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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1998)
CONTACTING US NEWSROOM: ADDRESS: (541)346-5511 Oregon Daily Emerald E-MAIL: P.O.BOX 3159 ode@oregon.uoregon.edu Eugene. Oregon 97403 ONLINE EDITION: www.uoregon.edu/~ode EDITOR IN CHIEF Sarah Kickler EDITORIAL EDITOR Mike Schmierbach NIGHT EDITOR Carl Yeh The terrible temptation of trash TV »— CHRIS HUTCHINSON/Emerald It might be silly, sloppy or even sleazy, but the Jerry Springer show can still be a lot of fun to watch Ilike to think that I’m fairly dis criminating in my entertain ment choices. The Spice Girls make me retch, I avoid sitcoms and I refuse to give in to the sicken ing teenybopper sentimentality of “Titanic.” This being the case, “The Jerry Springer Show” should be an affront. It should, but every now and again, around 11 o’clock in the evening, I find my self watching. Earnestly watch ing. Sometimes it’s a pressing social is sue like “Pregnant Bad Girls.” Other OPINION Kameron Cole times, it’s something simpler like “1 Won’t Let You Sell Your Body.” Oc casionally, they whip out that clas sic standby, "Guess What... I’m Re ally A Man!” Whatever the topic, the basic elements are always in place: the deleted expletives, the obligato ry rumble, and of course, that con summate example of malice tem pered with mercy, Jerry’s Final Thought. Oh, 1 know I shouldn’t watch. I should be watching A&E, or better yet, reading a book. But I often find myself hypnotized by the spectacle, the comical tragedy of it all. And I’m not the only one. Ratings for “The Jerry Springer Show” have risen 183 percent over the past year, and it has become the first talk show to share the top slot with Oprah since her show became No. 1 over 11 years ago. There is, of course, an almost dizzyingly wonderful irony in see ing Jerry's trailer park shenanigans holding their own against Oprah’s grown-up austerity. The show’s popularity is especial ly intriguing. In terms of the stan dard formula for TV success, Springer is an anomaly. For one thing, it’s syndicated, a term often synonymous with basement-level ratings. Furthermore, despite its popularity, the show can still only get away with charging about one third of the advertising rates that Oprah charges, and even then it’s shunned by some major advertisers. And there’s also the issue of con tent. Compared to network fare like Oprah’s and Rosie O’Donnell’s shows, where general civility punc tuated with the occasional bit of choreographed zaniness is the stan dard, Jerry Springer is about as far from the mainstream as you can get. This is the secret to the show’s success. For every middle-income suburbanite who delights in the lat est offering from Oprah’s book club, there's a college student just itching to see some elbow-throwing and hair-pulling on Jerry. This isn’t a sign, as some of the more high-brow culture critics have suggested, of the decline of Ameri can decency. That’s because while it’s true that “Jerry Springer” isn’t a classy show, America isn’t a classy country. Indeed, it never has been and isn’t likely to become one any time soon. America is full of people who are, at least some of the time, Big Mac-chomping, tabloid-reading, pop-culture animals. Springer’s popularity serves this notice to the cultural elites who squelch their lower impulses and then presume to look down their noses at those who don’t: There’s more of us than there are of you. I personally know dozens of peo ple who watch “The Jerry Springer Show.” And I’m not talking about slack-jawed yokels here. These are intelligent people, people who can think critically and engage in rea soned debate. They merely like to indulge in television’s version of the middle-school food fight for a few hours a week. The truth is that there’s a lot of crap on TV, and everyone has his or her guilty pleasure. “The Jerry Springer Show” is tacky and sleazy, but it’s also great fun. In short, it’s the perfect metaphor for America. Kameron Cole is a columnist for the Emerald. Her columns appear on alter nate Wednesdays. Her views do not necessarily represent those of the news paper. Thumbs TO MICHAEL MOORE: Creator of the film “Roger and Me," Moore has a new movie out called “The Big One.” tn the film, Moore docu ments his efforts to meet with corporate leaders while on a book tour. Only one CEO agreed to talk —Phil Knight. Ap parently, Knight wishes he'd kept his mouth shut; various reports indicate Nike executives are angry about the way the in terview was edited and conducted. Nev ertheless, Moore has resisted pres sure to alter the film and has left in footage of the inter view, which portrays Nike and Knight in a less than admirable light TO CANADA BORDER CHECKS: Border officials have increased efforts to stop drugs from be ing smuggled into the United States. Unfortunately, the checks have tied up commuters for hours while catch ing, by the admis sion of officials, a minimal percentage of offenders. Addi tionally, the drug for which police are searching is mari juana. Yes, that's right, time and mon ey are being squan dered to keep “high potency" potout of the Northwest. Yes, we’re talking about the same Northwest where grandmoth ers keep cookie jars filled with bud brownies. OK, per haps we exaggerate, but the point is that anti-marijuana ef forts on this scale are wasting re sources without any chance of being ef fective.
