Dr. Phil and homeschooling...

For quite a while, I've been seeing solicitations for homeschoolers to appear on the Dr. Phil show on various homeschooling message boards. I rarely watch Dr. Phil because too often his topics are inappropriate for young kids. Actually, I'm not sure his show is really appropriate for anyone, take Monday's show, for example--I didn't watch it, but here's the blurb from DrPhil.com:

The Dr. Phil House: House of Hatred

Dr. Phil starts a groundbreaking social experiment. Six individuals from different walks of life, with different judgments and prejudices will live under the same roof, in an attempt to break down the walls of hatred and intolerance. Gary, 26, is a white supremacist who hates all people of other races. B., 58, is an African-American woman who thinks all white people are "ignorant sociopaths." Staci, 22, is a thin woman who thinks obese people are "disgusting blobs" and not people at all. John, 24, is over 600 pounds and hates skinny people. Christina, 22, believes all homosexuals are sinners. Tessa, 19, is a lesbian who hates straight people. Dr. Phil puts them to the test with assignments that force them to work together with their adversary. It doesn’t take long for hostility to break out, sending Dr. Phil over to the house, saying, “This has got to stop.” Will these guests learn acceptance, or turn on each other?

Why on earth would this be worth an hour of my time?

But for reasons that are beyond me, Dr. Phil has a large audience. He's a best-selling author and seems to be using his fame to make his wife a celebrity. Apparently she's speaking at a Women of Faith Conference beginning October 27-- the same day that the Dr. Phil Show was originally set to show what is reported to be an attack show on homeschooling. Considering that conservative Christianity and homeschooling are often related, I can't help but wonder if the show was rescheduled to avoid putting his wife in an awkward position.

Here's the thing it took me far too long to understand: television networks DO NOT sell commercial time so they can afford to put on TV shows, television networks put on TV shows so they can sell ad time. What this means is that Dr. Phil makes his money by luring viewers, to sell access to their eyeballs during the commercial breaks. He doesn't need to maintain a good reputation among his professional peers, or behave ethically, or even offer good advice, he just needs to put together a show people like to watch, and avoid offending any large groups. Apparently the easiest way to do that is to appeal people's baser tastes while attacking unpopular minorities.

Once I had my lightbulb moment about advertising and the media, it suddenly became clear why most mainstream parenting magazines are pointless. They offer just enough content to entice subscribers, while carefully avoiding taking a stand on, well, anything. Circumcision, breast-feeding, sleep-training, discipline, you can count on one thing, they will cheerfully tell you that whatever you do is just fine. Because they've got a barrel, the advertisers have a shotgun, and we're the fish.