Reality Bites: Or What Passes for Entertainment These Days....
I launch my computer this morning to learn that NBC, which used to make the nation laugh a lot on Thursday nights, has asked Rod Blagojevich, the disgraced governor facing federal corruption charges, to appear on a reality TV show. It is a program in which "celebrities" are taken to Costa Rica, where they must endure "fun and comedic challenges designed to test their survival skills." Oh NBC. Really? I suppose at first glance, it seems like NBC's golden opportunity - the chance to bring a Kipling-quoting shyster to a jungle to see him spar for survival with other entertainment types. (And with Blagojevich coming to the jungle from the swamps of Illinois politics, he's got to be the odds-on favorite of the bookies.) But if you think about it, he's a man asking a judge to postpone his trial so he can get paid to frolic in the jungle. Blagojevich is not a celebrity. He's a crook. He's a man who was forced to resign his post after ...