Nope. He organized their troubled lives like a freak show, profited from it, and soiled the country’s moral fabric.
For that, he needed a receptive audience. Springer was a symptom. The original late-night show was high comedy. The later afternoon show pretty much reflected the decline of American culture.
I was chastised by a cousin on Facebook for mentioning his death. He was angry because he said so many good people died that day and I ignored them.
Yet my point is he had IMPACT and a very negative one on our society. Probably no other American besides maybe a distant 2nd place Larry Flint dropped our morality as a nation as fast.
Consider:
27 years
5000 shows!!!! (Well almost)
Shown in 2 DOZEN countries!
A huge preponderance was daytime TV so for nearly 2 generations little kids were sitting around TVs in the summer and learning: cursing , cheating, bondage, lying, fighting, gayness, lesbianism, Transvestism , cross dressing, Incest, oral sex, he even mentioned beastiality multiple times on the show and had actually produced an episode and was ready to air it when politicians and TV broadcast station pulled it.
He had a huge impact and one could almost argue he personally had quite a bit to do with the mess we are in now. If that’s not enough controversy in a life to warrant mention a passing then I don’t know what is.
If he is in heaven now then God really doesn’t care about morality.