Dear Readers:
Many of Dr. Ink’s admirers know that he was born on the Lower East Side of New York, not far from the famous Fulton Fish Market. Baby Doc learned that you didn’t need a map to get to the market. If the wind was blowing in the right direction, you only had to follow your nose.
Which leads Doc to the observation that no one should need a calendar to know that May is approaching. You only need to pay attention to television news and talk shows. When the programming and promotion get more sensational, and less and less relevant to real people’s concerns, you know it’s Slime Time, the May “book,” the ratings period that determines audience size and, ultimately, advertising rates.
Two promotions caught Doc’s eye. The first came from our local ABC affiliate inTampa. The promo promised that viewers would be shocked by the hidden dangers of — get this -– bottled water. From the scenes of common folks drinking out of half-filled water bottles, it appears as if human backwash and other factors create the conditions for bacterial contamination.
Now Doc is not sure that is what the story will really demonstrate. He is merely drawing conclusions from the promotions. From the sound and look of the promo, including the scary voice-over, the dangers of bottled water seem more ominous than SARS.
Lest readers think that Slime Time is produced only at the local level, consider the latest promotion for the Oprah Winfrey show. “There are thousands of websites with little girls modeling online. Is this OK? Is it good exposure for hopeful models, or just child erotica?”
The Big O wonders whether online modeling for children constitutes a form of sexual exploitation. It’s a perfectly good question. But the promotion is framed provocatively, and uses the same images Oprah pretends to abhor, using the faces of some of the children involved.
A message to Oprah from Dr. Ink: You are one of the wealthiest, most famous, and most respected women in the world. You use your celebrity for good causes. Why, then, can’t you use your power and influence to protect your show from the contamination of Slime Time?
