Remember debating class? Do high schools still have debating classes, debating teams?
The debating class teacher often would find two students on opposite sides of an issue then assign them each other’s position to support. What typically happened, then, was that the debaters had to replace their convictions with rationalizations. So let’s give that a shot:
We can all bash Oprah Winfrey for her show, Nov. 11, featuring the unmasking of Charla Nash, the Connecticut woman whose face was grotesquely disfigured by a neighbor’s chimpanzee. We can attack Winfrey as a ratings-starved sensationalist who betrayed the higher ideals she so often promotes and purports to embody. Such accusations, in this case, are hard to refute.
Except . . .
Who among us grew so disgusted by this show that they reached for the remote and went looking for something higher-minded? At 4 p.m. on a weekday, good luck.
As sensational stories go, this one didn’t need much seasoning. It was tough to sensationalize.
Regardless, when it comes to the race for TV ratings, everyone reaches a little lower, which is where the blueprints for the Jerry Springer and Maury Povich shows are stowed. But that’s nothing new. Phil Donohue, hurting for numbers when challenged by bottom-feeders, 21 years ago, dressed in drag. A couple of years ago, The History Channel, eager to make a splash, presented a series, “The History of Sex.”
For years, Warner Wolf as the sports anchor, first on Ch. 7 and then on Ch. 2, decried fighting in pro hockey; he called for its elimination. His crusade sounded passionate, genuine. But it sure didn’t look that way.
On slow and not-so slow sports nights, Wolf made sure to include a video clip of a hockey fight. Didn’t matter if was from a game between St. Louis and Detroit. After all, no one at a hockey game ever turned away or walked away during a fight, why would we?
In Winfrey’s case, last week, it mattered a lot less what the right-headed thought and a lot more what her advertisers thought. Follow the money. And I’ll bet that even those advertisers who had to swallow hard at what they were watching, especially as delivered by a TV noblewoman, loved it.
And, forgive me for this, but there was, under that poor woman’s mask, more to behold than what Geraldo Rivera and an estimated 30 million TV viewers in 1986 found in Al Capone’s vault.
Three-car train wrecks, three-alarm fires and three-ring circuses have the same thing in common: They all draw crowds. It’s the human condition. How many competing network executives, the day after that “Oprah” aired, wish they’d been given first crack at removing Ms. Nash’s shroud?
And, of course, let’s not forget the “Girls Gone Wild” defense: Winfrey did not put a pistol to the poor woman’s head and force her into the studio to reveal her misfortune.
Furthermore, as sensational, shock-genre TV goes, Winfrey and her promoters within ABC News, including Diane Sawyer, treated the entire story and interview in a very dignified manner.
Finally, and perhaps most significantly, let’s not lose sight of the educational value of Winfrey’s chimp-victim show. It served as a cautionary tale. Think of the thousands of viewers who were going to buy their kids a chimpanzee for Christmas, but now know better.
There, that should do it. Debate over. How’d I do?
***
Just Doing His Duty: Actually, those given to indignation as to what TV provided, this past Nov. 11 — Veterans Day — didn’t have to wait for Oprah. There was this:
During the “Today” show, at 9:57 a.m., NBC provided space for a local news insert. From a Ch. 4 News desk, anchor Michael Gargiulo, dutifully reminded viewers that this is Veterans Day.
Next, he dutifully told viewers to stay tuned as “Today” explores the answer to, “What is your sex IQ?” Even April Fool’s Day is treated with more reverence.