And Now : Waterboarding on TV For Charity !

By now we all know that the fine lines between TV News, Reality shows and Viral videos are getting blurred faster than we can follow. Nothing new, really; Hard Copy is an early example of a Tabloid show 'gone good' by cutting out the Scandals and Rumors they used to challenge 'A Current Affair' with. For every 'Outrageous Video' show on a lesser network there is now a thinly-disguised CNN-fueled 'Not Just The News'. Infomercial loops like 'Girls Gone Wild' proved that commercials can fill an hour and generate higher viewership based mainly on curiosity. Even TMZ readily jumps from exchanging jabs with Octomom to complimenting Texas Preacher Joel Osteen's wife, Victoria. The Slumdog Millionaire Dad's encounter with British Papparzzi turned out to be a whopper of a story for the News of the World publication, despite the backlash from the stars of the movie and Indians in general.
So now, line up MSNBC along with News Corp, Channel 4 and the like because this time they seem to be headed all the way in that direction. A proposed stunt masked as Current News reporting uses the latest buzzwords of 'Waterboarding' and 'Torture' to double tag-team Keith Olbermann with Fox News' Sean Hannity against the sensibilities of viewers like us. Reality TV now takes on the News, but who will win remains to be seen......

Jason Linkins of The Huffington Post reported on April 22 that actor Charles Grodin offered up his usual dose of guest sarcasm, this time aimed at Fox News host Sean Hannity, during which the two reached this somewhat 'golden moment' in Television :

GRODIN: You're for torture.

HANNITY: I am for enhanced interrogation.

GRODIN: You don't believe it's torture. Have you ever been waterboarded?

HANNITY: No, but Ollie North has.

GRODIN: Would you consent to be waterboarded? We can waterboard you?

HANNITY: Sure.

GRODIN: Are you busy on Sunday?

HANNITY: I'll do it for charity. I'll let you do it. I'll do it for the troops' families.

Source: huffingtonpost.com

Sensing an opportunity to buzz up the current unsealing of CIA documents regarding the use of Torture in American prisons, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann announced on Thursday that he is willing to pay $1,000 to charity for every second that Fox News anchor Sean Hannity undergoes waterboarding torture. Confident in his standing (somewhere) that he is above the lowest of the low, Olbermann presented his 'outrage' at the proposed Hannity stunt for Charity, while simultaneously ensuring his network would also benefit from the massive airplay Fox News could receive.

"What a breakthrough it would be if, by having reality literally forced upon him, a buffoon like Hannity were to realize the deadly seriousness of this," Olbermann said. "The searing truth: that the moment of torture automatically makes the presumed bad guy recipient the victim, and makes the torturer into the evildoer."............

From there, Olbermann laid out his offer: "For every second you last, a thousand dollars -- live or on tape, provided other networks' cameras are there. A thousand dollars a second, Sean, because this is no game. This is serious stuff. Put your money where your mouth is, and your nose. Oh, and I'll double it when you admit you feared for your life, when you admit the horrible truth -- waterboarding, the symbol of the last administration, is torture."
Source: huffingtonpost.com

If there's a way to put reigning media darling Susan Boyle on the cover of Popular Mechanics, I think they'll do it !

To see how twisted the whole thing is getting, check out the LEGO recreations of Waterboarding and other torture-related incidents in American prisons, as seen on Legofesto's Flickr Photostream. He's been keeping track long before Obama became a contender for the White House.

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Tags: New York | Culture | TV | Iraq | World | US Politics | waterboarding | allegations of torture