Race and Reality

Race in reality television is nothing new. In fact reality television did wonders for integrating people on television since it was almost color-blind. Almost every reality television show had a minority on it. Many reality TV shows actually had a nice cross section of people you actually find in reality. In fact a study from University of Texas says reality shows contained more characters of color than any other genre of primetime programming. Adding it’s the only place in primetime where you can regularly watch an integrated “cast.” Not only has reality television featured a racial cast minorities often win the reality show competition. Vecepia Towery on Survivor: Marquesas, Jun Song on Big Brother 4, Ruben Studdard onAmerican Idol, Harlemm Lee on Fame, and Dat Phan on Last Comic Standing are some recent examples. So with all the good reality TV has done to integrate the races leave it to the Tiffany Network to segregate them again.

CBS announced this week for the 13^th edition of the hit reality TV show Survivor: Cook Islands contestants will be grouped by race, with the 20 competitors divided into four tribes consisting of whites, blacks and Hispanics. Critics are already saying its just a gimmick to exploit racial tensions – but CBS execs say no… that it is just good television. The shows long time host Jeff Probst, is praising the decision. Calling the exercise in segregation a “valuable social experiment,” rather than a stunt to dig up some controversy--and raise ratings. Probst went on to say that this is the most diverse cast on survivor. Saying previous seasons the Survivor contestants have generally skewed white.

So CBS puts together the most diverse set of contestants ever only to split them up by race. "It's not just 18 white people," Probst said. "Suddenly you have new slang, new rituals--people doing things like making fire in ways that haven't been done on Survivor. I think we have a season where people will say you can never go back to what you were before." He added that similar to all of the previous Survivors the tribes would eventually become united.

Syracuse’s own Bob Thompson, pop culture Dali Lama is less then enthused when he was asked about the new spin on the reality TV show. "If I had been a producer of this show, it is not an idea I would have come up with or given approval to," Thompson, told E! Online. "It's like a return back to segregated leagues in sports. The unseemly interest this will invite certainly is not worth the dramatic elements it's going to bring."

However this isn’t really the first time a reality TV show has split things up – though it is the most controversial. It may be less offensive than race but reality show have divided up contestants by gender (Survivor and The Apprentice) and also education i.e. class (High School vs., College on The Apprentice). I am just afraid this could be a slippery slope. What’s next? The Donald splitting up the next seasons contestants by religion? Are the greedy Jews really more business savvy than the other faiths? Or by stereotype? Can the Irish out drink other races? Mexicans out mow during a landscaping competition, Arab leave the opposition in the sand in camel races, or blacks out sell during a street pharmacy event.

I guess it’s not the first time race has been used for ratings. Minorities have also found themselves at the butt of many jokes. Two of the biggest and most glaring examples include William Hung the ‘Asian geek' whose singing and dance moves were exactly what we would expect them to be, or the derogatory character type of ‘the black bitch' embodied and edited to be presented so well in The Apprentice’s Omarosa.

Despite all of the networks protests I can’t help thinking this is a gimmick. The shows new plot was on all of the morning shows on this week often bereft with criticism. However the old Hollywood adage is that any publicity is good publicity. This controversial twist could just be the thing the lagging series needs. Season 12 of Survivor was the lowest rated season ever.

So to Survive Survivor is pushing the envelope of race. Will there social experiment be a display of racism teams resorting to racial epithets to make the show edgy. I guess only time will tell, and if the shows go down in flames then maybe Survivor won’t be able to survive its own experiment.

Interesting Phone Calls –or – Expensive Drugs, and Scaring Children

This is an old post that never made it on-line but funny as hell from my days at Channel Five.

Earlier this week different member of the Central New York law enforcement worked together to pull off one of the biggest drug busts in the history of the area.

State troopers, local police officers, and members of a crack drug enforcement team were able to arrest 13 people breaking up what they were calling one of the biggest drug rings in Onondaga County, essentially crippling the local drug trade.

Lofty claims- but they did recover a few million dollars, several guns and over a 100 pounds of good old Mary Jane.

So the district attorney holds a major press conference and values the recovered weed to have a street value of 13.5 million dollars.

Hell I can’t imagine a 100 pounds of marijuana let alone how much it could cost, but apparently someone could.

The day after we run the story we get a phone call, from someone who will remain unnamed we can call “Smokey Mc Pot”– who is checked into an unnamed rehab clinic.

