Trashy TV Should Change Channels
What harm could there be in watching a man get his genitals pierced on a daytime TV talk show? Who’s to say viewers won’t learn something from a beauty competition between transvestites? Isn’t there some value in letting your sister know you’re pregnant - with her husband’s baby - on national television?
Morality watchdog and former Education Secretary William Bennett sees no merit in any of the trash-TV talk shows and their outrageous themes. He makes a good point - and one long overdue.
Somebody had to say it, instead of just flipping the channel or turning off the tube. The stuff is rotten; it celebrates and exploits the worst of humanity without shame, without compunction. The public arena would do fine without shows such as “Get bigger breasts, or else” and “Women who married their rapist.”
Ricki Lake manages to shake her head and look amazed on her show, even during an episode that invited people to critique their friends’ trampy styles. The offending guest struts out through the crowd to booming music, stopping at the front of the stage for a pirouette or a pelvic thrust.
The audience loves it, hooting and hollering along with the tunes. It makes the next few guests jack up their insults just to get the crowd behind them. Just before a commercial break, an announcer asks the millions watching, “Do you want to dump your boyfriend on national television? Call the ‘Ricki Lake Show.”’
Thus the beast is fed for another day, another episode. It has become an industry in itself; some of these people go from talk show to talk show.
Bennett is not pushing for censorship. He’s making a plea for decency, along with Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and civil rights activist C. Delores Tucker. The group plans to rally volunteers to pressure corporations that produce daytime TV talk shows to examine the value of the garbage they’re airing. They want Time Warner, Paramount, Fox and CBS to clean up their acts.
And there is a precedent. Oprah Winfrey, who led the pack down the trail of trash, decided last year to take a different road. She swore off the weird stuff and has turned, instead, to high-minded subjects such as “When is a drunk an alcoholic?” and “Simplifying your life.”
Today, she kicks off a yearlong ChildAlert series that focuses on important issues related to children. This first documentary hour features the public safety crisis of kids and guns.
The shift hasn’t hurt Winfrey much; she’s still the top-rated talk show host in the country.
The industry would be wise - and responsible - to follow Winfrey’s lead.
, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Anne Windishar/For the editorial board