"HOW SHALL WE THEN LIVE?" Francis Schaeffer

Saturday, February 21, 2009

JOSH H - Radio Producer

JOSH H - Radio Producer extraordinair for Pete 4 to 7 p.m. weekdays.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Stephen Fowler; Good Guy? Surely unwise however.

World's worst husband - maybe

I've never seen TV's reality show WIFE SWAP. ( It's about swapping cultural mores by swapping wives from one household to the other to direct the family activities for a week. No "hanky-panky" involved.) Well, Gayla, a somewhat heavy-set patriot from Missouri was sent to a San Francisco suburb to play mother to the Fowler family while Renee Stephens went to Missouri. Stephen Fowler, a fairly wealthy venture capitalist, did not take kindly to Gayla and was ultimately quite verbally cruel. Very cruel. His performance on the show and the accompanying youtube videos created a major firestorm for the Fowlers/Stephens. He is currently the most hated and despised man in the USA (exceptions would be the whole of our Congress - but that's another post). His wife who is a Life Coach and Diet Therapist apologized on her website and he has too. He has since resigned from a couple of boards he served on and is probably in hiding - literally. His wife says she has requested he go to therapy and get help.

His apology on his wife's website was quite well done, but...... In the course of the TV show he offended military personnel, mid-westerners, people with weight problems, people without college diplomas and the vast majority of Americans in general. The avalanche of angry/enraged comments by people who either saw the show or have seen the youtube videos has been astounding. Several thousand people have posted their hatred and vitriol on various sites. It's quite interesting, if you're not the Fowlers/Stephens or their two young kids. Who knows how genuine his written apology was.

Mrs. Stephens, in her apology, insisted that her husband is not like that and also indicated he had done the show to please her. There maybe some truth that Stephen Fowler is not actually satan incarnate. Surely televisions editors live to highlight conflicts and paint portraits of people that are shallow, superficial and often inaccurate. But on the show the "milk of human kindness" is totally missing from Stephen Fowler.

REGARDLESS of what happens in the remaining 20 to 30 years of Stephen Fowler's life, he will NEVER live down his brief stint on television. There is no mea culpa available on this earth that will convince a majority of the angry citizenry that he is anything but a total, "limey scumball" (he's British).

And that's bad. He acted horribly, he may or may not be horrible. We don't actually know. He has ruined his reputation FOREVER and his marriage and family may or may not survive. His performance was that terrible. That is sad.

FINAL THOUGHTS. I realized a few years ago that it is basically NOT in your best interest to go on T.V. I used to be periodically interviewed by local television stations regarding mental health issues. But I no longer do that. I finally recognized that nothing particularly good could come of being on TV, and possibly something negative would. The best I could hope for was a "wash." So I no longer expose my vulnerabilities and stupidities willingly to the camera. Nothing to gain, much to lose.