BY JOHN KIESEWETTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Jerry Springer reclines by the window of his high-rise condo. Controversy swirls around his return to news commentaries. (Michael E. Keating photos) | ZOOM |

CHICAGO - Jerry Springer sits on the windowsill of his 91st-floor John Hancock Center condo and admires the spectacular view of The Loop, Navy Pier and Lake Michigan.

"I wouldn't trade places with any of the guys who are writing about this," said the syndicated talk show host whose return to TV commentary this week has whipped the Windy City into a frenzy.

The former Cincinnati mayor and news anchor has been the talk of the town - on radio call-in shows and in daily newspapers - since longtime anchor Carol Marin, a member of the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame, quit WMAQ-TV last week in protest of the station hiring Mr. Springer.

She called him "the poster child for the worst television has to offer."

It's erupted into a national story since then, landing him on The Tonight Show, Today, ABC World News Tonight, Crossfire, The Howard Stern Show and The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder. He's been quoted in Time, the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and USA Today.

JERRY SPRINGER Born: Feb. 13, 1944, in London, England. Moved with parents to New York City at age 5. Came to Cincinnati in 1968 as summer clerk for Frost & Jacobs while attending Northwestern University law school. Moved here in 1969. Politics: Elected to Cincinnati City Council in 1971 at age 27. Resigned in May 1974 after admitting he had paid a prostitute with a personal check. Won his council seat back in 1975; was named mayor in 1977 after receiving the largest plurality in city history. Re-elected to a final term, 1979-81. Ran in 1982 Democratic primary for Ohio governor, losing to Richard Celeste. TV news: Hired by third-place WLWT-TV (Channel 5) in November 1982 as commentator for 11 p.m. newscast. Named news co-anchor with Norma Rashid in March 1984. By May 1987, the Springer-Rashid team knocked Channel 12 (anchored by Nick Clooney) from first place; No.Ç1 until February 1992, six months after his talk show made debut. Resigned January 1993. TV talk show: Jerry Springer syndicated show premiered Sept. 30, 1991, in Cincinnati and four other cities. Moved to Chicago in August 1992 for national debut on 93 stations. (Commuted daily for six months to remain as Channel 5 anchor-commentator.) In 1996, he signed a multimillion-dollar contract through the 2001-2002 season. Jerry Springer airs on 129 stations, including Channel 5 (9 a.m. weekdays). - John Kiesewetter

And it hasn't died down since Mr. Springer began his one-week stint on the 10 p.m. news Monday:

On Wednesday, he had to defend himself in his old hometown over a published report that he "fibbed" in his debut commentary Monday. Mr. Springer recalled agonizing over whether to resign instead of signing a parade permit for the local Nazi Party in 1978. The story asserted "it didn't happen" because the safety director - not the ceremonial mayor - issued permits.

"Obviously, the city manager is the one who puts his signature on it," Mr. Springer said. "But it was a sensitive issue, a hot issue. So Bill Donaldson (city manager) and Henry Sandman (safety director) came to me in my office and said, 'What do you want to do with this?' "

Mr. Springer told them he wanted to consult his father, who lost his parents in the Holocaust. If they were offended, he told the two city officials, "you will have to find someone else for your mayor," he said.

"I was the mayor of the city. I didn't want to be party to marching without talking to my parents. That's exactly what happened. I've spoken about it for years."

In protest of Mr. Springer's addition, best-selling author the Rev. Andrew Greeley and the Rev. Don Senior, president of the Catholic Theological Union, refused to appear Wednesday on WMAQ-TV during coverage of Archbishop Francis George's installation.

A review of Mr. Springer's debut initial commentary was splashed across the top front page of Tuesday's Chicago Sun-Times. "Springer Fights Back, First Commentary Blasts Marin" ran above the arrival of the new archbishop from Portland, Ore., and an execution-style murder of a prominent real estate developer.

The Chicago Tribune review said Mr. Springer used "wild and extreme imagery . . . (which) brought Monday's 10 p.m. newscast on the NBC affiliate closer to the level of the talk show he hosts."

WMAQ-TV's new "viewer feedback line" for Mr. Springer's commentaries was overloaded minutes after his debut. Only 46 of the 3,762 callers supported the 53-year-old former Cincinnati councilman, lawyer, news anchor and commentator, the Sun-Times

Both papers called Mr. Springer's debut a ratings flop. WMAQ-TV, usually a solid second in the late news ratings, was No. 2 with a 14.7 rating on Monday behind ABC's WLS-TV, which had a 15.8 rating.

His debut drew about half the audience that Ms. Marin attracted (27.6 rating) for her on-air resignation May 1

Even some of his young talk-show fans, coming to a Tuesday Jerry Springer show taping (''My Mom's Boyfriend is 17''), questioned the sensational TV host's credibility to comment on news.

Jerry Springer, with his daughter Katie, meets with the media after delivering his first commentary on WMAQ-TV in Chicago. | ZOOM |

"I don't believe I can take him seriously," said Christine Pabin, 18, a University of Chicago freshman from suburban Oak Park.

Credibility has been his biggest obstacle in a city that knows him only from shows like "My Boyfriend Is A Girl," "I'm A Teen Call Girl" and "My Sister's Pregnant By My Ex."

agement recognize his Emmy-winning skill at writing commentaries - or even his First Amendment right to comment during newscasts.

"The station thinks I have a point of view that's worth listening to," he said. "The worse thing that can happen is that you'll disagree with me. God bless America!"

His appearance on newscasts this week was a victory in itself, he said.

