Sluts and Sleaze: Tribune Co. Cooking Up TV Political Show With Two Cincinnati Hams

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- This is what passes for creativity in today's corporate media executive suites: Let's match Jerry Springer against Bill Cunningham in an unruly political debate show. They can rhetorically mudwrestle about which political party is responsible for Tiger Woods' tastes in women, which they did (see below). Springer is a liberal former Cincinnati mayor who made it big as the ringmaster of an afternoon TV freak show. He was famously reelected after he paid a hooker with a check. Cunningham is a Cincinnati radio talker who makes the most rabid conservatives on earth sound reasonable -- he may be to the right of the Taliban. Chicago-based Tribune Co. is experimenting with a pilot that is airing in Midwest markets. The first one was screened in Cincinnati Sunday night. Few noticed.

Blogger Chris Johnson caught the first show and his review said it wasn't much. Johnson wondered why anybody would think the broadcast world needs another talk show pitting a Democrat vs. a Republican. It's a tired concept that started on CBS' 60 Mnutes nearly 40 years ago, then gained traction on CNN's Crossfire, a show that came to grow so boring and predictably talking head the cable network killed it off. The Cincinnati Beacon spotted Johnson's post and linked to it, for which the Bellwether is grateful. Johnson was struck by the abject lack of reasoning displayed by Cunningham. It involved Tiger Woods:

"In perhaps the most incoherent moment of the show, Cunningham claimed that Lyndon Johnson is responsible for the whole Tiger Woods mess because Welfare took fathers out of the home. Therefore, children have had no role models in the home and have had to look to celebrities like Tiger Woods for inspiration.
The show closed with both of their hopes for the new year. Springer wants health care for all and Cunningham wants Obama to be impeached so Biden can become President. Can someone tell me why we need this show? Real conversations about important issues are already few and far between within the corporate media, I don’t think that we need more of this nonsense on the airwaves."