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July 18, 2003
The Yak Shows: The Trash Talks
The rash of talk shows has spread like an epidemic in American electronic media over the past decade or so. There seems to be so much of craze for these silly programs that the morning hours of radio and TV schedules furnish a surfeit of them. The afternoons too are not free of them. Matter of fact, you can watch such shows around the clock these days. There are some three dozen nationally syndicated shows apart from the local or regional products.
These talk shows range from a few very good ones to several terrible and trashy. You may count Oprah Winfrey’s show in the very good category. She is regarded as the queen of such shows. Who is the king then? Larry King, I suppose. His very name makes out a case for it. But, his programs too justify such a title.
There are some talk show hosts, particularly on the radio, who think they have something to say but often turn out to have nothing more than a compulsion to say something -- keep yapping on. One is reminded of the Chinese proverb: those who know do not talk, those who talk do not know.
The shows I am particularly averse to are those that deal with dysfunctional relationships. Commanding high ratings, these trashy yak shows are, to my mind, causing the greatest damage to the American family values. They have pushed into insignificance the erstwhile good, clean and witty, sitcom shows.
Entertainment is the biggest export of the United States. Good, meaningful films and TV programs are exported as they measure up to foreign censor requirements. We in America are subjected to the unexportable trash, while audiences abroad continue to enjoy sitcom like I Love Lucy, Our miss Brooks, Make Room for Daddy, Dick Van Dyke, Bewitched, Get Smart, Sanford and Son, and Father Knows Best.
In the last named show, Robert Young underlined the values connected with family togetherness. Twenty-five million Americans watched the show and Young was conferred in 1955 an award “For Constructive Portrayal of American Family Life”.
The shows now portray, if not openly condone, the destruction of American family life.
The managers of the electronic media focus on the bottom-line, their religion and obsession - money. The higher the rating, the more the advertisement income. That is all that counts for them. TV has been undermining many crucial American institutions, instead of living up to the professed promise to inform, uplift, and inspire.
Children, irrespective of their ethnicity, spend a lot of time on TV with the result that their parents, teachers and other authority figures in the community are losing influence over them. The TV is parenting them! They are growing increasingly duller with a declining interest in reading since TV viewing is so simple; you just sit and watch. You do not have to learn any thing.
Apart from the general negative effect of TV - the waste of time - the talk shows portraying dysfunctional relationships have definitely been instilling harmful ideas and values into the impressionable, credulous minds of the young. That is the greatest disservice the TV is doing to them.
Adult Americans, according to one survey, spend 40 % of their time at home in front of the TV. Their children follow suit. They rush for the TV as soon as they reach home from school.
Profit is the most important motive behind any commercial venture, and the First Amendment grants the inalienable right of the freedom of expression to the directors of the talk shows too. The media owners and managers have, nevertheless, some moral obligations too. At the moment, there appears to be no such moral consideration. TV is bottom-line oriented. Program directors seek to attract sponsors who in turn go by the ratings.
No wonder, the talk shows have become increasingly gossipy, scandal-oriented, shrill, confrontational, fast-paced and highly confessional. They present mostly the disjointed, alienated and dysfunctional lives of the guests - the crazy lot. Here are some of the actual themes: - Waywardness of men and women who do not fulfill their fantasies: You are a cheat and I have the proof, I steal my friend’s boyfriend, I am still sleeping with my ex, I am a racist, I am too fat to put anyone on.
Treating personal problems as entertainment is inherently demeaning and damaging to the participants. The entertainment value is not worth the personal and social cost. Understanding and compassion are lost in the process. Some times such shows trigger desperate acts as when a straight man confronted by his gay secret admirer on Jenny Jones show was led to murder in 1995.
The trashy talk shows are polluting human environment, turning human tragedies and foibles into theater and battleground, demeaning and humiliating people in the process. Big audiences come to these shows to boo and cheer. Their popularity is hardly a morally correct argument in their favor.
At one time the spectacle of Roman gladiators killing each other or being devoured by lions in the coliseum attracted large number of spectators. Would that justify the cruelty and the sadist nature of that spectacle?
Talk shows have featured child abusers, wife-beaters, serial murderers, arsonists and other felons. By seeking out persons on the fringe of society, the out-groups and the deviants, the talk shows may be inadvertently giving them visibility and some credibility. But this serves no one in the long run. Often it is counter-productive.
Reunions are popular on talk shows. Some do unite long-lost relatives. But many confront cheating mates with people who claim to have slept with them. Such insidious, ambush shows are definitely unfair and unpleasant to the people involved. The arguing parties on the stage wind up many times permanently breaking up in real life. Not unoften, such confrontations lead to violence. That is the staple diet on Jerry Springer show. He has to maintain on his stage a crew of rough necks to separate fist-fighting participants.
Only this morning I saw two shows in which the parentage of a child was mooted and settled by a DNA test.
The shows do offer tension, conflict and high emotions - all elements of high drama. But, it need be remembered that the participants are not players but real people exposing themselves to scorn and ridicule. It has no salutary effect on the audience either. It tends to undermine basic values about the worth of the individual, about what is good taste and manner, and the importance of personal privacy.
It is a healthy cultural value that no dirty linen be washed in public. Shock jocks such as Howard Stern and Jerry Springer enjoy very high ratings as they talk openly and aggressively about subjects normally left under wraps. Curiosity attracts large audiences to their shows. But, that does not reflect any inherent quality or value of their fares.
The current trend of the talk shows cannot last long. It will have to correct itself and create a balance between the demands of entertainment and the dictates of basic human values. The argument of some of the producers of these shows that they are reflecting the major concerns in society does not hold water since they appear to be contributing further to the corruption of society. They are producing trash, no matter how they theorize and justify their motives. The consumers will throw their products into the trash bin sooner than later, one hopes.
‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’ and ‘The Weakest Link’, for instance, provide healthy, wholesome alternatives. I do not feel embarrassed watching these shows in the company of my grand children.
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