Cochran

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION AND ORDER

In this defamation action, plaintiff Johnnie L. Cochran (“Cochran”) complains about the statement, published in a column by defendant Andrea Peyser (“Peyser”) in the New York Post, “[b]ut history reveals that he [Cochran] will say or do just about anything to win, typically at the expense of the truth,” a reference to Cochran’s representation of O.J. Simpson in his murder trial. The saga of O.J. Simpson- — from his days as a national football hero, to the riveting slow speed chase of the white Ford Bronco, through his acquittal in the criminal trial televised “gavel-to-gavel” nationwide, to the announcement of the civil jury verdict which almost diverted national media coverage from the 1997 State of the Union address — has been the subject of singularly wide-ranging public debate. Almost every aspect of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman and the ensuing criminal and civil trials has been dissected and analyzed by legal and non-legal commentators, talk show hosts, and millions of individuals over dinner tables and water coolers. The accompanying media onslaught has spawned television programs and personalities, and numerous…