Friday, November 27, 2009

Being a Reality Show Contestant III

Reality show contestants or contestant wannabes will do just about anything for their five minutes of fame, even if it means possibly harming their children as with "Balloon Boy" who vomited repeatedly trying to sustain a lie on national TV while his older siblings looked in horror, caught in the middle between care of their sibling and maintaining the family secret, or appearing at a state dinner uninvited where the situation could have been dangerous for President Obama, First Lady Michelle, and Vice President Biden. We could have had a national crisis in a matter of moments. I have absolutely no respect for the likes of these and think that they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

In cases such as the "Balloon Boy" it might be more difficult to prosecute both parents because that could possibly leave the children without a parent for a time. But the question has to be asked what kind of parents would even ask their children to lie in order to be considered for a reality show. The crashers of the state dinner were also being considered for the upcoming spin-off reality show in Washington, "The Real Housewives of DC." These people should be prosecuted for lying to federal officers which is a crime and made an example of. The Secret Service is also at fault here and somebody should be held responsible for this egregious lapse.

Reality show contestants or contestant wannabes that do such things should, as a part of any plea deal, be forbidden to benefit from their unlawful irresponsible actions. Any thoughts?

17 comments:

zorro said...

It may not be against the law. Prosecution might depend on what they said to security in order to get in.
I find it a bit ironic when any TV personality discusses it in a negative way - because somewhere down inside they share a lot in common with the party crashers.
Lets wait to see if Glen Beck blames it on the Obama adminstration somehow. Will Sarah Palin weigh in?
That would be truely ironic.
On another topic, I saw where Dana Perino pointed out that the Fort Hood inicident was an act of terrorism and then went on to say that there were no terrorist attacks on the US during the Bush Administration.
Huh?

Judith Ellis said...

Good points, Zorro. In my annual email letters of personal thanks to friends among these included a very respected author and financial type. In my email to him I thanked him for his voice and tried to push him to act on behalf of the people to straighten out the financial crisis. His response was that he is "allergic" to Washington and does not need that spotlight, but as an American citizen he would assist if need be. I laughed aloud at the allergeic bit.

He has already spoken before Congress, written of the financial crisis, and appeared on many shows discussing the meltdown. But he has disappeared of late. He's writing another book that should be awesome from what I gather.

Beck and Palin are indeed media hogs. She got spoofed again by a comedian, but this time pretending to be from Canada. This clearly over the top comedian --I guess this was nothing unusal for the crowds she's used to addressing--I asked Palin a question about the health care system in Canada and she gave the exact same answer twice without variance thinking that this woman was sincere. It wasn't only that she was spoofed yet again but that she can't think. What thinking human being gives the exact same question twice without variance?

Yeah, I read that Perino said that. She's out to lunch, but not really, actually. This is how elections are often won, especially with a small base and an ever decreasing one: outright lies. But the said thing is that those who want to believe it will do so and some may even be deceived. But whose fault is this? We need a more engaged people in their democracy.

Corrie Howe said...

I don't think people should benefit from this type of behavior...not even getting the news spotlight all over them. I was telling me dad today, I'm most sorry for the guards and lower level people who will be fired over this. This couple will benefit to no end and the low level employees will suffer the rest of their lives from this.

Judith Ellis said...

Corrie - I agree with your comments about this couple. But if they have done something illegal, they may not benefit. How is it that you can get arrested for jumping the fence at the White House and not get arrested for crashing a state dinner? They should have been arrested and charged with trespassing.

zorro said...

It seems they were being taped by the company the makes the 'Real Housewives" show. The fact that they were being followed around by a well known TV production company might have been the reason why security let them in. It would be interesting to know if the party crashers had bet on this happening.

Judith Ellis said...

Hmm? In this case, Zorro, I wonder why Katie Couric and Brian Williams didn't have their cameras? The Secret Service just failed BIG TIME! Somebody has to be held accountable for this and maybe Congress needs to investigate this intrusion. For me, this is very serious and not funny in the least, especially considering the highest level of death threats ever of any president in our history. They were face to face with President Obama.

JOHN O'LEARY said...

I remember applying to be a contestant on a game show in NYC almost 30 years ago. I flunked the first step - a written test. (Pretty lame, I know.) But I was going to be a featured guest (as the first Presidential candidate for 1984) on an updated version of "To Tell the Truth" in the early 1980s, but the show was canceled before it ran.

