Exploiting pain for profit on TV

The New York Daily News has a couple of articles online that raise serious questions about network TV's current obsession with "reality based" programs. The first article, "Extreme Tragedy: "Ugly' mom sues ABC for nixing makeover," reports on a lawsuit that alleges ABC's cavalier decision to bump a contestant because her recovery from dental surgery would take longer than the production had budgeted caused a family member's suicide.

LOS ANGELES - The producers of "Extreme Makeover" promised Deleese Williams "a Cinderella-like" fix for a deformed jaw, crooked teeth, droopy eyes and tiny boobs that would "transform her life and destiny."

But when the ABC reality show dumped the Texas mom the night before the life-changing plastic surgeries, it shattered her family's dream and triggered her sister Kellie McGee's suicide, says a bombshell lawsuit filed in L.A. Superior Court.

At first we were a bit skeptical, especially after reading how the late Ms. McGee "ended her life with an overdose of pills, alcohol and cocaine." It would be so easy, we thought, to use the death of a wayfaring sibling to add fuel for a lawsuit. But after reading the rest of the article, we have a different take. Consider this:

The show announcing Williams' selection for a mega makeover had already aired on Jan. 7, 2004, when the producers abruptly dropped her because the dental surgeon told them her recovery time would be longer than expected, Cordova said.

Williams was alone in a Los Angeles hotel room reading her pre-op instructions when a producer showed up and dashed her dream of a new life with a "pretty" face, the suit alleges.

"You will not be getting an extreme makeover after all. . . . Nothing. It doesn't fit in our time frame. You will have to go back to Texas tomorrow," the suit alleges she was coldly told.

Williams broke down sobbing: "How can I go back as ugly as I left? I was supposed to come home pretty," the suit says.
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In McGee's taped interview, she tried to play up her sister's good points. But the hard-nosed producers "peppered Kellie with questions about her childhood with the ugly Deleese . . . and repeatedly put words in her mouth," the suit says.
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The family's comments never aired on TV, but Williams, who was in an adjoining room, heard them all.
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McGee's "guilt was overwhelming." She OD'd on May 25, 2004, four months after the show's producers sent her sister packing.

Was it suicide? Who's to say? What sticks out is that ABC's production team seems more like the operation of Nazi experimenter Dr. Josef Mengele than a compassionate group that wants to help people.

The second article, "The dark side of reality," details other deaths associated with reality TV and talk shows.

A recent Associated Press/TV Guide poll overwhelmingly suggests that Americans are fed up with reality programming, with 8 of 10 people tired of surplus shows. Most tellingly, 82% of respondents said there isn't much "reality" in reality TV.

"I think they're giving a skewed perspective of life to our younger generation," said Rochelle Brown, a bank officer and mother of three from North Buffalo, N.Y. "You have these beautiful people who are doing wonderful things, or not beautiful people trying to become beautiful. It gives a false sense of what society expects from you as a person."

Exercising his perogative as Lord of the Castle, the Oklahomilist refuses to allow Reality TV programs on the home TV. It is unfailingly coarse, vulgar and un-intellectual. If you care about anyone other than yourself, it is not even funny. The spirit of most reality programs, and talk shows, violates the teachings of Christ. Reality TV is mean-spirited, and by definition that is the anti-thesis of the Holy Spirit, which is love. Reality TV more often than not mocks the concept of genuine love and compassion, therefore one could logically conclude that it is mocking the Holy Spirit.

And that is unforgiveable, or so we have read.

TV is not, per se, evil. No more so than a microwave oven or a washing machine. But people with evil ideas are using TV too often to promote an ideology of callousness and depravity, not because they necessarily are fond of callousness and depravity but because they have discovered that people by the millions with tune in, and advertisers by the millions will ante up.

Until people vote with their remotes instead of mere words to pollsters, reality TV is not going away.

It deserves to die.