NBC, Candid Camera, and Mother Goose

For decades, television viewers have enjoyed the Candid Camera show in which silly situations were created for innocent "subjects" to be fooled. Oh, what fun? One of my favorite episodes was when the producers painted a "No Walking Zone" on a New York City sidewalk and the cameras rolled as pedestrians avoided the painted area and typically stopped, turned, and looked around with a variety of odd expressions on their faces. It was all captured on film and, though the reactions of the subjects wasn't always predictable nor funny, enough footage was gathered for consistently entertaining television segments. It was harmless evening amusement for millions of Americans.

However, times change and it's revealed that Candid Camera is not entertainment but the template for headline journalism and NBC has adopted the format to produce its stories. Instead of simply reporting what happens, NBC creates circumstances which result in newsworthy events that are desired, presumably in accordance with NBC's geopolitical preconceptions.

Of course, I'm referring to the recent disclosure that NBC will be sending camera teams and actors dressed as Muslims to NASCAR events with the hope of capturing blatant discrimination on videotape. One must presume that NBC wants video footage of the racing fans shouting, screaming and physically assaulting the Muslim-garbed actors. Logically following would be an "exclusive NBC report" of the NASCAR riot. Naturally, NBC would scoop all the other news outlets.

Personally, I don't see it happening without provocation. If someone sits down and watches the race without bothering people, it's likely that no one will even pay attention to them. If, however, the Muslim-garbed actors started shooting their mouths off, expect a broken jaw or two. But, and it's a big but, a person shooting his mouth off would not have to be dressed as a Muslim to be rewarded with a broken jaw. Any loudmouth testing the threshold of tolerance among NASCAR fans would get the same treatment. All in all, looking like a Muslim isn't sufficient provocation in my estimation to cause an altercation. There must be a spark.

For example, it's possible for a script to direct an assistant producer to sit near the actors and steer the general conversation away from racing toward more inflammatory subjects. The provocateur could groom the scene by mentioning hot button issues and then, on cue, start throwing accusations at the Muslim-dressed actors. I'm not alleging that NBC planned any provocation. I don't know what is written on the script but I do know that anything conceivable can be written into a script.

It's been claimed that NBC is going after NASCAR fans because of an elitist belief that they all must be ignorant red-state rednecks ready to do something stupid. "No, no, no," say NBC's defenders, explaining that NBC plans on doing the same stunt at many and various events throughout the country.

Frankly though, I'm much more than skeptical. Unlike some others, I'm not giving NBC any benefit of doubt. First of all, I believe that NBC wants a specific result from its stunt and I don't believe that NBC created and budgeted a grand campaign of scripted news events around the country beforehand. I believe NBC seeks a specific outcome followed by a breaking news story and that's it. However, the execs at NBC may now decide a grand campaign is in their best interests since their scheme has been exposed.

Additionally, NBC was previously caught staging news. In 1993, it was reported that NBC Dateline hired a trial lawyers' group to crash G.M. trucks to demonstrate their exploding gas tanks.

Testers overfilled one truck's gas tank, used a nonstandard gas cap that popped off on impact, and strapped remote-controlled model-rocket engines to the truck's frame to guarantee a fire.

NBC's history is enough basis for me not to trust any of its assertions.

Others have remarked that NBC is creating a sting, setting up the situation for culprits to reveal themselves. I disagree. Stings customarily catch criminals committing criminal acts and stings target likely suspects. NASCAR fans are not criminals and they are not suspects. Stings also do not provoke law-abiding citizens to commit criminal acts. That would be entrapment and it's illegal in the law enforcement realm. Therefore, NBC is not creating a sting.

NBC is attempting to produce provocative circumstances to law-abiding NASCAR fans for one purpose, capturing an anticipated outrageous response on videotape. In other words, NBC wants to catch people off guard and piss them off. I don't care who you are nor where you are, if somebody pisses you off at the right time, you'd be tempted to react with a fist to his chops. It has nothing to do with being a NASCAR fan, a Muslim, or anything else. It's human nature.

My definition of journalism starts with a blank piece of paper to be used for documenting world events. NBC's definition starts with assigning writers to create a script for producing designated news. Consequently, NBC, Candid Camera and, for that matter, Mother Goose all have something in common when it comes to reporting the news.

"Once upon a time . . . ."