You see them huddled in cardboard boxes under bridges, sleeping on urine- soaked subway platforms and begging for quarters.
They are the homeless-or, more probably, TV anchors posing as homeless.
When Walter Jacobson, then-anchor at Chicago`s WBBM-Ch. 2, went
”homeless” for a spell last year, he inspired ridicule. His series seemed a testament to cheap, self-promotional compassion, aided by a professional makeup artist.
Jacobson, who wasn`t the first, was followed by Giselle Fernandez, formerly with WBBM but by then an anchor at Miami`s WCIX-TV (she`s now at CBS News). And last week brought an apparent first of uncertain distinction:
stations in the same market each doing a series based on their anchors` going homeless.
It happened Feb. 16 in St. Louis, where KMOV, a CBS affiliate, and KSDK, an NBC affiliate, began ratings-period, or sweeps, reports on experiences of their high-profile employees.
KMOV`s Larry Conners and KSDK`s Deanne Lane had independently gone undercover during a similar period. They relied on the resources now pro forma in TV descents into Dark Undersides, including concealed microphones and video cameras, nearby camera crews and nearby private security personnel-just in case the station ”talent” confronted any physical peril.
Conners, alluding to Jacobson`s fabricated look, said, ”I didn`t want to turn this into a masquerade party,” which is why he wore no makeup other than a Band-Aid on his cheek after being identified early on. He also did not want the series to be solely his observations, explaining what he characterizes as a more documentary tack taken in parts of the series, which is continuing.
His station planned to beat KSDK to the punch, but promotional ads tipped off the competitor. So KSDK rushed its homeless saga on the air starting the same night as KMOV`s.
Eric Mink, TV writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, found the efforts less offensive than such series he has seen from other cities, though he was uneasy with what struck him as possible violation of some shelter residents`
privacy. He found more ”legitimate content” than in past series, including Lane`s noting of double standards confronted by women seeking entry to shelters.
Still, these quickie brushes with homelessness are chancy enterprises. Mary Brosnahan, executive director of the New York-based Coalition for the Homeless, generally is happy about anything that prods public consciousness but is chagrined at ”how much of this panders to fears that, `This could happen to you!` ”
TV can`t avoid the theatrical impulse, even for the most somber, and complex, of realities.
Imagine a local TV station considering a homeless series that focuses on the subject`s complex elements. Those include the deinstitutionalization of psychiatric patients; the effects of gentrification and the destruction of low-income housing; the disappearance of many blue-collar jobs; alcoholism and drug abuse; Reagan- and Bush-era lack of interest in building low-income housing; and the decline of public-education and foster-care systems.
Listen. You can hear the yawns of news directors, who`d much rather find a divorced suburbanite or former commodities broker whose luck turned sour and now lives under a dank viaduct.
Conners says he`s conscious of TV`s limitations. ”We can`t cover all those issues involved in homelessness. You can`t rely on us for all your news. But our images can cut through people`s passivity and, in that way, maybe make a difference.”
Here are snippets from ”Time Warp,” a story by prominent free-lancer Robert Sam Anson in March Esquire. It`s an uncharitable piece about Time magazine seemingly groping to figure out changes in content and tone in an age in which a newsweekly`s role seems increasingly tough to determine. The story opens at a focus, or survey, group session:
”The mirror Henry Muller sits behind is two-way: He sees out, those he looks upon do not see him. It`s a fitting shield for the managing editor of Time, where anonymity is a tradition that dates to another Henry, with the last name of Luce. On this cool evening in San Francisco, however. . . .
”In the company of a clutch of aides, Muller has been observing them
(eight consumers in the focus group) for nearly three hours now, studying their reactions to the red loose-leaf binders each has been given. . . .
”Muller, however, does not seem worried. Tastefully turned-out in white shirt, somber suit, and muted cravat, he appears, rather, how Henry Luce`s heirs ought to appear . . . quietly confident and self-controlled.
”In the semidarkness of the viewing room, those who`ve flown out with him from New York are nibbling on pizza and cookies as they jot down notes. Their comments come in whispers. . . .
”Stretching, Muller gets up to fetch a cup of coffee. As he sips it, his eyes never leave the two-way mirror. `Hmmmm,` he murmurs, as one of the group members reads from a yellow Post-it note he`s stuck to the binder`s pages. . . .”
Got the picture?
Folks at Time, including Muller, confirm that Anson wasn`t at the focus-group session. There`s no attribution indicating where all this came from. Must be that New Journalism.
”. . . this night of hell.”
A description of the predawn slaying of Jesuit priests in El Salvador?
Earthquake in Mexico City? The latest atrocity in Beirut?
No, it was Sun-Times sports columnist Jay Mariotti, a master of understatement and perspective, characterizing an occasionally rugged Olympic hockey game between the U.S. and Sweden that fell somewhat short of being a vision of Hades on ice.
Another baseball player, Cubs second baseman Ryne Sandberg, is said to be disgruntled over low pay ($2.1 million this season under an existing contract). Word of his chagrin prompted the Tribune`s Bob Verdi and Jerome Holtzman, and the Sun-Times` Dave Van Dyck to rally to his defense last week, with Van Dyck prescribing a five-year, $32 million deal as a cure for Sandberg`s wounded ego and slim wallet.
Sympathy for downtrodden sorts like Sandberg tends to be rife among two groups-sportswriters and callers to radio talk shows. Neither are slaves to reflection of a consistent sort.
In particular, they`re both quick to spend a management`s money (in this case, Tribune Co.`s) but then associate various ills, such as losing seasons and rising ticket prices, to the same management`s profligate disbursement of capital.
There are many lawyers who, upon receiving a letter whose return address is a prison, ditch the letter. Fortunately, Redbook magazine apparently opens everything that arrives in the mailroom.
One letter that arrived last June came from Ross Nelson, 60, a convicted child molester serving a 20-year term in a prison in Brownsville, Texas, for aggravated sexual assault. The one-page letter started like this:
”You thought your son slept over at a friend`s house last night? He did, but it wasn`t the friend you thought. . . . Your son was sleeping with me. I`m the man down the street who hired him to mow the grass, who helped him with his homework while you were at work, who went to school and scout functions when neither your nor his father had the time. . . .”
Ellen Levine, editor of the revitalized monthly, followed up and two weeks later got a 9,000-word diary from Nelson. Redbook assigned Ruth Miller Fitzgibbons, a Dallas free-lancer and former editor at D magazine, to go to the prison and interview him. The result is a head-turning, first-person account of the origins and methods of a child molester in the April issue due out March 10.
Levine still doesn`t know why Nelson wrote to Redbook or if the letter was part of a multiple submission to several magazines. Presumably, his interest in Redbook involved the many mothers who read it.
Levine won`t disclose the size of the payment to Nelson but said it will go to a charity chosen by the surprise contributor.
The cover of March-April Chicago Life features a photo of presidential candidate Jerry Brown.
Jerry Brown?
Well, any guy trying to get to the White House has to go through O`Hare Airport, so that must be the local angle.
