Reality Television: Torture or “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques”

by Thane Economou

Image: Kris Hanson

Over the past week, celebrity Heidi Pratt claimed she had been tortured during the NBC show I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here!. Pratt claimed her time in the “Lost Chamber” where she spent 14 hours with spiders caused her to spend an evening in a Costa Rican hospital, and thus is torture. NBC officials claim they only use enhanced interrogation techniques on their celebrity stars. However, this recent issue has brought the decades long debate over television administrations’ treatment of celebrities and attention seeking amateur reality contestants.

Under the United Nations Convention Against Torture, torture is described as “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person…” NBC argues that the jungle challenges, and all reality show competitions, do not fall under the vague definition.

The debate first began when the Human Rights Watch group asserted that “bug eating immunity challenges” from the show Survivor were, in fact, torture. In the years since, the group has actively campaigned against Fear Factor, Date My Mom, and Skating With Celebrities as forms of torture.

Recently, the Human Rights Watch group, in an open letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder, asserted that “forced arachnid tasks are the sort of severe pain prohibited by 18 USC 2340 (the implementation in the United States of the UN Conventions Against Torture) and its really gross.”

Amnesty International claims the psychological effects of reality television challenges can last long after the given event. In a press release earlier today they stated: “Those who claim this torture has no lasting effects are lying. The psychological effects of immunity challenges or embarrassing runway walks from America’s Next Top Model can be devastating. Take Omarosa [from The Apprentice]. After the emotional turmoil of season one, she appears no longer capable of working outside of the reality television industry.”

Some argue that reality challenges cannot be considered torture. Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton was quoted as saying on The O’Reilly Factor that, “Personally, I don’t believe it qualifies. It is not in the nature of the barbarous sadism universally condemned as torture, an ignominy the law, as we’ve seen, has been patently careful not to trivialize or conflate with lesser evils”

Entertainment Tonight host Mary Hart was quoted as saying: “If we place “Lost Chambers” or “Bug Eating Contests” in an already broad definition of torture, we could potentially lose all reality television. And I ask America, is it worth it? Should we ban reality television? Should we ban Jon & Kate Plus 8 simply because they are putting children in a situation where they will be emotionally stunted for their entire lives? I think not.”

President Barack Obama has been pressured to ban all forms of reality show challenges in the wake of “Pratt-Gate.” Former President George W. Bush was an adamant supporter of reality show tasks, and said that the tough techniques used against the attention hogs was well worth the outcome: good television.

The cable news networks seem torn on the issue. FOX News pundit Sean Hannity stated that reality television had come to represent American culture, and if President Obama opposes it, he is anti-American.

MSNBC pundit Keith Olbermann was quick to respond, saying that “claiming someone is anti-American is a infantile, juvenile act of a bamboozler” and that disagreeing with “Lord and Savior Obama” did, in fact, make Hannity anti-American.

CNN, on the other hand, asked viewers to “facebook” their “tweets” about the issue on the CNN “myspace” website. Then Anderson Cooper played around with the big computer screen and looked pretty.

And the discussion has spread to other reality television-human rights issues. Advocates wonder whether Adam Lambert suffered under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy of American Idol or whether Room Raiders pushes the limits of the PATRIOT Act too far.

We may never know which is right, but you can find out on Fox Reality’s latest venture: “Torture or No Torture.” Please let Howie Mandel be available…