Sweeps, Sleaze, Swaggart, Santee and South Africa

Thanks for finally getting around to “A Current Affair.” I was beginning to think I was the only one who sat there open-mouthed and disbelieving at this nightly assault on the truth--a sleazy tabloid masquerading as a “news show,” and the ever-boyish Maury Povich, his pseudo-seriousness tinted just this side of shady.

I thought it was pretty bad when they interviewed the two pathetic little publicity seekers from the Bronx with their brave claims of sexual encounters with Jessica Hahn. But the show reached an all-time low the night they invited Shere Hite on with the pretense of discussing her book, and the real covert purpose of having her punch it out verbally with the limo driver she was alleged to have assaulted.

I cheered out loud at her display of pure, brazen guts when she got up and walked off camera. But Povich was right in there with the right hook, along the lines of: “There she goes, folks, acting just like she acted today when she assaulted the limo driver!” Nice going. And nice going, Channel 11 too in its onward march toward mainstream respectability.

JUDITH RAPHAEL

Los Angeles