Abortion 'show' called by audience

WASHINGTON — At first glance, bump-the-show sounds like a reasonable response to "Bump," the show — a new, faux-reality Web-based docudrama featuring actors trying to decide whether to have an abortion.

Think Jerry Springer meets Oprah meets American Idol meets Dr. Oz meets ... America's conscience. For the decision to abort or not to abort is up to you, dear audience.

Has the shark just jumped the shark?

The idea for the "show," which launches Monday, was inspired, of all things, by Barack Obama's commencement address at Notre Dame University last year. When the president said he wanted "to find ways to communicate about a workable solution to the problem of unintended pregnancies," executive producer Dominic Iocco conceived "Bump."

He and co-executive producer Christopher Riley want to see whether stories can succeed where four decades of rhetoric and politics have failed. They fashioned their experiment in a way that would be most appealing to the wired, reality-show generation.

Beginning Feb. 1, two episodes a week will appear on Mondays and Thursdays, both on the Web site (bumptheshow.com) and on YouTube, and spectators are invited to comment. A pilot, which appeared on the eve of the 37th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, already had drawn 147 comments by Friday, ranging from criticism of the acting and the doctor's makeup, to heartfelt accounts of personal experiences with abortion.

Comments are being carefully monitored to ensure civility, Iocco told me in a telephone interview. The fear is that the conversation could devolve into the usual rants. He worries that once foot soldiers on each side of the debate get wind of "Bump," they'll mobilize their troops and try to firebomb the theater, as it were. A few of the most vitriolic posts already have been removed.

There are so many unappealing facets wrapped into this one package, it's difficult to identify the core offense. That's not so much the fault of the producers — who get some credit for seeking creative ways to advance rational debate — as it is a function of the culture. Media critic Marshall McLuhan was surely right when he declared that the medium is the message and that our media eventually form us. Thus, we find ourselves sitting before computers, inputting opinions about whether fictional characters should terminate a developing human life.