Feature

Rights of Springer

Television is a Darwinian business. In the world of syndicated talk shows (aside from Oprah’s New Age dictatorial implorings and Rosie’s relentless celebrity cheerleading) there is no pretense of upholding social good, only a bottom-line response to the market and ratings. If, bowing to public pressure, any individual stations decide to drop Jerry Springer (and rumor has it that even WMAQ, his own host station in Chicago, is discussing the possibility), “many, many stations are standing by to steal it,” according to Henry Schleiff.

“More and more stations are using it as a lead-in to the news,” says Schleiff -- ironic, hilarious even, given Springer’s dogmatic anti-news moralizing. “Jerry’s bringing a huge fresh audience to the five o’clock news. He should get a Peabody Award for bringing more new viewers to the news than anyone in history.”

Funny he should mention the Peabody. Last year, a controversy erupted at WMAQ when the station manager hired Springer to provide news commentary on the ten o’clock news. Carol Marin, one of the longtime anchors and a respected journalist, resigned in protest, and for his first commentary Springer went on the offensive, making references to “elite snobbery,” “Walter Cronkite wannabes,” First Amendment rights, and even the Holocaust. He told a story of having to decide, when he was mayor, whether to allow neo-Nazis to march in Cincinnati: how his dad had reminded him “that this is America, that this is the freedom that we sought when we escaped to here.”

But local Cincinnati papers claimed Springer was lying, that signing the permit wasn’t even a decision within the mayoral range of duties. Springer resigned as commentator after two appearances, saying that the fights had gotten too personal. Recently Marin was given a Peabody Award award for her “personal commitment to ethics and integrity in local broadcast journalism.” She’s now a correspondent for Public Eye With Bryant Gumbel.

Robert Feder, the Chicago Sun-Times television columnist who covered the whole front-page-making debacle, says, “It’s hard to believe that Springer had no idea of the storm coming back to the news would create or how he is perceived. He really was shocked and outraged at the negative reception.” Regarding Springer’s career, Feder says that “the tragedy of it is that someone like Jenny Jones can’t do anything else. She has no brains. But Springer’s actually a smart guy.”

One of Springer’s trademarks is his “Final Thought,” a sort of Norman Vincent Springer sermonette that he always closes with “Take care of yourself -- and each other.” In a recent “Thought,” he counseled guests who worked in “the erotic entertainment business” over the objections of their families:

“When the money is good . . . and the work’s not too tough, other arguments also pale. . . . But you may lose more than you think. The future opportunities become limited. . . . Yeah, the money’s good, but the ultimate price you pay may be too great.”