Amy Fisher and the Ethics of “Headline” Docudramas

YET ANOTHER DEFINITION...

• [The docudrama form] presents viewers with a purposeful viewpoint or value-laden interpretation of reality and contains some degree of historical accuracy and factual authenticity

(Brode 14-17; Hoffer and Nelson 149-63).

TECHNIQUES

• The television docudrama also draws heavily from such motion picture stylistics as narrative conventions and specific production techniques

• What are these techniques? Define...

M.O.W.

• More than any other TV programming genre, made-for-TV movies owe their existence to consideration of television economics: Television executives created made-for-TV movies when the rental fees for airing theatrical releases became too expensive.

• Made at a fraction of the cost of a theatrical movie ($3-5 million versus $25-40 million) and less costly than a series commitment, these TV movies proved popular and profitable.

TWO CATEGORIES

• Historical docudramas - a fictionalized retelling of a period of history. Much has been written and much is known about the events that have happened.

• Headline docudramas - (1)tales of adversity, where the principals display courage and persistence and achieve some form of triumph (The Ryan White Story).

OR

• (2) tales of crime, often involving either greed or lust (or both). Most often, the crimes are murders or sexually related assaults. In the end, justice prevails, and the criminals are held responsible for their crimes.

THE AMY FISHER

STORY

• Three telefilms were made

• None of the reviews addresses the questionable ethics employed in retelling this tale to the public.

• What did the filmmakers do that the author considers questionable ethically?

MAJOR ETHICAL DILEMMAS

Three major ethical dilemmas exist in terms of docudramas:

• the effects on the principals of the story.

• the lack of ideological context.

• the techniques used to blur fact and fiction.

EFFECTS ON PRINCIPALS• Critics worry that this practice rewards perpetrators of

crimes, especially those with "juicy" stories to tell.

• In addition, the production of the subsequent docudrama may compromise the legal positions of the principals, especially during the appeals process.

LACK OF IDEALOGICAL CONTEXT

• In Amy Fisher, larger issues of parental abuse, male-female relationships, class, and ethnicity were all ignored in the three docudramas.

• Docudramas are presented as "personal" stories rather than "social" ones. As such, they often fail to critique society's failings, locating wrongs not in the social structure but on a personal and melodramatic level.

PRESENTING “REALITY”• Due to the narrative

constraints of telling a good story, dialogue is often invented, characters are composites of several people, and even certain occurrences are made up.

• The act of adapting an event to standard narrative formulas changes reality in the process.

DEPENDING ON WHICH VERSION OF THE AMY FISHER STORY WAS SEEN, VIEWERS SAW THAT AMY

• ( 1) never slept with Joey Buttafuoco (CBS),

• ( 2) definitely slept with Joey Buttafuoco (NBC), or

• ( 3) most likely slept with Joey Buttafuoco (ABC).

These three depictions correspond with the various points of view the movies presented (i.e., Joey's, Amy's, and reporter Amy Pagnozzi's, respectively).

LEGAL PROTECTIONS

• False light

• privilege and consent

• the use of disclaimers, such as "a motion picture based on a true story”

• The problem here is that the audience is unaware of who is the source or author of the docudrama. Psychology shows that, over time, individuals forget the source of a message they remember.

• When a movie airs with a message saying that it is "based on fact," it is highly possible that, over time, viewers will believe that the recreated story is indeed fact rather than fiction.

• The believability of docudramas lies in what David Sholle terms the "reality effect" (56-72).

• The truth content of docudramas depends less on accuracy than credibility, "from what is true to what can be believed to be true" (66).

• The line between news and entertainment is becoming increasingly blurred.

• So-called "reality" programs, such as America's Most Wanted, Unsolved Mysteries, and Rescue 911, have become increasingly popular, and ratings for broadcast tabloid news programs rival local and network news shows.

• All the Fisher movies included some mention of the less credible tabloids within them.

• For viewers who saw the Amy Fisher cased played out on the tabloids and then saw the scenes recreated for the docudrama, a sense of validity about the docudrama is created. At the very extreme, viewers may believe these stories without question, thus having a distorted view of the event and the characters.

• If the major networks continue to employ re-enactments to tell their news stories, the distinction between fact and fiction will continue to diminish.

• Remember last week’s author, Alfred Schneider, former vice president of policy and standards at Capital Cities/ABC?

• Even a network vice president is willing to accept a standard of reasonableness rather than accuracy for recreating reality.

FACT OR FICTION?

• Judd Parkin, ABC senior vice-president, has observed that "We've reached the point where TV movies and news shows are competing for the very same stories"

• Alfred Schneider recently observed about the ethics of docudrama that the time has come for producers to adhere to "requirements of accuracy, fairness, balance and choice" (81).

• Unfortunately, it appears that the major goal for most producers in developing a headline docudrama is to get it on the air first. In such a competitive environment, ensuring "accuracy, fairness, balance and choice" is generally irrelevant.

END