What’s the brouhaha with Willie’s show?
TV is being dominated by Willie Revillame, again. What is it with Willie? A few years ago, he was caught cheating on a game portion on his TV show. Another issue that will forever hound him was the Ultra stampede where there were deaths and many injuries. Now, he is being charged with child abuse when he made a young boy perform a macho dance on his show.
Though I find nothing wrong with the performance of the little boy because even little girls sometimes do sexy dance on live TV too, but what is offending is that the Willie made the little boy dance for cash, urging him like a professional gay bar dancer. What made it worse is that the boy was in tears. Willie is doing this for fun, I know, but this is distasteful; he has to be sensitive to his audience for not all of them are crass, or naive or ignorant. My former professor in graduate school loves Willie. Even I, sometimes watch his show because of its unpredictability and spontaneity. There are really funny portions in the show, especially the family apir. A little political correctness would not do his show harm.
Anyway, I just don’t like the way he manipulates his audience especially the poor, elderly and the children with special needs. Also the image of a financial messiah cum Santa Claus that he is projecting gets on my nerves. The way he twitches his face to show compassion to his needy audience some how seems too artificial to me. I could be wrong, of course. Anyway, he is still a good entertainer and live TV shows especially comedies are not known for their propriety and correctness.
I wish Willie well for despite everything, he has gone a long way from being one of Randy Santiago’s hawi boys to being one of the most popular, if not the most popular, TV host and this attests to his industry, perseverance and talent. He is a survivor. He is tough for he stood his ground against TV moguls which in itself deserves a little hmmm…respect. But he has kicked a lot of butts and somehow, as the saying goes, these butts maybe the butts that he maybe kissing on his way down in the future. One can only make so many enemies.
For Willie, this time the most prudent thing to do is to apologize, admit his errors and move on. He should not resist public opinion for he knows that the sponsors of his show depend on public opinions for their endorsements. They sell products; they need to project an impeccable image. Some advertisers have already pulled out their sponsorships because of the issue.
Another, he should also change his lawyer because his lawyer’s arguments and defense are illogical and insane. De Vera is appealing to the emotions, attacking personalities, and not exploring the issues at hand.
Also Willie should not mobilize his fans or at least he should discourage them from holding rallies-it’s pitiful to see them holding those placards. These people do not know the issues at hand-they do not have a grasp of what’s happening and he should not give the impression that he is manipulating these poor people for his own self interest. If he really loves his fans, he should tell them to stand down for these are legal and ethical issues that do not concern them at all.
The two weeks self imposed (or is it network) suspension should give him time to think these over and its time he start listening to people who would tell him things as they are.
I have said too much…
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