Sex Watch? Uncensored Breast Exams Provide Public Service — And Ratings

A DC local news station, WJLA, has gotten into hot water in some quarters for airing a bare-breasted, unpixelated guide to breast self-exams. Critics say it’s a salacious ratings ploy, but defenders say it’s a valuable public service. Could it be a little bit of both?

The segment has found a formidable defender in Elizabeth Edwards, who has stage IV breast cancer and who criticizes her lack of breast health education for the unchecked progression of the disease early on (at the 2:00 mark in the Dr. Nancy clip below):

“We need to desensitize people about some things. This is the cancer most likely to strike women… For us to be squeamish about showing how it is we stop the attack on our individual bodies, I think, is foolhardy. We need to be prepared.”

But is a beneficial public health announcement tarnished if the local news station that runs it plays up its salacious elements (cf. the alarming red band warning on the video below; the Skinemax-ish synth soundtrack and electric pink background with which the series opens up) and tellingly holds off on running it until the beginning of Nielsen’s November sweeps, which run from October 29th to November 25th this year?

WJLA’s general manager Bill Lord frankly told The Washington Post that ratings were a factor in the station’s programming decisions: “‘People will say we’re doing it just for ratings,’ he said. ‘But we’re a commercial television station — we’re trying to get people to watch us. Yes, this is an attention-getting story, but it’s also an important story.’”

Speaking on Dr. Nancy, Dr. Robert Schenk made the point that even though the series and the buildup to it “clearly” seemed engineered to bolster WJLA’s ratings, that might not be such a bad thing: it would only ensure that a valuable piece of public health education would reach a bigger audience.

WJLA’s publicity and broadcast strategy is a free-market solution to a public health problem, but it’s got its issues. As compared with, say, Katie Couric’s on-air colonoscopy in 2002, which also drew big audiences, the station’s self-interest shines through a little too brightly. What’s worse, by playing off the ’salaciousness’ of their subject matter, they inflame the social taboos that made it possible for a local TV network to get national attention for airing an uncensored breast exam.

Here’s a clip from the WJLA series in question (NSFW?):



And here’s the Dr. Nancy segment (via TownHall)



(h/t Doug Ross via Technorati)

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