August 27, 2007
The Lord of New Mexico.
Vol. 2 Issue13
In
his book, The Lord of the Flies, William
Golding tried to show how civility created
by man will inevitably fail and how man will
always turn to savagery during diversity. In
his novel, Golding shows us how a group of
school children trapped on a deserted island
attempt to govern themselves and fail
miserably. It hinges on the subjective
studies of human nature and demonstrates how
individual needs will triumph over the
welfare of the group as a whole.
In its infinite wisdom, CBS Broadcasting
has reincarnated "The Lord Of The Flies" in
the form or their new reality show "Kid
Nation," scheduled to air in September.
Instead of a deserted island, the
reenactment takes place in an abandoned
ghost town in the desert of New Mexico. Why
New Mexico? It seems that New Mexico may
have the most liberal child labor laws in
the U.S.
In the original screen play there were
seven main characters who attempted to
govern themselves. In the CBS version there
are forty-children ranging in ages from
eight to fifteen. They are set loose for
forty days. Except for the producers, camera
crews and emergency personnel, they will
have no contact with the outside world. Just
as in The Lord of The Flies there was a war
raging in the distance (WWII) so too in Kid
Nation Iraq looms in the distance.
The parents of the minor participants
were asked to sign a twenty-two page
agreement that surrendered their right to
sue the network if their child was injured,
contacted a sexually transmitted disease or
even died during the taping. The agreement
also gave CBS the right to administer
medical treatment to an injured child even
if it included surgery. It did not make any
promise about the qualifications of the
medical staff. The kids also missed up to
forty-days of school. There were no tutors
on staff, which is standard operating
procedure on Hollywood sets for children of
school age. They were required to make up
all school work they missed. Each
participant was paid $5000 for their
appearance. However, the agreement had a
confidentiality clause that warned if any
child or parent violated it, they would be
liable for a five-million-dollar penalty to
the network.
My question to you is, Would you let your
child appear on this show under these
conditions? Yet, CBS has already started a
search for the next forty-kids. My
suggestion to the parents of the child who
may want to appear in the next episode is to
follow former First Lady Nancy Regan's advice, "Just Say No."
So here is CBS in a New Mexican desert,
working minors fourteen-hours a day
seven-days-a-week for forty-days at $9 an
hour. You can make more than that flipping
hamburgers.
Suddenly, there is a firestorm
surrounding CBS' production of "Kid Nation"
which recently began to boil over when the
New Mexico Attorney General's Office
confirmed it was launching an investigation
into whether CBS violated state labor laws
during production. A child advocate group
has also called for individual states, where
the children reside to investigate whether
truancy laws were violated.
In CBS' first reality show, "Survivor",
you had adults who had already learned the
social skills needed to act with decency
trying to outwit one another. Look what a
disaster that turned out to be. (My Opinion)
What can we expect from a group of minors,
some of whom aren't old enough to boil water
on their own.
Paul Petersen, best known for playing
Jeff Stone on The Donna Reed Show, has
joined the growing chorus of outrage over
CBS' forthcoming reality series Kid Nation.
A longtime children's rights activist,
Petersen says CBS violated child labor laws.
"Children working for 40 straight days,
parents deliberately kept away, in the
middle of the school year," Petersen said,
"The size of this travesty is almost
breathtaking."
Having endured his own travails as a
child actor, Petersen, now 61, founded A
Minor Consideration in 1990 to offer support
to troubled child performers and lobby for
protections against exploitation.
Beyond the legal issues, he also worries
about potential damage from the media
exposure: "Does anybody seriously think
that, on Sept. 20, the day after Kid Nation
premiers, these 40 children are going to
have a good and pleasant time at school?"
Given that CBS essentially asked for the
controversy, is Petersen playing into the
network's marketing scheme?
"Maybe I am," he says. "Except that there
are 40 real, live children involved. And if
this ever comes to court- and it very well
might-CBS is a drop-dead loser."
Kid Nation Executive Producer, Tom
Forman, calls the criticism "inaccurate and
wildly premature" and denies there were
labor violations. "The kids don't have SAG
cards," he says. "They took part in an
experience. We followed them some of the
time with cameras."
That sounds like a poor excuse to me.
Summer camp is an experience, not a reality
show that will make CBS millions in
sponsorships. In addition, when my children
went to summer camp, my wife and I were not
required to sign a 22-page agreement
surrendering our parental rights.
The question that must be asked is, Is
this really entertainment or is it child
abuse?
In The Lord Of The Flies, the group was
confronted with looking for a beast, which
one of the youngsters said he had
encountered on the island. Look no further
my friends, in The Lord Of New Mexico the
beast may be CBS.
And, that is my opinion.
Michael Solomon
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