The Chattanooga Times & Free Press
Friday, March 10, 2000.

Social Debacles Replace Natural Disasters on TV
By BARRY COURTER
Assistant Features Editor

Do you remember back when the only time you were likely to turn on your television and hear about pubic hairs on soda cans, semen-stained dresses or couples getting married two hours after meeting was on "The Gong Show" or cable movie channels.

Do you remember when the national news shows were filled with stories about the economy, wars overseas and natural disasters? Back when the broadcasts were serious, dull and only watched by your parents who felt some obligation to turn it on before dinner?

Do you remember when all that changed? For the last couple of weeks, both the news magazine shows and the so-called serious news shows have had stories about the multimillionaire goober who married a nurse on national television. Does that affect your life in any way whatsoever?

That show itself, "Who Wants To Marry a Multi-Millionaire," was presented as legitimate, or real, TV. During the '90s, the lines that once divided real news, real life and real entertainment were completely erased and replaced by a TV gumbo that includes cop shows, paramedic shows, judge shows and more news magazines shows featuring real people than there are real people.

Burt Kearns was there at the beginning, and he has written a book about tabloid TV and its rise to prominence and eventual merger with "real news."

"Tabloid Baby" is the story of how shows like "A Current Affair" and "Hard Copy," with their behind-the-story stories of real people, went from industry joke to industry leader to the industry norm. Kearns worked as a managing editor for both shows.

"While tabloid's heyday was relatively short-lived ... its influence lives on in every network program ... all five 'Datelines,' all three '20/20s' and both '60 Minutes.' Not only have the major news organizations appropriated tabloid techniques, but they've also placed a greater emphasis on tabloid material at the expense of hard news," Kearns writes in the book's introduction.

The event that began the blurring of the lines, according to Kearns, was the William Kennedy Smith rape case.

"We sent a reporter for one week to the Kennedy compound (in Florida). 'Hard Copy' was the only one covering the news. The nets decided not to and 'Current Affair' was still claiming to not be tabloid," Kearns said in a telephone interview.

"The trial became huge news, and then the Clarence Thomas (confirmation hearing) scandal became big. By the time O.J. (Simpson) came around, the nets couldn't ignore these types of stories no longer.

Kearns calls his book a "bittersweet story."

Tabloid TV "was a revolutionary breath of fresh air," he said.

"It changed what stories are covered and the way they are covered.

"With O.J., the two worlds collided, and the so-called legitimate shows adapted tabloid techniques and eventually put the tabloids out of business. When Clinton came along with his scandals, suddenly we were a tabloid TV nation.

"At the tabloid shows I worked, we were never news. We were entertainment. They were fun shows. But viewers started skipping the news shows and watching us.

"Ten years ago, news shows were covering economics and Bosnia. Today Dan Rather is talking about Gap dresses and cigars."

If there is any good to come of this type of reporting, we now know how Jennifer Lopez managed to keep that scarf posing as a dress on during the Grammy awards show, thanks to "Entertainment Tonight." Now that's news people can use.