Kris Jenner is the proud mother of the six Kardashian siblings. The reality show Keeping up with the Kardashians recently finished airing its seventh season in which Jenner goes under the knife for a breast implant surgery. NBC’s The Today Show interviewed her for a segment on Sept. 11, in lieu of a moment of silence for the victims of the 2001 tragedy. Jenner told NBC’s Savannah Guthrie that she was happy that the surgery was filmed because she wants to encourage women to be educated about their bodies and to take care of themselves. The interview was pleasant, but its timing was inappropriate.It is very respectable that Jenner wants to inform women about taking care of themselves, and talking about why she was willing to air the replacing of her “expired” implants was a good way to promote her stance and inform people about it. Women considering breast augmentation should be aware of the procedure and the risks. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) declares that the safety and success of the procedure greatly depends on whether or not you are open and honest during your consultation and details the risks and complications that may be involved in the procedure. The ASPS also states that future surgery and replacements may be required because implants are not guaranteed to last forever. Jenner commented on this during her interview. She mentioned that her first surgery was in 1989 and explained that she felt replacing them was the most prudent thing to do.
Though this information is good to know, and it is respectable of Jenner to want to inform women, it is not more important than remembering the victims of the 9/11 attack. Skipping the moment of silence for Sept. 11 in favor of airing the Keeping up with Kris segment was ridiculous and wrong. I am not personally an avid fan or a follower of the Kardashian show, so I talked to others in hopes of gaining some perspective. The general consensus was that the show is fun and engaging. Marisa Quaresimo, a freshman film major, enjoys the show but declared, “I don’t think that [Kris Jenner] is that important.” While Kelsey Anderson, a freshman allied health major, stated, “Not even the president of the United States is that important. It was a moment of devastation, and they’re more interested in a boob job?”
Although the segment that The Today Show aired was about more than just a boob job in that Jenner was trying to inform women about the surgery’s health risks, the choice in timing was terrible and unacceptable. Now, I do not believe that Jenner was aware that the segment would be replacing the expected moment of silence and observation. It has been reported on RadarOnline and The Today Show that she was not included in the decision to skip the moment of silence and that she is reportedly upset about the entire ordeal. Thanks to the show’s error in judgment she is stuck between a rock and a hard place. It was an unfortunate occurrence and her name is so deeply intertwined in the ordeal that it could be really bad for her and the Kardashian show. Fox News reported that people are considering boycotting NBC and Jenner because The Today Show has not agreed to apologize for the blunder.
On Wednesday, Sept. 12, NBC continued to refuse to apologize and a spokesperson for the network even declared that The Today Show had dedicated a great amount of time throughout the show to Sept. 11’s anniversary events. However, though the network did not directly apologize, it appears that NBC News president, Steve Capus, decided to. The New York Times reports that Capus told the NBC Affiliate Corporation Group executives that, “Yesterday, we made an editorial call resulting in the Sept. 11 moment of silence not being seen,” and, “While we dedicated a substantial amount of airtime to anniversary events, we still touched a nerve with many of your viewers… and for that we apologize.”
The fuss is not really about the lack of a moment of silence, but about what was in its place. Many people turned to The Today Show expecting to see a moment of observation for, or a program dedicated to, the 2001 crisis, but instead they were greeted with an interview segment of a reality show star discussing her breast augmentation and her children’s relationships. It was a disturbing event for many people, and an apology is owed.
I believe that it was an unwise decision to run the Jenner segment at that time, while President Obama led the White House in a moment of silence and the NYPD, FDNY and Port Authority Police observed the moment at Ground Zero. However, fault should not be placed on Jenner. We do not know if she was aware that her interview was being run during the expected moment of silence, and she should not be forced to suffer because she was caught in the middle of the ordeal as a result of a bad decision of The Today show producers.