Activists Challenge CBS' Erasure of
Lewis' Insult:
The strange case of the disappearing slur -- "Now you
see it, now you don't" on CBS Sunday Morning.
Contact: Harriet McBryde Johnson
171 Church St, Suite
160
Charleston SC 29401
843/722-0178
office
HarrietJohnson@compuserve.com
For immediate release: 8/28/01--
In a May 20 CBS interview, MDA
telethon host Jerry Lewis was asked about those who consider him "patronizing,"
Lewis told correspondent Martha Teichner, "I'm telling about a child in
trouble. If it's pity, we'll get some money. You don't want to be pitied for
being a cripple in a wheelchair? Stay in your house."
People could
hardly believe their ears. Those who checked the CBS website found a sanitized
version of the quote, the last two sentences omitted. But Laura Hershey, a
longtime leader of the telethon opposition in Denver, got a video tape and
within 48 hours had an audio clip of the quote readily available on her web
site, www.cripcommentary.com/LewisVsDisabilityRights.html .
Many took
advantage of links on Hershey's website to comment to MDA and to CBS. Ten days
after the show aired, MDA and Lewis issued an apology -- their first ever.
Reports on the apology emphasized the word "cripple," but Hershey and others
objected most vehemently to the notion that people with disabilities have to
put up with pity or stay in the house.
Another protest organizer,
Harriet Johnson of Charleston, SC, had a note hand-delivered to Teichner, who
was in town for the Spoleto festival. "I was distressed that Teichner, whose
work I respect, glossed over the bigotry in Lewis' comments, to glide into the
stats on how much money he has raised, as though that justifies it. If an
interview elicited a comment like that about African Americans or women, I
can't imagine CBS Sunday Morning or Teichner handling it that way." Teichner
called Johnson and explained that the piece was about "Jerry Lewis, what makes
him tick." She said the telethon is part of his life and the quote helped
reveal his character. Johnson agreed, but objected to the way the quote was
presented. She emphasized that any coverage of the apology should get the
disability rights point of view straight. At Teichner's suggestion, she sent a
Fax to Rand Morrison, the show's producer. The criticism was was eventually
noted -- and dismissed -- in the show's "mail" segment.
Over the summer,
organizers planned Labor Day protests in cities all over the US, many using the
theme, "We're not staying in our houses." By confirming that pity is how the
telethon works and reviving the image of disabled people as being shut in and
shut out, the comment proved an effective organizing tool. MDA was reduced to
issuing a press release focusing on Lewis' failing health. "MDA's PR machine is
expert at mobilizing and exploiting pity," says Johnson. "Now it seems they
want to use it to extricate themselves from a sticky situation."
On
August 26, one week before the 2001 telethon was scheduled to begin, the CBS
profile was reaired. The shocking quote was gone. Its place was a new quote,
"You know who criticizes me...? People that never gave a nickel..." The next
day, Johnson telephoned CBS Sunday Morning. A staff person who refused to give
her last name or title said the change had been made because the segment was
about the "hard-working comedian," not the telethon. Gone was the revealing
quote that Teichner said was important because it helped show "what makes him
tick."
Says Johnson, "If CBS Sunday Morning deliberately set out to
undercut the protest, they could hardly have done a better job. We have already
announced events for Labor Day, centered on the Teichner interview. Those who
saw the re-run will think we're lying, that Lewis said no such thing. Maybe
this is a clumsy effort to avoid controversy, but it's also possible that CBS
has taken sides with Lewis and MDA and against those of us who are trying to
fight disability bigotry."
Despite the public anmesia the re-run may
induce, protests will go forward in over a dozen cities. The original quote
remains available at Hershey's web site. Accurate transcripts of both versions
are also posted at the web site, or are available through Burrelle's
Information Services, on LEXIS.
See for
yourself:
Compare CBS' two different versions of Lewis'
remarks