SANTA FE, NM – Remember those pictures of small kids fresh from working 14 hours deep inside a coal mine that popped up on TV news specials? The network newscaster would give a little talk about the evils of forcing kids to work inhumane conditions for prolonged hours for little pay. CBS has pretty much threw that attitude away with Kid Nation.

The network that once brought us Harvest of Shame decided to stick 40 kids in the New Mexico desert for the sake of mining ratings gold. They worked 8 year old children for at least 14 hours in the brutal elements so they can have a weekly harvest of 40 minutes of prime time nuggets. These kids were removed from school and their parents for nearly two months.

The nice part is that CBS got around all the child labor laws by claiming these kids were going to camp instead of working on a TV show. A camp? Really? When I went to summer camp, I created potholders for my parents. I didn’t create hours of prime time entertainment for America. When I went to camp, I spent quite a bit of time sitting near the campfire just being quiet. These kids were expected to create a multi-million dollar franchise for CBS tyrant Les Moonves. Think they were allowed to merely sit around and read a book? That doesn’t make exciting television. Does it now, Les? Those kids weren’t allowed to do what kids might really want do at camp. Instead you had a mandate of what you needed them to do so the show didn’t flounder. Kids Nation is a 21st century video-taped child labor camp. And you, Les, are Strother Martin in Cool Hand Luke. Did you visit the “camp” wearing a pair of mirrored sunglasses? Was one of the money contests for the kids eating 50 eggs? You had 40 inmates on that work farm. Instead of shotguns, your Boss Paul kept a camera on their every move.

The funny part is hearing that if the kids didn’t like it, they could leave. They weren’t being held against their will. Really? Isn’t that what all sweatshop owners say when they get busted on 60 Minutes? What would Les do if the 40 kids decided this show was stupid and they wanted to go home? These kids came to play a game. They know what happens to quitters on reality shows. They get blackballed from any further network shows. And they get mocked on the school bus. What 8 year old wants to live with the stigma of being a network quitter? They want Survivor fame. And the fat dollars for winning.

Les Moonves raped the corpse of Jackie Coogan. Every TV production rule that deals with using children in a TV production was set on fire by Moonves. He claims these kids were not employed by CBS. They were merely contestants on a game show. Here’s a new rule that networks need to observe… if a person can’t go home at the end of a production shoot, they aren’t contestants – they’re employees of a show. The people who appear on The Price Is Right are contestants. At the end of a show, they go home. They aren’t locked inside the Bob Barker soundstage until the next game begins. They don’t have cameras in their faces 24 hours a day. Even though it was the middle of the school year when this was shot, CBS didn’t have to provide on location tutors for the kids. That would interfere with the illusion that these kids were left alone in the wilderness to build their own society. Did all these kids flunk their grade level? I don’t know too many school systems that let you skip two months for the sake of making a TV show. Or did Les Moonves hire Juan Epstein’s mother to write them all notes?

Reports are now out that several children drank bleach during the shoot. The network still claims that the show was supervised. Who allowed the second kid to drink bleach? And the ones after that kid? There’s a major difference between an adult supervised camp and a reality show location. You want these kids to drink bleach at the reality camp cause it makes an amazing video. You get drama, confusion and rescue. It’s like an episode of E.R.: On the Range. Maybe these kids were supervised by the same professionals credited on Jackass?

Even from a scientific standpoint, can we enjoy this show? These were kids taken from their families with the lure of fame and prize money. Notice that nobody from CBS is defending this project to the press. Is an academic in charge of this social experiment? There’s no Margret Meade working at the Tiffany Network. Instead we’re stuck with weaselly producers who have the same moral code as sub prime mortgage dealers. Kid Nation dips into the ethics of concentration camp science. Can we truly use the research of Nazi scientists from torturing others for their pleasure as true research? Can we take anything away from Kid Nation with the knowledge that 8 year olds were exploited for the end product? Remember when CBS went after Kathie Lee Gifford for the kids that worked on her clothing line? CBS doesn’t mind tossing children into a sweatshop of reality programming.

Reading the contract these kids signed to appear on the show reveals the inhumane mindset of Moonves and his ilk. Like a concentration camp, a child could be murdered by the show’s producer and the parents couldn’t sue since that right was waived when they agreed to let the kid appear on camera. A kid could be raped by an HIV infected CBS employee and the parents would have no recourse against the network hiring sexual predators thanks to this contract. And if these kids dare talk about the truth of this reality show, CBS could sue the family for $5 million. If Hitler had put film cameras into his camps, he could have described them as extreme reality competitions. And those survivors who dared to tell the truth to the Allies would have their asses sued. The Nazis could have claimed they weren’t committing genocide, they were merely having a competition to see who would be the last person standing in their concentration camp reality show.

Why not that be CBS’s next reality show, Les Moonves? Recreate a Nazi work camp and randomly pick the guards and prisoners from your applicants. Your network did get boffo ratings for Hogan’s Heroes. Let’s take the next step. Since you obviously have no gag reflex, why not see what happens after six months of one group of people being called the “Master Race” while they imprison the sub humans? Why not recreate the “Stanford Prison Experiment” with celebrities? Maybe next year you can just stick a bunch of 8 year olds “contestants” in a coal mine and let us know that Edward R. Murrow was a sissy.

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