Reality TV Raises Questions

It's like watching a train wreck about to happen. A women drinks vodka and then climbs into her car to drive home. Scenes like this on A&E's "Intervention" television show have begun to raise questions as to how far producers should go in trying to capture "real life" when other people not participating in the program could be in danger.

In the scene described above, the women who is obviously driving drunk was asked by one of the camera operators whether she wanted one of the people from "Intervention" to drive her home since she had a lot to drink. The women said "no" and that she was capable of driving home. So, the camera people followed her as she haphhazardly drove her car home.

So, if we stop the cameras for a second and look at this picture, was A&E right in letting this women drive home considering she was obviously intoxicated? What would have happened had she killed someone on the way home? Well, suffice to say, A&E would have caught it on camera which would have made for some drama of ghastly proportions.

Under the law, producers are viewed as witnesses who are not held responsible to intervene in stopping a crime while it is occurring or saving someone. But ethically, is it right for A&E to continue filming for the sake of its own ratings when there is that potential to harm others who want nothing to do with the show and the subjects that shows like "Intervention" follow? Many would say the answer to that question is a resounding "no."

In fact, the law is on the side of documentary shows like this because there is the argument which states that camera people are following these subjects doing things they normally would be doing regardless of whether there was a camera crew filming them or not.

And in fact, asking ethical questions is probably not something A&E would be interested in doing considering "Intervention" has drawn as many as 2 million viewers to its show.

Likewise, VH1 had the same mindset focused on high ratings when it decided to creating its "Breaking Bondaduce" show which follows the former child star Danny Bonaduce where viewers see him driving drunk and then boasting about how his getting into an accident at that moment would be great for television.

Watching people hurt themselves or putting others at risk seems to have taken reality TV to a whole new level - one in which TV producers take other people's addictions and turn them into a freak show for much more "normal" viewers to watch, and what are we supposed to gain from all of that in the end? Are we supposed to be grateful that our lives aren't like the ones we see on TV? Surely, people must realize that TV has sunk to a new low with this new breed of programming.