became one of the first openly gay figures to appear on television.

SaraKay Smullens

Philadelphia

Submitted to The Wall Street Journal, April 14, 2024