Jerry Springer believes television networks should not broadcast President Trump’s daily coronavirus briefings, the former tabloid talk show host said in an interview out Tuesday.
The longtime host of “The Jerry Springer Show” and former Democratic mayor of Cincinnati said on a podcast that airing the president’s press briefings is not helping the public.
“There is no excuse now that we know what they’re like for just turning on the cameras,” Mr. Springer told The Enquirer’s “That’s So Cincinnati” podcast. “The reporters should be there, and then write their reports or report it on the news at night or whatever. But to just turn the cameras on Trump for an hour and a half — that’s not journalism. That’s technology. I blame the journalists for this now.”
Mr. Springer, 76, added that networks may have had a valid reason to run Mr. Trump’s press briefings about the coronavirus pandemic when he started holding them in early March.
But more than a month later, the longtime TV personality suggested networks should know better by now than to continue allocating airtime to the president’s daily pressers.
“I could see the first couple of days — or maybe even weeks — doing it. But now that we see what the routine is — that Trump gets up there and spews his stuff, which is different every single day, and then finally the doctors get up there and basically refute what he’s saying — the public is not being helped,” Mr. Springer said.
Mr. Springer served on the Cincinnati City Council for several years during the 1970s prior to briefly serving as the city’s mayor. But outside of Ohio, he is best known for hosting “The Jerry Springer Show” from 1991 through 2018, a tabloid talk show among the more lowbrow and controversial of similar daytime TV series.
“Frankly, my major argument against Trump is that he took my show and brought it to the White House. And that really ticks me off,” Mr. Springer said elsewhere during the interview.
Mr. Springer is currently the host of a reality court show, “Judge Jerry,” which launched in 2019.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.