A Reality Show I Would Watch
Never been a big fan of the reality show phenomenon. But here’s one I can get behind:
…all the characters on “Terrorism in the Hands of Justice” are captured suspected insurgents. And for more than a month, they have been riveting viewers with tales of how they killed, kidnapped, raped or beheaded other Iraqis, usually for a few hundred dollars per victim.
Why isn’t this on Fox? I would get cable just to watch terrorists being humiliated. I suspect a million Americans would tune in to watch these interrogations with subtitles and see just what made the terrorists tick.
Propaganda, you say? Whatever. The AP’s happy to print photos of Iraqi journalists getting executed. I don’t see why we should be denied film of the terrorists answering questions about their crimes. It might have the salutary side effect of convincing some people that our enemies really are murderous two-bit thugs wrapped in a tattered cloak of Islam, and not just brave ‘ minutemen’ like Bill Maher and Michael Moore pretend they are.
Hat Tip to the sadly retired (?) Ace of Spades.
” Why isn’t this on Fox? I would get cable just to watch terrorists being humiliated. ”
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/ has a nice story about iraqi cable TV. Apparently they’ve been following the Terri schiavo case:
“They admit to doing things such as having sexual intercourse in mosques and raping women and the whole show is disgusting. Iraqis don’t believe it because it’s so obviously produced to support the American definition of the Iraqi, Sunni, Islamic fanatic that it is embarrassing. Couldn’t the PSYOPS people come up with anything more subtle?”
actus (ebc508) — 4/7/2005 @ 2:28 pmoops. that typo makes it look like the segment i cut is about schiavo. sorry.
actus (ebc508) — 4/7/2005 @ 2:29 pmInteresting–though this is Al-Iraqiya, which was set up by the US but run by the Iraqis, and it doesn’t seem to have the bleachy-cleanness that Riverbend describes on Al-Hurra:
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I’ve been enchanted with the shows these last few weeks. The thing that strikes me most is the fact that the news is so… clean. It’s like hospital food. It’s all organized and disinfected. Everything is partitioned and you can feel how it has been doled out carefully with extreme attention to the portions- 2 minutes on women’s rights in Afghanistan, 1 minute on training troops in Iraq and 20 minutes on Terri Schiavo! All the reportages are upbeat and somewhat cheerful, and the anchor person manages to look properly concerned and completely uncaring all at once.
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This program might be somewhat staged (no! a reality show staged?) but I’d still rather watch it than most TV.
See-Dubya (45d007) — 4/7/2005 @ 3:16 pm