‘Dateline’ Exposes Wheelchair Bias
“Dateline NBC” (at 10) shows us a good reason why we need the media.
Barriers to physically challenged people were supposed to have come down when President George Bush passed the Americans with Disabilities Act. The law guaranteed access to buildings and equitable treatment in housing and employment.
Correspondent John Hockenberry, a paraplegic, uses hidden cameras to demonstrate that discrimination still exists. It’s disheartening to see someone in a wheelchair turned down for a job or denied an apartment and minutes later see an able-bodied applicant treated entirely differently.
NBC even stacked the deck, using a person in a wheelchair more qualified for a sales job than the able-bodied person who walked in the door next. But the results were consistent.
The person in the wheelchair was treated as a second-class citizen.
Hockenberry is a tremendous example of how senseless it is to put any limits on people in wheelchairs. Wait till you see his indignation when a bureaucrat tells him that there are some jobs that “handicapped” people can’t perform.
Reports such as this one (ABC has conducted similar hidden-camera investigations showing racial discrimination) remind everyone that the fight for equality is unending. And they might serve as a wake-up call to those who have different standards for different people.
Those who discriminate come off as real jerks in Hockenberry’s report.
Highlights
“Bad Girls” (1994), FOX at 8: This is “Thelma & Louise” with a twist. That must have been the pitch to the studio for this misguided Western about four prostitutes who flee justice after one is charged with murder.
They become gunslingers, caught between righteous settlers and frontier criminals.
Madeleine Stowe, Mary Stuart Masterson, Andie MacDowell and Drew Barrymore star.
“JAG,” CBS at 8: The Hamas, a terrorist Islamic Resistance group, takes a hospital hostage. Unfortunately for the terrorists, Harm (David James Elliott) is one of the patients.
Francesco Quinn, Anthony’s son, guest-stars as the Hamas leader. Repeat.
“Home Improvement,” ABC at 9: Brad (Zachery Ty Bryan) gets a job, which thrills his parents until they realize he’s made it a higher priority than school. This one will ring true for more than a few parents who have seen their teenagers get carried away by the freedom a little extra spending money creates. Repeat.
“Cries From the Heart” (1994), CBS at 9: A teacher (Patty Duke) uses “facilitated communication” (either a teacher or a counselor guides a non-speaking person’s hand on a keyboard to spell out words) to prove that a young autistic boy was molested by his caretaker. Melissa Gilbert stars as the mother.
The story is rather muddled by competing themes, as various emotional battles circle about the central issue of the credibility of the controversial technique.
Cable Calls
“The Long Hot Summer” (1958), AMC at 6:30 and 11:30. This adaptation of several William Faulkner short stories is a slow but tense drama.
Orson Welles plays the heavy, a domineering Southern landowner named Will Varner. Paul Newman is a volatile drifter who settles in as an industrious sharecropper and courts Varner’s daughter, played by Joanne Woodward.
Varner takes a liking to the drifter, which threatens his spineless son (Anthony Franciosa). Lee Remick and Angela Lansbury also star.
Calling it atmospheric is an understatement. You can practically smell the sweat as the vivid characters collide.
Talk Time
“Tonight,” NBC at 11:35: Brooke Shields (“Suddenly Susan”), boxing champion Oscar De La Hoya and singer Amy Grant.
“Late Show With David Letterman,” CBS at 11:35: Actress Joan Cusack and comedian Louie Anderson.
“Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher,” ABC at 12:05 a.m.: Paul Provenza and Harlan Ellison.
“The Late Late Show With Tom Snyder,” CBS at 12:35 a.m.: Actor Charles Dutton.
“Late Night With Conan O’Brien,” NBC at 12:35 a.m.: Chris Rock (“The Chris Rock Show”), satirist-filmmaker Michael Moore and musical guest Neil Cody.