More gratuitous piling on on "Kid Nation"

Since advertisers tend to be a little wary about being associated with child slavery, CBS is showing them an “early cut” of the series to allay their fears. Ad buyers're still taking a wait-and-see approach to the show, though.

CBS hasn’t gone to the trouble of doing the same for critics, who started the whole hullabaloo in the first place back in July at the TV Press Tour. Things have spiraled further out of control for the network, with reports about how the production flagrantly and cynically skirted child-labor laws, injuries on the set and so on.

It’s produced much media hand-wringing, ranging from this “Mr.-Moonves-tear-down-this-show” screed to this if-life-gives-you-lemons-publicitywise-make-lemonade take. And all, with no one writing about the show actually having seen an episode.

CBS’s little sister network UPN had a similar problem once that they likewise mishandled: A reality show entitled “Amish in the City” had critics livid that the network was trivializing the participants’ faith, and a TV Press Tour session with UPN executives focused on that nonstop. Later in the day, UPN finally screened the first episode and most of the concerns were pretty much allayed. Had UPN unveiled the show before their executive session, they could’ve spared themselves a lot of headaches and vitriol.

That CBS has not seen fit to let anyone see “Kid Nation” less than three weeks before its premiere suggests that perhaps they do have a problem on their hands. Certainly, all the kids-in-anguish drama that was manufactured for the trailer is likely being second-guessed. And any delightful kids-accidentally-drinking-bleach montage has no doubt wound up on the cutting-room floor, as well.

But CBS’s wall of silence isn’t going to work forever, if, in fact, it’s even working now. As our pals Larry Craig and Alberto Gonzales have learned, it’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up (OK, in their cases, it was the crime, too). It’d be nice – not to mention refreshing – if CBS’d come up with a coherent response and let us see the friggin’ thing already.