Reality TV Spawns

We are right in the middle of the holiday season and Tiger Woods'women are as numerous as Santa’s Reindeer. Renaming Santa’s reindeer to fit the saga would not be right for this wonderful time of year so I will try to keep this post PG rated.

When I read that one of the “alleged” women from Tiger’s den was a reality TV show contestant, I thought “here we go again”. How many women hold a press conference with a celebrity attorney to announce proudly she was someone’s trick? I am blaming this docudrama on the need to feed reality TV folks' insatiable appetite. The world of reality television has spawn folks who are as phony as a three dollar bill at Wal-Mart checkout line for twenty or less items. You wonder why they got in the line knowing their money was not real and had no means to pay for the items.

Look at the national attention that reality television has spawn in the last two months from folks “attempting” to be on reality television. The broke down family who faked their missing child flying in a homemade spaceship gave us endless hours of news that was not news. Two weeks ago, we had a Bravo wanna-be house wife, breaking into reality TV that also included breaking into one of the most secured homes in America, the White House. And Facebook proud of her and chubby hubby's new found fame, I might add.

Prior to those headlines, a reality TV “star” dismembered his wife that he met on a reality TV show earlier this fall that set off a national manhunt. The bizarre antics to become famous are bringing forth folks with mental issues that we know are a little beyond touched. Octomom’s mentality of having a bunch of kids and becoming famous came from watching the once wholesome “family channel”, TLC. This network is fast becoming the livelihood of anyone who is pint size, morbid obese, or whose wife’s womb can hold nine babies until each child weighs an ounce. Sick, sick, sick thinking. That Jon and Kate should have been outlawed the minute she got a free tummy tuck and he got new hair plugs. I knew at that point, the show was going to become a product placement mecca. And did it ever! Companies made millions off of Jon and Kate deals that were signed behind the scenes and pitched to famlies in the very scripted show. (Psst, Jon said most of the show was staged.)

We watched as this family's wholesome image become a nightly punch line in less than five years. That’s tragic folks. While watching this family come unglued, TV audiences were saying, “Yeah, I am going to have ten kids and play a Christian on TV too”. Geez, this is as close to peddling crack that a network can get. If it was not already illegal, I would bag this kind of thinking and sell it on the street corner.

All snark aside, reality TV affects us daily. Our news media is picking up on drama sells model and we are hit over the head with news blended with mayhem. Tiger's mess with his mommy-in-law going to the hospital damn near killed us on Tuesday. We can’t take anymore blond women coming forward. Can we get a red head for variety drama sake? When his mommy-in-law had some kind of something happen to her in the middle of the night and the media could only identify her as a blond hair middle age women, the news anchors went fanatical telling us not news about the war, the economy, unemployment or the housing market. That would be real news to real people. We were held hostage with titillating tidbits on who the new woman maybe. The speculation was spawned by the anchors that were getting “tips” from unnamed garbage collectors. Please. Give me the news, please.

When Comcast decided to buy NBC Universal which included Bravo, owners of Ho-wives of Atlanta, OC, New York, New Jersey and soon DC; the value of the news division in the deal was zero. That’s right zero. NBC News division had no value to Comcast. The part of the company that suppose to inform the world about truth when it reports the news, had no value in a deal that was worth nearly $14 billion cash. Now that should scare us more than the war on terror ever did! What was lucrative and valuable to Comcast was the cable division that produces the foolishness that we see nightly. Less facts more drama, God help us all!

Now don’t call me prudish, I am not saying watching reality TV is bad. What I am addressing is how reality TV mentality is effecting how we interact with one another in everyday life. At this stage of my life, too much drama is just too much. We have too many needs in our country to become pawns in the games that spawns of reality television play to become famous. Even in the news division. How the news is delivered has become unreal to many who would appreciate some professionalism without the drama. Comedy shows are becoming top rated for making fun of the news media's lack of reporting the news and the media's rush to report drama staged for a comeback or a spawn's audition.

We see the devil don’t care attitudes of reality TV spawns and the need to be seen at whatever the cost, even if it may hurt one of their own family members or risk national security. What drives this is our media’s willingness to give the spawns a platform to escape discussing real issues with real people. I am praying that we curb the desire to participate in foolishness and granting fake-drama-driven people megaphones to announce their deeds to world. You slept with Tiger Woods you say. Okay. Here’s your award, now go feed a starving child. Next.

In the meantime, the going rate for announcing you are one of Tiger Woods’ concubines is as cheap as bottle of blond bleach, 4.99.