Threatening Springer’s guests with arrest was the idea of a crusading priest, Rev. Michael Pfleger. CHICAGO’S most powerful City Council member wants Jerry Springer to ‘fess up: Are the fights real, or are they staged?
The answer could have far-reaching repercussions for Springer’s brawling talk show. If Jerry insists the fights are real, Chicago police may swoop in to arrest his guests. If he admits they’re staged, his fanatical followers may feel betrayed and turn him off, especially since their man Jerry has said in numerous interviews that the fights are real.
Either way, Springer stands to come out a loser. Guests won’t want to fight if it means getting arrested. And if guests don’t fight, ratings will plummet, just like they did last spring when “The Jerry Springer Show” dropped the fighting for several weeks. The fighting returned in the fall and “Springer” has been the nation’s top-rated daytime talk show ever since.
Officials at the Chicago-based show were tongue-tied about this latest assault on their classless cash cow. Producers refused to be interviewed, a spokeswoman said no comment, and Jerry high-tailed it to L.A. last Thursday to be roasted by the Friars Club. He was said to be unreachable since he was out of town. What, they have no phones in L.A.?
Only one comment could be extracted from a show source who didn’t want to be identified. “It would be selective enforcement to just arrest people on our show,” the source complained. “It would have to be enforced against all public entertainment. Wouldn’t they have to arrest hockey players? What about pro wrestlers?”
I put that question to Alderman Edward Burke, the senior member of Chicago’s City Council and the most powerful politician in the city after Mayor Richard Daley. “If somebody filed a complaint [against a hockey player], the police would be forced to act, wouldn’t they?” replied the no-nonsense alderman, who wants Springer to come clean about his show’s infamous fistfights.
Burke and other council members have invited Springer to testify at a hearing. If Springer won’t come voluntarily, Burke said he’ll serve the talk-show host with a subpeona.
Threatening Springer’s guests with arrest was the idea of a crusading priest, Rev. Michael Pfleger, a community activist who has been arrested for defacing neighborhood billboards for tobacco and alcohol products. He’s been an anti-Springer crusader since last spring, when a protest he led resulted in “The Jerry Springer Show” being dropped from the NBC-owned station in Chicago.
Now Father Pfleger is taking his anti-Springer fight to another level. He reasoned that if he can be arrested for painting over billboards, guests of the “The Jerry Springer Show” should be arrested if they assault each other.
And that’s where Jerry’s testimony is needed. Police officials, along with Mayor Daley, say the cops will arrest brawling guests only if the fights are real.
In the end, Chicago may be too hot for Jerry Springer. At a hearing last week, Burke declared: “If it’s not entertainment – if it’s assault, battery and domestic violence – then the Police Department should continue to effect arrestseveryday until Jerry Springer decides to move his show to Cincinnati.”
That’s the city where Springer once was elected mayor.