LOS ANGELES, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- News Corp. on Monday announced that it will cancel the release of a new book by former American football star O.J. Simpson and a related exclusive television interview, as a result of harsh criticisms from families of the victims of the 1994 slaying and media circles.

    Calling the project "ill-considered," News Corp. Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch apologized to the families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, and said that the book project and the planned two-part interview on Fox News were both scrapped.

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

    News Corp. is the parent company of Fox as well as the publishing house that was producing the book.

    It was reported that in the book titled "If I Did It", Simpson discusses how he would have killed his ex-wife and her friend. The book was scheduled to be released on Nov. 30, and the two-part television special was scheduled for next Monday and Tuesday.

    Simpson was the main suspect after his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her boyfriend were found killed on June 12, 1994 in front of her Los Angeles residence, but he was acquitted of murder charges by a grand jury in 1995.

    Simpson has repeatedly denied killing his ex-wife and Goldman, but in the book and television interview he was expected to describe how he would have carried out the murders.

    News of the book and television interview prompted harsh criticism from the victims' families, who called Simpson a killer and denounced the publisher and Fox News. Many in the media and the publishing industry also expressed their opinions against the book and TV interview project for its possible social and legal consequences.

    Related:

     Fox affiliates refuse to air Simpson's "If I Did It"

    BEIJING, Nov. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- Some affiliates of Fox Broadcasting said Monday they would not show "If I Did It," the two-part interview with O. J. Simpson next week, according to the U.S. media reports.

    In the two-part special due for broadcast on Nov. 27 and 29, Simpson, the former football star, talks in hypothetical terms about his role in the 1994 killing of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman. Full story>>