Smokey calls up irate, saying that the estimated price we are reporting is way to high, and that you could never get 13 and a half million for a 100 pounds of wacky tobacco.

I’m not sure how many phone calls you can make while in rehab – but let me tell you I’m glad that at least one of Smokey’s calls was to us – to let us know the D.A. is over charging for his stash.

Also this week there was a report on how terrorist may target the milk supply since it is relatively unguarded and an easy target.

This is also around the same time when the second case of mad cow disease was discovered in Texas, so basically cows and everything coming from them is dangerous.

So we get a call from a mother saying her son won’t drink his milk or eat his cheeseburger because he is scared of a terrorist attack and mad cow.

Her son is eight, which is a little young to have the weight of the world on his shoulders.

So this major mom goes into a tirade about how we as the media should have more responsibility to its viewers not to make them scared to go out and live.

So I tried to explain to her that fear is natural and that we can’t let it stand in our way of living a normal life, because that would mean the terrorist would win.

I continued that the two cases of mad cow were detected early in cows called “downers” which means they were detected before slaughter and never made it into the food chain – which thankfully means I can still go out and get a steak today.

So I figured I explained everything pretty well and was giving this woman more then enough of my valuable time trying to placate her sons fears.

Then she asks me one more question: “can you tell him for me?”

I responded with a wee bit of surprise. She goes on to say that he wouldn’t believe her since he think she is just trying to get him to eat his food and stop complaining.

But if I did it since I was “The News” he would believe me.

Which is funny since I think less people trust the news – but since he was eight maybe he isn’t as jaded as the rest of the world.

So I tell the mother I will call her son back and tell her just what I told her she says thanks and then hangs up – and never gives me her number and never calls back.

I guess now she trusts the media a little less.

Seaford, Syracuse, Sacramento or Hello from the City of Trees

So for the third time in my life I have said good-bye to everything I know packed up my car and hit the road. This time I wasn’t heading north to Syracuse or overseas to London. This time I headed West – following the setting sun to the Pacific Ocean.

With 1500 dollars in moving expenses my brother and me worked out way cross-country driving a few thousand miles each day. We stopped outside Great Bend Indiana, Excelsior Springs Missouri, Colorado, Las Vegas and Los Angeles and San Francisco before finally finishing up in California’s Capital.

So I finally have settled into my new apartment with my girl – and am slowly furnishing it and making the place into my new home. It’s a brand new building and was only finished a few months ago. Its great since no one ever lived here before us – but it also means that we get all of the bugs, acting up washer and dryer, ceiling fan, and lights. There is also all solid steel appliances, granite counter tops and title (not linoleum) in the kitchen and bathroom. Along with a great building we live in a great neighbor hood, it is right in midtown Sacramento – stumbling distance from most of the local bars, and clubs. A bunch of good restaurants in the neighboring blocks too.

The biggest difference between Sacramento and Syracuse is the weather. It’s always hot and sunny here so far, which has been mixed. While its nice to see the sun every day of the summer, the heat is almost unbearable. I did live through the worst heat wave in Sacramento history. 17 plus days of 100-degree heat. The worst part was that it didn’t cool off at night; often it was still 90 plus overnight. It was deadly too 151 people died in the heat wave. It was kind of like a reverse Syracuse, since all winter in Central New York we reported on the cold weather and people dying form the cold, here in Sacramento we reported on the heat and people dying because of the heat. It was the same story except they were cooling centers instead of heating centers.

So why did I give up the state I have lived in all my life, the city I have lived in the last six years? Two reasons the Girl was out here, and also my new job. My new job is a lot like my old job sort of. I am working for News 10 the ABC affiliate out here in Sacramento. I produce the first hour of a two-hour morning show Good Morning Sacramento. That means I work overnights, going in around 10:30 at night and finishing up around 7:30 in the morning. The principal anchors on the shows team has been together for years and has a huge fan following. Its crazy people call and e-mail about everything, clothes they wear comments made on air, everything really seems to matter to the viewing public. It’s a larger staff, and my show goes to a lot more people. We cover most of northern California from just outside the bay area to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. North and South our viewing area is bounded by three huge counties: Sacramento Stockton and Modesto. It’s the 19^th largest market in the country to compare Syracuse was 73.

So that’s a quick up date on where I am right now. I just got Internet back so expect more posts more often.