THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 16, 1995 TAG: 9503150119
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
SOURCE: John Pruitt
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
Well, it finally happened. After one of those tell-the-world-your-secrets talk shows, a man was shot to death.
In this instance, the man's ``secret admirer'' turned out to be another man. There are conflicting reports about whether the killer himself is gay, but that's probably another show. More likely, several shows.
This is the stuff of tabloids and tabloid television! Can't you just hear the promotion: ``These guests are so determined to tell their secrets that they'll risk anything - even death. Tune in Friday for the shootout. We hope it's verbal, but who knows?''
Of course, neither the show nor its syndicators take any responsibility for the rage, embarrassment or whatever it was that led their guest to commit murder last week.
All they did was get these willing people together, before millions, to confront each other and their secrets.
What's so inflammatory about that? Well, that depends on the topic, who's involved and how well producers explain what's expected of them.
While I don't hold the shows and their syndicators blameless, I certainly don't think they bear all the responsibility. The shows' popularity is a social statement, and it isn't very pleasing.
There are several elements to consider:
(1) The people who agree to go on these shows.
What could possibly motivate anyone in his right mind to voluntarily go on a talk show and open the deepest wounds of his life?
Where's the glory of confessing that you're having an affair with your niece, that you abandoned your baby at a rest stop or that you prefer pornography to classical art? Does saying it on television make it less warped?
Why invite condemnation? As sensible as it would be to say no to these shows, people grovel for invitations, willingly telling us about being jilted by a boyfriend for their mother or hating their daughters because they're slender and blonde while they are heavyset and salt-and-pepper.
When the guests dry up, so will the shows. But as long as people are stupid enough to willingly be made to look foolish, there'll be more and more.
And don't be surprised if this murder leads to more. It wasn't at all surprising when Geraldo got his nose flattened, and some of us have marveled that the violence hasn't intensified to death before now.
Some glory-seekers will go to any end, and these talk shows certainly provide the forum.
(2) Us - you, me and the legions who plop down in front of our televisions and allow talk-show hosts and their carnival freaks into our homes.
We just can't get enough of this garbage, so we force shows to go closer and closer to the edge of insanity so we can wallow for a few minutes in the trough of people whose lives are a little messier than our own.
It isn't limited to television, either. There are exceptions, thank goodness, but tuning in many of what seems to be an endless number of radio talk shows is being a bystander to abuse.
What has happened to make the shows so popular? What has influenced us to find it OK for Rush Limbaugh to rail at everyone with whom he disagrees, and get rich in the process; to find nothing wrong with ``shock jock'' Howard Stern's foul mouth?
The unfortunate answer is, they're doing what a lot of us would like to do: forget decorum, forget even common decency and give the world a piece of our mind or mindlessness.
Not so? Then why don't more of us demand better programs? Why don't we just switch off the assaults before more people are killed? MEMO: Comment? Call 446-2494.
by CNB