Zorro: you forget that the Bush administration never recognized NY - or most of the Northeast - as part of the US.

Judith Ellis said...

Oh, John, that would have been great! Come to think of it, I think you're great! I don't know anyone who was has been a rock and roll musician, a student of New Testament Greek and philosophy at Yale, and a presidential candidate. Cool! Forget that test, you're brilliant! :-)

JOHN O'LEARY said...

Golly gosh, Judith, I'm cyber-blushing. Hope you had a good turkey week. I've been spending some quality time with my new cat.

Judith Ellis said...

John - Thanksgiving week was great! Yesterday my friend and I went to our final trip to the Franklin Cider Mill.

Regarding the "Real Housewives" wannabes, the AP reports...

"A television executive says the couple who crashed President Barack Obama's first state dinner is offering to talk to broadcast networks about it for a payment of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"The executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the network does not publicly discuss bookings, told The Associated Press that representatives for Michaele and Tareq Salahi contacted networks to urge them to 'get their bids in' for an interview. The executive says the Virginia couple was looking for a payment in the mid-six figures range."

It looks like Corrie may be right. I still don't understand why they're not in jail.

zorro said...

If they lied to get in and signed something to prove they lied, they broke the law. It might well be that there are no laws against crashing a party - if that is all it amounts to. If they get wealthy from the incident, that is a problem with our culture in general. If they passed through metal detectors and so forth, then the president wasn't any more exposed than he is when he speaks in a large stadium. At the very least, these people should not benefit from what they have done. I'm still waiting for the Republians to make this into a critism of the Obama administration.

zorro said...

It just happened. One of the commentators on the ABC weekly roundtable just said that the administration doesn't need this party crasher story now when people are questioning the competance of the administration.

Judith Ellis said...

Zorro - This is my take: These people did not simply crash a party they trespassed. If I jumped the fence at the White House I would have been arrested immediately. They should be in custody. The White House has to get over any embarrassment if it has any. If the social secretary's office missed something this should be dealt with as well. The Secret Service took full responsibility for this lapse as they should have. I'd like to know now what changes will be implemented and if any persons should be released. By the way, I thought the Secret Service was a non-partisan agency. How can that be politicized?

zorro said...

"By the way, I thought the Secret Service was a non-partisan agency. How can that be politicized?"

The army is non-partisan and the Fort Hood shootings have been politicized.
Rush Limbaugh started blaming Obama for the economy while he was still president-elect.

Judith Ellis said...

Yeah, that's true, Zorro. The problem as I see it is those constitutionally charged with legislating being one in the same with television personalities. The line is often blurred with legislators themselves and not just television personalities.

Judith Ellis said...

In spite of what this couple is now claiming or better yet crying on the Today Show, they just seem to be party crashers. Here is what the AP reports:

"Salahis sneaked in through a back entrance to a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Awards dinner at which Obama spoke. A guest complained that the couple didn't belong at his table.

" 'I double-checked my (guest) list and when they weren't on that list we escorted them out,'" a foundation representative, Lance Jones, said in an interview early Tuesday."

Gibbs said that they did not have tickets. Arrest them for trespassing.

zorro said...

Here's part of a transcipt from the Rush Limbaugh show -

"Bravo is owned by what? N.B. C. Jeffrey Immelt is what? The CEO of what? N. B. C. Which owns Bravo. These two people just happen to go into a White House state dinner when their names are not on a list and they happen to get up and get their picture taken with Obama. And now the Bravo brand, the Bravo network, everybody knows what it is when only a few hundred thousand knew what it was beforehand. When you also know that Jeffrey Immelt is in bed with Obama on "green" technology and government grants to GE to promote that business, it all begins to make sense. Then when you find out that these two showed up on the Today show today saying they were invited, that somebody in a liaison post over at the Pentagon invited them and they've got proof -- and now their friends are saying, "Yeah, they were invited," and they've given the e-mails to the Secret Service.

And then when you find out that the same couple crashed a Congressional Black Caucus dinner back in September going into the busboy entrance. And then when you realize that nobody gets into the White House without somebody knowing it and approving it, it's very simple to understand what happened. Somebody wanted those people in there at the White House -- and they got there and they're getting all the attendant publicity -- and Obama is getting a giant distraction out of it as people focus on that and the Tiger Woods story while Obama's, you know, sneaking around with his other agenda while nobody's looking."