Corruption of the masses

Jerry Springer, Elon Musk and the modern generation of the flood

Chapter 1.3

Corruption happens to them, not to us. A comforting thought. An unsettling delusion.

January 7 2025 marked the release of the new Netflix miniseries Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action. It documents the maddening descent of a kindly son of Holocaust survivors into the gatekeeper of the seven circles of hell. He should have known better. He did know better. But everyone has a price and his was a net worth of 60 million dollars.

“Judge not lest ye be judged”. Sound advice and generally well worth heeding. We all have done things we are ashamed of; secrets we would rather leave unrevealed. So to shame another seems hypocritical at best, tempting fate at worst. Yet the crimes of Jerry Springer both to television and (rather more importantly) American culture are so egregious that his demeaning behaviour is worthy of public comdemnation. Indeed it demands it. It is all too easy to absolve the shameless host of responsibility; using the love-filled care of his disabled daughter as an excuse to cast his producer in the role of sacrificial scapegoat. For although Richard Dominick was the corruptor in chief, Springer was the idealist human being who allowed himself to be corrupted. Every tale of temptation has a Lord Henry Wotton. But it is the Dorian Gray who must be held accountable for his wrongdoing.¹

[Dorian Gray (2009): The corruptor and the corrupted]

So notorious is the Jerry Springer Show in our “culture” that all can recount its sins by heart, yet the court demands its indictment. Regular and producer-encouraged fighting leading to serious injury. Confrontations between Jewish heavies and members of the KKK. Teeth knocked out. Pounds of flesh literally removed. Nudity was commonplace and exploitation of the most vulnerable in American society ruthlessly solicited. There was no line red enough that it was inappropriate to cross: Bestiality, penis amputations, you name it: Dominick even said (only half-jockingly) that he would be prepared to see an execution on screen if he could arrange it. And the consequences came, as inevitably theywould, when one love triangle too far ultimately led to murder.

Dominick at least was honest. He was seeking ever-higher ratings in the infernal race with Oprah. He sought ever more debasing innovations to maintain the interest of the viewer. It was exploitation or cancellation: for him the choice was clear. The production team, under intense pressure to come up with the goods, continued to up the stakes, accepting increasingly unvarnished trash in the name of gold. They went to extraordinary lengths: manipulating guests to fight and threatening the reluctant with flight home-less sanctions. Losing their jobs was the excuse and when challenged by their conscience, they replied that they “had” to do it. For following orders is always the last refuge of the war criminal.

But amongst this barely concealed skulduggery, Springer remained oddly aloof in a state of incredulous moral purity. The show was facilitating free speech and fighting censorship! It was permitting the unheard to air their stories! How very noble. Sometimes the facts were too hard to deny; even Springer, faced with a history of letting Nazis on his show in a way that would have shamed his survivor parents, felt forced to approach the truth: “I don’t do a talk show. I do a circus. There are just no lions.” But despite the belated honesty - the realisation that this bear pit, the reenactment of the Roman colosseum, was his own doing - he just laughed it off. Interviews on talk shows, handsome paychecks, long-sought after fame: all these were more than sufficient to allow the charade to continue; modern Christians torn apart by beasts was necessary for the distraction of the mob. His total corruption was such that despite his fame and fortune, he continued in role for 10 years after the departure of Dominick until every last sinew of personal dignity had finally been expunged.

It was never meant to be this way. Springer, an aspiring politician with dreams of a better world, had been an accomplished news anchor, even winning an regional Emmy award for commentary. The first incarnation of the show had been positively conservative with an aged audience and an uncompelling format. But its worthy dullness had little impact on an audience who voted with their remote controls. Bottom of the weekly viewing figures, the ratings had to increase or the show would have been cancelled. It was in this context that Richard Dominick was hired to reboot the show. And it worked. His increasing disregard for moral norms led to the franchise’s overnights exploding upwards (even overtaking Oprah at one point) in an unwanted commentary on the new decadence of America. From bottom of the ratings barrel to bottom of the moral barrel was child’s play: it meant forgetting all you were taught at Sunday School.

But here’s the rub. Beyond the shamelessness of Dominick and the faux moral post-justifications of Springer lie the truest, most complete victims of their corruption: the general public. Springer was a front and we were the guilty. Indeed the viewing public were entirely responsible for the ensuing malaise. Sure enough, those that knew better facilitated it; the so-called educated throwing red meat to the masses. But it was the masses themselves that tuned in. Had the original attempt at talk show earnestness paid off, no Dominick would have needed arise to change the cultural fate of the nation. Yet the public decided and the public got. True democracy some may say. The ease with which we can descend to Roman barbarity would be terrifying if it wasn’t so predictable. Indulged by those in search of personal fortune, the television voters selected the most crass, most despicable, most deplorable option on market. And given the gatekeeping responsibility to uphold standards of integrity and decency, the cultural level holders demurred. Springer, unsure at first of the show’s change of direction, ultimately needed little persuading. The money-fueled publicity came pouring in and deterministically infected his once upright conscience.