Media circus

Congressional representatives join "The Price Is Right" host Bob Barker in a made-for-media clarion call for elephants' rights in India.

By Jake Tapper

Jul 14, 1999 | If his face weren't already familiar, Bob Barker could easily pass for a congressman. With his thick white hair, conservative blue suit, aged visage and charming mien, Barker, 75, could easily wander into a Ways and Means Committee hearing and weasel a dam or two for his district.

This statesmanlike charisma was confirmed during Barker's appearance in Washington on Wednesday, where he held a press conference in the House Longworth Building.

Barker, who's been hosting CBS's "The Price Is Right" since the Mesozoic era, drew a packed house of Capitol Hill staffers, 100 or so of whom lined up outside the fifth-floor conference room hoping to catch a glimpse of the man who was kind enough to keep them company through countless snow days and stomach viruses.

One fan wrote her name -- Jessica -- on a price-tag name-tag, as is customary on the game show Barker has hosted for the past 28 years.

And, oh, yeah -- Rep. Sam Farr, D-Calif., Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., Appropriations Committee Chairman C.W. Bill Young, R-Fla., and a panel of experts were there, too. And in case I forgot to say, the press conference was about the mistreatment of elephants in India.

Congressmen and senators routinely trot out celebrities at press conferences and hearings and the like in the hopes of garnering greater attention for their causes and, by extension, themselves.

And effectively so: No way would I have covered Farr's event had Barker not been there.

Still, when Hollywood comes to the Potomac, an odd dance inevitably ensues. Celebrities try to bring attention to whatever cause they're fighting for, but the end result is that they often eclipse the issue altogether.

The frat party of House staffers crammed outside Barker's press conference, for instance, didn't seem all that interested in the plight of Loki, a 35-to 40-year-old male elephant currently being tortured by a bunch of Indian thugs.

Renting a celeb for a cause cilhbre can often cut the other way. The ludicrous lives of pampered, out-of-touch celebrities can occasionally paint their causes as silly, or trivial. I'm a fan of Jack Nicholson, but when he rallied against impeachment last December I cringed. No exemplar of morality, our Jack.

And don't get my father started on Barbra Streisand.

Barker's a somewhat different bird, however, as he has publicized animal rights for years, and -- like the rockers who brought attention to a country and cause heretofore unknown to Gen Y-ers in last year's Tibetan Freedom Concert -- Barker's cause is more humane than political.

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