Here's an article from the Globe & Mail, one of Canada's National
Newspapers.  Tell me what you all think.

Thx, Albert
ER episode under fire

CNIB protests over storyline in which vision impairment leads to suicide

By Guy Dixon
Sat. November 22, R-15

Bob Newhart's vision-impaired character on the TV series ER shouldn't have
killed himself.

So says the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, which fired off a
strong press release this week, a few days after the episode in question was
aired. The institute which provides support for the blind also wrote letters
of complaint to the series' executive producer, NBC and its Canadian
broadcaster, CTV.

But the question is how receptive TV producers and networks are to these
kinds of complaints, particularly with aging hits such as ER looking to edgy
storylines to maintain their ratings.

Newhart's character on ER was losing his eyesight due to age-related vision
problems. Depressed by his illness, and after cutting his hand with a knife
while trying to prepare a meal, he shoots himself.

"The message this show sends is alarming," the CNIB's president Jim Sanders
said. People with this condition, age-related macular degeneration, still
lead "healthy, active, productive lives. This episode is so potentially
damaging because 80,000 new cases of AMD are diagnosed in Canada each year."

The CNIB isn't the only one taking issue with ER these days. An American
group, the Center for Nursing Advocacy, recently launched a letter-writing
campaign aimed at NBC and the show's producers, complaining about the
portrayal of nurses and their roles in hospitals.

A Warner Bros. spokeswoman in Toronto declined to comment on the CNIB
complaint, and an NBC spokesperson in Los Angeles wasn't immediately
available. CTV said it has no control over the storylines.

Some large-scale boycotts targeting sponsors have gone so far as to push
shows off the air, said Richard Gruneau, professor of communications at
Simon Fraser University. But with a particular grievance such as the CNIB's
complaint against one plot line in one episode of one series, prospects of a
response are small. "There are no mechanisms for that," Gruneau said.

The next question is whether there should be.

-30-


Albert & Janis Ruel
Victoria, BC, Canada

"Nothing is more tragic than someone who has sight, but no vision." - Helen
Keller

My daily prayer:

Lord keep your arm around my shoulders and your hand over my mouth!


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