"It's successful because I had the right to speak. Free speech is never dependent on what is said; it's a matter of the right to say it . . . " he said in an interview in his talk show office, one floor above the WMAQ-TV newsroom in the NBC Tower.

His Tuesday commentary on the archbishop's installation - he chastised Americans for choosing their religious doctrines a la carte - won over at least one viewer who didn't like his Monday commentary about his quarrel with Ms. Marin.

"He won some points, and proved what he could do. It's too bad he didn't do something like that the first night," said Mary Ann Staszewski, 46, of Oak Lawn.

Jerry Springer enjoys a cigar in his Chiago office, a makeshift shrine to childhood idol Mickey Mantle. | ZOOM |

Caught by surprise

Nasty, public fights are nothing new to Mr. Springer, a Bobby Kennedy presidential campaigner who watched police attack Vietnam War protesters during the bloody 1968 Democratic convention here. But this one caught him by surprise, as did the national media attention.

"All my political fights in life I chose - or because of my behavior I had to answer for," said Mr. Springer, who resigned his council seat in 1974 after writing a check to a Northern Kentucky prostitute.

"But I had nothing to do with this. They asked me to do some commentaries, and I said 'Yes.' And then (Ms. Marin) went ballistic . . . and I was thrown into the middle of this."

It's absolutely no surprise this happened during the May ratings "sweeps" month, which sets TV ad rates for the rest of the year. Marin, who had been told her multimillion-dollar contract would not be renewed, might quit when Mr. Springer's hiring was announced April 23, the eve of sweeps.

And the station didn't announce until Monday that Mr. Springer's tenure was just a brief five-night "sweeps" stunt. Starting Monday,he'll do commentaries on a weekly basis, he said.

Lyle Banks, WMAQ-TV general manager, said Ms. Marin had been told the station "was going in another direction. I regret the misperception of her departure."

Springer and former co-anchor Norma Rashid share a laugh outside the Chicago offices of The Jerry Springer Show. | ZOOM |

No one's laughing now

This all started as an April Fools'joke. No kidding.

"Jerry offered to come on as an anchor as an April's Fool joke," said Mr. Banks, recalling a January dinner chat that led to a serious discussion about Mr. Springer doing commentaries. When the notion was leaked to the press in February, the volcano began smoldering in WMAQ-TV.

Anchors Ron Magers and Ms. Marin, a 12-year team, privately begged management not to hire Mr. Springer, Ms. Marin told CBS' Tom Snyder this week. They also told bosses they would refuse to introduce his commentaries.

"If we're clinging with our fingernails to some vestige of credibility and trust we've tried to build with our viewers, this is not the thing to do. It was a grenade in our newsroom. They (managers) disagreed," said Ms. Marin, 48, who was suspended by WMAQ-TV in 1995 for refusing to read a commercial tie-in to a public service campaign.

TALK OF THE TOWN Here's a sampling of reaction to Jerry Springer joining WMAQ-TV news: Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun- Times columnist: "Springer seems to feel that he can separate his daytime persona from his nightly commentaries. After all, he's not really like that rabid ringmaster who orchestrates the daily circus of the grotesque on his syndicated show. Steve Johnson, Chicago Tribune TV critic: "The station's executives are ...tarting up their newscast with a man who, like a Hugh Grant from the prairie, consults publicly with practitioners of the flesh trade. Neil Steinberg, Chicago Sun- Times columnist: "Springer keeps saying that neither he nor the Channel 5 anchors are 'journalists,' trying to yank (Ron) Magers and (Carol) Marin into the pit along with him, while at the same time flogging the news commentaries he did, years ago, in Ohio. Time magazine: "To the two (WMAQ-TV) news anchors, sharing a show with the unabashed chronicler of America's most tawdry domestic dramas was like being asked to drink battery acid.'' Jeff Borden, Crain's Chicago Business reporter: "On the first night, he lived down to his reputation. .Ç.Ç. I thought (his commentary) was sad and pathetic. It was a classless, mean-spirited rant.''

For the past week, Ms. Marin and Mr. Springer have existed in a bizarre parallel universe here:

Ms. Marin, who will receive a special Ethics in Journalism award May 16 the Society of Professional Journalists, downplayed her harsh criticism of Mr. Springer while repeatedly stressing her concerns about the sorry state of TV news.

Mr. Springer, who won seven regional Emmys for WLWT commentaries, argued free speech, while downplaying his credibility factor.

Ms. Marin told Mr. Snyder: "This is not about Jerry Springer. It's about all sorts of elements, in what I fear is - in the public's view - the dumbing down of news. Jerry Springer doesn't represent even a paragraph of this huge discussion of what is news."

Mr. Springer claimed the controversy was "inside baseball," of interest only to the media. He was stunned by the "unwarranted . . . vicious assaults" from journalists who otherwise staunchly defend the First Amendment.

"I'm used to being beat up (in the press), sometimes deservedly so, but it's never been national. And it's more vicious because it's the reporters' profession," he said.

"This story isn't about me. The story is the arrogance of those of us who make a living in front of the camera believing we can dictate who else gets to talk."

But what about his news credibility in a city where he tapes what he calls an "admittedly wild and crazy show."

Viewers must make "more of a leap now" to accept him as a serious essayist, he conceded.

"You may argue that because of the (talk) show, that I won't be believed. And that's fine. The viewer will decide. . . . We vote every night with our remote control."

Unwinding with reporters after his debut Monday, Mr. Springer was asked by his daughter, Katie, 21, if he would have returned to commentary had he known about the brutal backlash.

"I probably wouldn't have (done it)," he said. "But once it became an issue, I couldn't back down - because I'd have to admit they were right."