NBC News Fires Back at ABC News for ‘Exclusive’ Flub on O.J. Simpson Tapes

“20/20” report under attack since rival network first aired the audiotapes back in 1999

Getty Images

ABC News apologized on Friday for wrongly advertising tapes from a 1999 O.J. Simpson deposition as exclusive.

“We were wrongly under the impression these deposition tapes were exclusive and had not aired before at length,” an ABC News spokesperson said in a statement.

ABC has been heavily promoting an Oct. 9 “20/20” report with the “missing tapes” as an exclusive. The only problem — the tapes were first aired on NBC’s “Dateline” in 1999, followed by repeat airings in 2004 and 2014.

“We learned this morning portions did air 15 years ago. We apologize for the mistake,” ABC’s statement concluded.

NBC News fired back by quasi-trolling ABC on Twitter:

The error has been perpetuated on-air as “20/20” anchor Elizabeth Vargas talked about the tapes on “Good Morning America” on Friday.

“It’s hard to believe that all this sat for 20 years,” she said to George Stephanopoulos, who referred to the materials as “never seen before.”


Comments