Jerry Springer: Pioneer or Pariah?

PPride of authorship aside, Farnsworth believed that his invention had value and he was right. Fortunately, he didn’t live long enough to see how that visionary value would be abused. Farnsworth died in 1971, the same year that 27-year-old Jerry Springer resigned from Cincinnati city council after it was discovered that he had paid prostitutes for sex. It was a harbinger of sleaze to come. Twenty years later, Farnsworth started spinning in his grave when Springer launched a talk show that was anything but a great “teaching tool.” Unlike Philo’s invention, Springer himself once admitted that his show had “No real value.” And yet, “ The Jerry Springer Show” lasted for 27 years, and by 1998 he had bounced Oprah Winfrey (whose show had value) from atop the ratings . Jerry Springer died of pancreatic cancer on April 27. He was 79 years old. Springer was not the first television personality to broadcast valueless content. Joe Pyne did it from 1964 to 1969, followed by Sally Jesse Raphael, Geraldo