Salon's doing a story on how the "Sally Jesse Raphael
Show" is facing a lawsuit for hundreds of millions of
dollars for allegedly "recruiting" a 15-year-old runaway to
pose as a prostitute.
What's interesting is their take on the show's defense: "Talk shows are 'a
distinct genre of broadcasting, with standards and procedures particular to the
form....' " And the other side of the argument? The 15-year-old's lawyers "say
she was minding her own runaway business in Los Angeles when a Sally producer
offered her $200 to appear as a prostitute on TV, flew her to New York, put her
in a mid-town hotel with a man named "Frostbite" (who was stoned on heroin and
Valium and who appeared as Weber's pimp on the show....)"
