Can We Talk? : The Power and Influence of Talk Shows

A 1993 study by the Times Mirror Center for the People and the Press revealed that only about 11% of the American population has ever tried to call a talk show and just 6% of that number was heard on the air. Yet TV and radio talk shows have become the focus of scrutiny in the last few years as politics and "hate radio" have been brought into the spotlight by the outrageous behavior seen and heard daily on those shows. Scott, author of Mind Your Own Business and a former talk-show host herself, takes a look at the "big three" of radio?Rush Limbaugh, Larry King and Howard Stern?and traces how the pleasant talk show of the 1960s evolved into the blab of today. Scott argues that the baseness came about because Americans are virtually encouraged to become professional victims: "instead of taking responsibility for their own difficulties, they blame and project their sense of guilt onto others." On the TV side, she goes back to the days of Mike Wallace and Joe Pyne and how that kind of confrontational television begat Phil Donahue, who eventually begat Geraldo. Scott also takes an interesting look at the career of Barbara Walters and the blur that has been created between network news and entertainment. Although somewhat academic in tone, this is an informative look at one of today's controversial subjects.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Talk show producers should take note: when a media phenomenon starts to engender dry, self-consciously serious tomes aimed at analyzing the meaning of it all, the bloom is definitely off the rose. Actually, this particular analysis of radio and TV talk, while certainly dry and self-consciously serious, is not without merit. Scott, a consultant and workshop leader on social-issue topics (and, ironically, a frequent talk show guest), offers a serviceable history of talk shows, profiles four of the biggest stars (Oprah and Letterman, among them), and reflects perceptively on the free speech versus bad taste debate that continues to rage over what should be allowed on the air. The allure of Howard Stern and Rush Limbaugh also receives enlightening treatment, along with an uncharacteristically lively rehash of trash TV at its trashiest (heavy women sitting in melted chocolate on the Richard Bey Show). Expect this information-rich, style-poor study to be popular with students writing reports on contemporary media. Ilene Cooper