My eyes have been pretty much glued to the television these days, and not because of the yawn-inducing series of presidential debates being shown, but because of the endless titillations provided by the idiot box of late - and in their news programmes too, of all things.
As a matter of fact it seems hardly a day goes by without us being regaled with some sorts of scandal or other, and not the kind that get relegated to the gossip and entertainment pages or programmes, but ones that take up the front page of the newspaper or the lead story in a news bulletin. And at stake here is not merely some celebrity’s failed third marriage but high ranking public officials flouting public trust, hard-earned reputation being besmirched and social norms trampled upon by those in power.
Yes. Roll over corny and ‘suspend your disbelief’ soap operas, sinetrons and telenovelas, these days juicier plots, shady characters, sexual misadventures, lies, betrayals, confessions of sins and other example of human failings that normally make up great viewing, can be found a lot more in the headline news than in the fictitious world of your garden-variety TV drama.
Combine powerful men with beautiful women, affairs and extra marital sex; pepper that with lies, betrayal, emotional and physical abuse, conspiracy and even murder; add on top of that a good dose of public mea culpa, then what we have is an excellent fodder for the hungry hounds of the media.
From parliamentary members caught with their drawers down (remember the DPR guy who was seen in a video in his all together with a woman not his legally married wife?), to the high ranking anti corruption chief, Antasari, with a supposedly spotless and corrupt free character, but got embroiled in a mess consisting of bribery, an affair with a pretty golf caddy and cold-blooded murder, the stories were just too good and too juicy for the media not to dish out and shove down the fascinated viewers’ throats. Plus it’s great for the TV ratings
Then there was the dark and twisted tale of Manohara and the Malaysian Prince, an intricate saga of kidnapping, warped marriage and evil in-laws. This epic of sexual intrigues with a beautiful conniving young woman at the centre and two neighbouring countries, Indonesia and Malaysia, taking opposite sides of the ring in a kind of wrestling match that has the national pride at stake, could only end in tears.
Another emotionally charged story absorbing much airtime and paper space is the David and Goliath tale of injustice perpetrated by a cold, heartless institution against a poor defenceless woman in the shape of one Prita Mulyasari that captured the nation’s sympathy and became an instant cause celebre and political commodity for aspiring presidential candidates as well as never ending topic of online discussion.
Abroad, the fare is of similar nature. More sex, lies and email confessions dominating the press. The most consistent coming from Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi whose sexual peccadilloes are becoming a daily affair for the media that a day barely passes by without Berlusconi’s sexual gaffes making headlines, the latest being when replying to an allegation that he uses escort women. ‘I have never paid a woman’ Berlusconi was quoted as saying in an interview, ‘I never understood what the satisfaction is when you are missing the pleasure of conquest.’ Hear, hear.
Then of course there is that whole list of politicians (Republicans nonetheless) in the US who, one after another and with alarming regularity, fell from grace and whose careers (and marriages) ended at the feet of the other woman or man.
Taking the biscuit in this series of sexual scandals by politicians whose credibility had been built precisely upon wholesome family values and moral uprightness, is South Carolina’s Governor and Republican rising star, Mark Sanford. His weird (almost surreal) confession of his affair in a bizarre press conference attended by giggling onlookers is grabbing headlines and dominating political discussions and late night shows on the scale of former President Clinton’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky and his infamous declaration ‘I did not have sex with that woman.’
Instead of simply proffering a public apology and brushing the affair off as a momentary lapse of judgment not to be repeated, as most politicians do when finding themselves in similar situations, Governor Sanford practically confessed to the country (and his wife and children) that he is in love with another woman. His heart obviously heavy with mixed emotions he rambled, amongst other incoherent things, ‘I spent the last five days, and I was crying in Argentina so I could repeat it when I came back here… indeed, from a heart level, there was something real…’
With primetime news like these who need telenovellas?
(Desi Anwar: first appeared in The Jakarta Globe)
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