Canine freaks make for quick laughs, easy action, and good television ratings.
The AKC was invited by NBC television's Today Show to put on a spokesperson to talk about the U.S. showing of Pedigree Dogs Exposed on BBC America.
Of course they declined.
And how could they not?
What the American Kennel Club has done to dogs is truly indefensible -- dogs that cannot breathe, that cannot walk, and that are so inbred that breed after breed of dog is now little more than a cancer bomb with legs, liver dysfuncion with fur, hip dysplasia with a tail.
When asked about such things, the American Kennel Club shrinks away like a salted slug, as they did earlier this year when ABC's Nightline television show tried to get them on camera.
The AKC will not talk about dogs in an open forum with veterinarians, working dog men, and genetic experts to call them out on their nonsense.
And why should they?
After all, all of the television networks will come mewing back to them in February when the Westminster dog show is in full swing.
Earlier this year, Matt Lauer gave the AKC a lot of free Westminster publicity.
Consider The Today Show. They gave Pedigree Dogs Exposed about 3 minutes this morning, and had a nice interview with James Serpell from the University of Pennsylvania, but earlier this year this same TV show had all four of their morning anchors up at Westminster trotting around the ring with a quad of strange-looking dogs.
This is how it goes with American TV.
Every year the American Kennel Club gets millions of free advertising dollars from Westminster Dog Show puff-pieces and from televised dog shows which now seem more numerous than ever.
Why? What's going on?
The simple truth is that American television networks are in a "race to the basement" as far as production costs are concerned. With 100 channels and the Internet too, fewer advertising dollars are chasing more and more media outlets.
The result is that television is now crammed with low-cost talking heads, pontificating popinjays, and cocked-up reality shows in which faded stars and wanna-be celebrities contrive personal dramas in order to get, or keep, their name in lights.
You want investigative journalism? Then you better pray that American networks buy more already-produced investigative piece from overseas, because American journalists are no longer in the business of finding or reporting news -- they are in the business of re-writing press releases and sending news crews down to Florida in order to see if they can locate one more Tiger Woods mistress.
So will showing Pedigree Dogs Exposed on American television shudder the keel of the AKC? I would not count on it.
Remember that for the dog show world, breeding dogs solely for looks and not for health or function, is a religion.
My Catholic friends did not become Buddhists because a news show ran a story about a few pedophile priests.
They did not stop taking Communion when it was revealed that archbishops across the country had known of, and hidden, hundreds of pedophile priests for decades.
NBC Today Show host Meredith Vieira gave the AKC a lot of free publicity (2009).
That said, a great deal of evil has died the death of a thousand cuts, and every little bit helps.
Though the old media of television is not likely to force change, the new media of the Internet may yet get the job done.
- Related Video:
** BBC - Pedigree Dogs Exposed
** ABC News Nightline "Best in Show' - Related Links:
** Let's Do to Horses What We Did to German Shepherds
** A Dog Show We Need to See
** Dogs and the Asch Experiment
** Counterfeit Collies and Transvestite Terriers
** Making and Breaking Dogs In the Show Ring
** The Kennel Club Freak Show
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