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Willie in another tight corner
Close this WHY DOES Willie Revillame keep painting himself into a tight corner? After a number of controversial gaffes in the past, the “Wowowee†host has gotten himself into another sticky spot – or two – and has thus decided to go on leave for a couple of weeks from his popular noontime show.
Willie’s latest gaffes: He objected to the insertion in his show of footage from the late, great Cory Aquino’s funeral, and he allegedly talked on-cam about the dating proclivities of a man who turned out to be very much married.
There are two sides to every coin, of course, so in Willie’s defense, his supporters point out that the Aquino family has already forgiven him, and the host wasn’t against the Cory funeral footage per se, he just didn’t think it was appropriate to edit them into a slap-happy noontime program.
As for the married guy whose cover he blew, Willie hasn’t aired his side just yet – but the man’s wife has complained in no uncertain terms.
Beyond these two new controversies, however, more basic questions continue to rankle: Namely, why does Willie keep getting into trouble? And why do some people on TV (Willie isn’t the only one) keep shooting themselves in the foot?
Some possible answers:
TV personalities like Willie are “on†daily and generally work without a script, so they have to rely on their wits to get things straight and not come up with too many mistakes that will later end up biting them in the butt.
In addition, TV hosts like Willie become popular not just because they’re good in their line of work, but also because they generally represent the swaggering, kwela macho stud, the type who can be relied on to make “amusing†winking comments that delight the slap-happy TV audience. Trouble is, those sometimes racy, edgy and colorful ad-libs often turn off people who think that the TV medium should be used more responsibly, especially because impressionable youths are watching.
Viewers also object to some TV hosts’ disparaging remarks about “ugly†people, the elderly and the physically disabled, and the cavalier, insensitive way they have of treating women as sex objects.
So, TV hosts have their work cut out for them in constantly avoiding stepping on those potential land mines. This has become especially difficult at this time, when so many parents and educators have become more TV-savvy and thus see the danger of some TV people adversely influencing children with their unenlightened patter, attitudes and behavior.
For these and other reasons, TV hosts like Willie have to be constantly self-aware and self-protective to make sure that, in blithely entertaining viewers with their spirited, exuberant ad-libs, they still toe the line as far as responsible behavior on TV is concerned.
To top it all, TV personalities have to contend with the very popularity that they enjoy. It rewards them with a lot of fame, money, the adulation of millions, and a lot of other heady perks – and these rewards eventually delude them into being shot down. So, when they do get flak, they don’t know how to deal with it.
At first they bully their way through, but when that doesn’t work and the criticism piles up and turns uglier, they’re caught flat-footed.
To protect themselves from these and other career land mines, it’s important that TV people don’t get an inflated view of their own importance. They should continually remind themselves that they owe everything to their viewers and focus, not on themselves, but on how to be of better and more responsible service to the people who “made†them in the first place. If they fail to do that, they should prepare themselves – to reap the whirlwind.
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