By IPS Correspondents
CARACAS, Jul 18 2000 (IPS)

Talk shows specialising in the crude and intimate reality of their guests is good business for television stations in Venezuela, but feed doubts as to the integrity of their creators and the effect on society when they are broadcast at hours traditionally reserved for children’s programming.

Stories of abuse, infidelity, depravity, betrayal, revenge and passion competed in the afternoons with children’s shows until a month ago, when the debate was launched about the potential consequences of the so- called “reality” talk shows.

A report in the Caracas daily ‘El Nacional’ revealed that the story told by two people on one such show, a testimony of painful emotional reality, had been completely fabricated. One of the two said they had been given a script.

The two acknowledged they were actors and had made the mistake of appearing on other shows using different identities. The revelation cast a dark shadow over the flourishing business of these testimony-based talk shows, which are proliferating on Venezuela’s television channels.

Programmes such as “Confessions from the Couch,” “The Hall of Couples,” “Count on Me” and “Justice for All” have turned into powerful audience magnets as lawyers, sexologists, psychologists and psychiatrists orient the discussions, which tend to explore the depths of the guests’ private lives.

The programmes tend to exploit human dramas and some base a great deal of their success on the disputes and fights captured live by the camera.

All have an aura of reality and the faithful TV-viewers have no little reason to doubt their veracity.

The evidence that at least some of the cases have been fabricated fed calls to take a look at the impact these shows have on society, especially the fact that they were generally broadcast during children’s hours despite their adult content.

The most talked about of these shows is imported from Peru. “Laura in America,” hosted by attorney Laura Bozzo, often includes arguments that degenerate into punches being thrown on stage, hair-pulling and insults – with guests using words not meant for tender ears to hear.

A typical story was that of two sisters shouting amid tears as they fought over the same man, peppered with insults yelled from the television audience – and broadcast in the middle afternoon, just as most children are returning home from school.

The questionable propriety of the talk shows led the authorities to intervene. The minister of Education and Culture, Héctor Navarro, appealed to the television stations to change their schedules and stressed that the government would exercise its regulatory power in order to protect Venezuela’s children.

The National Council on the Rights of Children and Adolescents demanded that the TV networks comply with the law on child-appropriate programming and stated that the talk shows harm “healthy psycho-social development and damage family values and models of upbringing and education.”

The government Council stressed that girls and boys have the right to information and programming that coincides with their level of development.

For its part, the National Telecommunications Commission (Conatel) sent a message to the television stations telling them to reschedule the talk shows and their stories of “real life” for the adult audience in the night-time hours.

The appeals were successful. “Laura in America” moved in mid- June from the children’s hour to 11:00 in the evening, and now competes with other talk shows that are based on politics, not on personal testimony.

Bozzo herself went to Venezuela in the middle of the controversy to defend the style of her programme, assuring that it is designed “to benefit low-income people who do not have access to legal assistance.” She pointed out that there is more violence on the streets of Caracas than on her show.

The Peruvian attorney said her programme is linked to an association called “Family Solidarity,” through which she has assisted in resolving 9,000 disputes between individuals.

Bozzo affirmed that in Caracas “aggression is found everywhere.”

“I don’t believe in a television show that hides something, that avoids realityà If it is morbid to see reality, things that happen every day, then my programme is morbid,” she added.

Another programme that changed its time-slot for the evening hours was “Justice for All,” which is currently one of the most popular shows on Venezuelan television.

Hosted by attorney Julio Borges, the show plays out as a type of legal hearing between parties caught up in a dispute.

Borges, who runs the programme with a judge’s gavel in hand, has maintained that his programme should not be mistaken for a testimonial talk show because, he says, “Justice for All” attempts to find solutions, not to create conflict.

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