Who Gets This Baby?
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» lakester replied on Tue Apr 27, 2004 @ 3:22pm |
 Coolness: 59675 | Now this is fuct up.
The Gazette [ www.canada.com ] April 27, 2004 We've had bachelors on the prowl, we've had people who'll swallow worms, slugs and their own dignity to win a cash prize, and we've had ruthless careerists willing to be humiliated by Donald Trump, all in the name of entertainment. Reality TV has proven to be a huge commercial success, registering vast audiences but also raising some concern about how far television is prepared to go. The most recent entry in the reality genre, Barbara Walters's Who Gets This Baby?, answers that question: Too far. Ads for the 20/20 special promote it as being about "Five Couples. One baby." A pregnant 16-year-old girl talks about "playing God" and her interviews with the prospective parents are billed as an "elimination round." The very premise of the show, touting the then-unborn baby as a commodity, is repugnant. A child is not a thing to be won by contestants, like a stuffed panda bear or a cheque for $1 million. And to treat the five couples who want to adopt the baby as contestants in any usual sense is simply heartless. But that is exactly what the program does. Each couple is shown as they try to convince Jessica, the teenager, that they would be the best parents for her baby. The couples have half an hour to meet Jessica and try to prove to her that she should choose them. Karen and Tab Brown want to adopt a baby as a brother to their 8-year-old son. A second son died shortly after birth. Jessica talks about giving them "the baby that they lost." Tina and Daniel McKeen, both teachers, are unlikely to make the cut because despite years of infertility treatments, they have no children. Jessica does not want her baby to be "an only child and just sit around all day and not have any brothers and sisters to play with or anything." Imagine the level of desperation that would lead ordinary people to expose their innermost selves this way. These are not the exhibitionists who line up to make out with strangers, they are couples who want a child. Unlike in the United States, such a show would be impossible in Quebec. Under provincial law, the biological parents never meet, never mind conduct interviews with, prospective adoptive parents. That is the job of youth-protection officials. Biological parents and children can meet later in life, if both agree, when the child is an adult. The exception to the no-contact rule, here in Quebec, is when an adoption takes place within a family, for instance, if an older sister were to adopt a child. Barbara Walters's show purports to be educational in nature, to show people how adoptions are carried out. That is about as convincing as saying Donald Trump's The Apprentice is an instructional video on job-hunting. Both are show business, totally removed from reality. The fate of a baby should not be decided on prime-time television. The mere presence of television cameras is bound to distort the process. What is paramount is the interests of the child. Nothing can be allowed to compromise that - certainly not the desire for a ratings blockbuster as Walters heads toward retirement. |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» neoform replied on Tue Apr 27, 2004 @ 4:30pm |
 Coolness: 339660 | how is it any different to win a baby than to win a girl/woman? |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» neoform replied on Tue Apr 27, 2004 @ 4:31pm |
| Coolness: 339660 | i'd say shit has gone too far if executions become available on public tv.. |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» lakester replied on Tue Apr 27, 2004 @ 4:36pm |
| Coolness: 59675 | don't they already do that in the US? |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» neoform replied on Tue Apr 27, 2004 @ 5:05pm |
| Coolness: 339660 | that's pretty much the same as a snuff flick.
that's really going too far. |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» lakester replied on Tue Apr 27, 2004 @ 5:08pm |
| Coolness: 59675 | even worse, they make it a pay-per-view event. |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Mali replied on Tue Apr 27, 2004 @ 5:28pm |
 Coolness: 202110 | arrgh
thats just weird... |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Zz.ee.vV replied on Tue Apr 27, 2004 @ 5:37pm |
 Coolness: 194020 | catering to the human need for bloodlust - just think gladiator fights.
we're supposed to be a civilized society, yes... but really we're just fucking animals, i always knew that |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» neoform replied on Tue Apr 27, 2004 @ 7:03pm |
| Coolness: 339660 | so should we feed this lust?
or try and restrain outselves in hopes we can actually change that need..? |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» michaeldino replied on Tue Apr 27, 2004 @ 7:42pm |
 Coolness: 68970 | i say we nuke the world
all humans suck i fucking hate humans |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» neoform replied on Tue Apr 27, 2004 @ 8:06pm |
| Coolness: 339660 | nah, one or two might survive..
we need a giant rocket that will pull the earth into the sun. |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» ontheroadagain replied on Tue Apr 27, 2004 @ 8:29pm |
 Coolness: 54330 | nah, that'd kill everybody....some of us deserve to procreate
just not you =P |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» neoform replied on Tue Apr 27, 2004 @ 8:32pm |
| Coolness: 339660 | dun worry bout that. |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» michaeldino replied on Tue Apr 27, 2004 @ 9:41pm |
| Coolness: 68970 | yeah.. no one seserves to procreate.. animals do no humans |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Miss_Amanda replied on Wed Apr 28, 2004 @ 8:32pm |
 Coolness: 160540 | oh man, last night I dreamt I procreated- it was a VERY scary dream
but she was SO cute... :) |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» neoform replied on Wed Apr 28, 2004 @ 8:34pm |
| Coolness: 339660 | aaaaaamanda wants a beeeeebeee |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» lakester replied on Wed Apr 28, 2004 @ 9:52pm |
| Coolness: 59675 | i can hook her up. i have a few spare ones lying around here. |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» nothingnopenope replied on Wed Apr 28, 2004 @ 10:37pm |
 Coolness: 201220 | I've seen something like this...
The movie "The Truman Show". |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» neoform replied on Wed Apr 28, 2004 @ 10:53pm |
| Coolness: 339660 | that'll never happen. |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» cloud9ine replied on Thu Apr 29, 2004 @ 7:37am |
 Coolness: 138715 | wow. we're one fucked up race. |
Who Gets This Baby?
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