David Kronke was appointed Mayor of Television after a bloodless coup in 2000. Since then, he has improved infrastructure, championed greater educational opportunities and fought for reforms that have utterly erased corruption and incompetence from the television industry. Since Mr. Kronke has ascended to power, Television is a far better place. Whether any “Nation” so conceived can long endure
The slow drip-drip-drip of information surrounding CBS’s upcoming reality show “Kid Nation,” a kinder-gentler “Lord of the Flies,” is probably starting to wear on the nerves of the network’s and show’s executives, particularly the latest revelation that the New Mexico state attorney’s office warned the production in advance that they were likely breaking the state’s child-labor laws.
From the story:
“Four children received medical treatment for accidentally drinking bleach, one child was burned on her face with hot grease while cooking in an unsupervised kitchen, and most of the children were required to work 14 hours or longer per day. They received a payment of $5,000 for their participation. …
“(T)wo weeks after a state labor inspector was turned away from the site, Andrea R. Buzzard, a New Mexico assistant attorney general, warned in a letter to lawyers for the production that the state did not agree with the network's interpretation of state labor law.
"‘We are not certain that those laws are limited to traditional “employment” relationships,’ Ms. Buzzard wrote, citing part of the state child-labor statutes that say that a child's frequent presence at a work site ‘shall be prima facie evidence that such child is unlawfully engaged in labor.’"
So, here’s what we glean from the story: The producers argued that the children weren’t employees of the network but instead camp attendees. But, understanding they could very well be in some sort of trouble, they wouldn’t allow state officials on the set and ignored requests for copies of the network’s agreements with the children, then bolted as soon as they were finished, rendering any further investigation moot.
“Kid Nation” executive producer Tom Forman obfuscated at length on this subject at TV Press Tour in July:
“I mean, the truth is, I think -- and this may be more information than you want -- it's less child labor laws than labor laws. One of the issues we run into when we make reality television shows or news and documentaries, the participants are just that. They're participants. They're not acting.
“We went ahead and made this show as we make every reality show with the understanding that they're going to do whatever they do, and we're going to tape it. We're not going to consider them actors. We're not going to feed them lines. We're not going to give them set schedules. And on that basis, we didn't see a labor problem.”
At this point, the fact that CBS will be profiting handsomely off the labor of kids to whom they paid a meager $5K each (for 40 days of up-to-14-hour days before the cameras) is going to raise questions not of child labor laws but of child slavery. Their next installment will have to be shot in Singapore.
You can just about hear Forman whining, “Why can’t they take their stupid old laws somewhere else and let us continue to be the Magic Factory we’ve always been? After all, we’re Hollywood, dammit!”