publicly shaming a child

Dog the Bounty Hunter was cancelled, finally. He was one "collar" away from getting killed anyways and now he can retire from that dangerous bounty hunting game and re-evaluate his life. This is a good thing for America and reality television, specifically. No longer are the bail jumpers of our country going to fear the mullet haired fellow tailing them and no longer will I fear flipping the station to A&E. 

Reality television is something that's caught on by storm. Writer's strike? Writing malaise? Impending idiocracy? These are all possible reasons that reality television is so endemic in our culture but they don't get to the heart of the matter. You see, deep down, every one of you lousy people out there love to watch "the fall". You want to see triumph and success, followed by failure. Rinse, repeat. It's heart warming to see a "real" story play out by "real" people, but it's downright television gold to have a trainwreck in front of a camera that's just waiting to film what happens.

Reality television is the NASCAR of its market. All people are ever watching it for is to see the fall. The fall can be from anywhere or to anywhere but people don't like intelligence or planning. After all, what type of planning happens in most day to day lives? "Oh honey, we've got a couple graduation parties next month" Rarely heard is the "I want to manipulate the television industry by 'starring' on a reality show and using that fame to parlay my joke of a career into something better" and then the 'actor' just hams it up all the way to the bank. We'd much rather see Dog in a jail cell with the other lowlifes he loafs with. We'd much rather see the Kardashians ruin their lives than think to ourselves "Hey those chunky broads really make some bank, I'ma get one preggers right fast!"

Howard Stern is trying his hand on America's Got Talent these days and recently made a 7 year old cry. It's not a big deal, it happens to me all the time. The problem was that it happened on national television, and it was exactly what the network wanted. They had their crash and the cameras just kept on rolling. I thought nothing of it since children cry as much as drunk college girls that didn't find their romeo by last call until one of those after the news programs started discussing the ever popular blame game. Who's to blame for publicly shaming a child on national television and dancing in revelry in the aftermath all while discussing the repercussions of allowing a child on the national stage? You are. Rather, I should say the viewer is responsible. When you watch that drivel it only keeps the wheel turning and the dollars rolling.