Date: Sat, 18 Dec 1999
Subject: Magazines Mistakenly Find Judge Judy “Intriguing”
DrugSense FOCUS Alert #150 December 18. 1996
Magazines Mistakenly Find Judge Judy “Intriguing”
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DrugSense FOCUS Alert #150 December 18. 1996
As many are already aware, Judy “Judge Judy” Sheindlin has been
embroiled in a controversy over her remarks about injection drug users.
According to the Australia Courier-Mail, Sheindlin made an appearance
in November where she said the debate about clean needle supplies for
heroin addicts is an indulgence lead by “liberal morons.” The solution
is simple, she said. “Give ’em dirty needles and let ’em die. . .I
don’t understand why we think it’s important to keep them alive.”
To read longer accounts, see http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1245/a07.html
and http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1245/a06.html
Activists have been complaining to her producers and sponsors, and at
least one sponsor has already dropped its support for Sheindlin’s
show. Unfortunately, Sheindlin still hasn’t retracted or apologized
for her statements. At the same time, the popularity of the Judge Judy
TV show has led to year-end kudos from two publications. New York
Magazine cited Sheindlin as a recipient of the New York Awards, which
singles out prominent New Yorkers “leading the city into the next
millennium.” And, Sheindlin is also expected to be named as one of
People Magazine’s “most intriguing people” of the year.
It is likely that neither publication was aware of Sheindlin’s “let
’em die” comments when they decided to pay tribute to her, so please
write a letter both New York Magazine and People Magazine to say that
Sheindlin needs a lesson in basic humanity much more than any award.
Thanks for your effort and support.
WRITE A LETTER TODAY
It’s not what others do it’s what YOU do
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CONTACT INFO
Source: New York Magazine
Contact: NYLetters@primemedia-mags.com
NOTE: An alternate email address for NY Magazine has been reported but
it appears that the one above is correct. You may want to BCC the
address below as a failsafe to insure delivery of your letter
EXTRA CREDIT –
Dateline NBC recently announced that People Magazine has chosen Judge
Judy as one of its “25 most intriguing people of the year.” Let’s
tell them what she is really about. Here is a link to tell People
Magazine about Judge Judy. Please write your letter and then cut and
paste it into this web page.
http://www.pathfinder.com/people/web/write_to_us.html
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Pubdate: Dec. 20, 1999
Source: New York Magazine
Copyright: 1999 New York Magazine
Contact: NYLetters@aol.com
Website: http://www.newyorkmag.com/
Author: Eric Konigsberg
NEW YORK AWARD WINNER: TELEVISION
Judge Judy Justice, no peace.
Her mother, legend has it, wanted her to marry well and took the
family on holidays in the Borscht Belt so she could meet someone nice.
But Judith Sheindlin has never been one to settle. Judge Judy, as we
know from her daily appearances presiding over real-life legal
disputes on her television show, is a case study in the art of the
second act. Now in her second marriage (to Judge Jerry Sheindlin, who
recently replaced Ed Koch as the centerpiece of The People’s Court),
she is a long way from her previous jobs settling cases for a
cosmetics concern and prosecuting juvenile delinquents in Bronx Family
Court. Wearing a lace collar and the demeanor of someone who perhaps
drinks lemon juice by the glass, Judge Judy handles her litigants with
skepticism and impatience. “My sense is,” she warns a man whose wife
had previously been involved with his brother, “that your wife is
still flaky.” She’s the cold and rational mother we never had. And
that is what lifts Judge Judy miles above the rest of daytime
television’s bottom-scrapers: Where Messrs. Jerry and Montel permit
their guests the verbal space to make fools of themselves, Judge Judy
cuts them off and spares them (and us) the embarrassment. So it’s no
surprise that Judge Judy, currently in its fourth season, is the
highest-rated show in daytime syndication. (Them’s the breaks, Oprah.)
Only Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! can boast of higher day or night
syndication ratings — but if they did, Judge Judy would just tell
them to shut up.
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SAMPLE LETTER (sent)
The inclusion of “Judge Judy” in your list of New Yorkers “who are
leading the city into the next millennium” shows the climate that
exists today in Guilianni’s New York. Judge Judy recently suggested
that drug users be given infected needles and said “let them die”.
When criticized she called her critics “liberal morons”, and has since
come out with other statements confirming her ignorance or callous
disregard of all the studies by the Institute of Medicine , the Center
for Disease Control, ReconsiDer, and others that say the availability
of clean syringes reduces the spread of HIV and Hepatitis among IV
drug users by 50% with no risk of an increase in drug use. Her show
has already lost sponsors as a result of her incredibly cruel and
dangerous remarks. I hope that New Yorkers will not follow this 1990’s
media version of Typhoid Mary into the new millennium.
Nicolas Eyle, executive director
ReconsiDer: Forum on Drug Policy
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Prepared by Stephen Young – http://home.att.net/~theyoungfamily Focus
Alert Specialist