What do conservatives, like John McCain, and liberals, like Bob Beckel, have in common? Give up? Well, the answer is that recently they were both sharply critical of an episode of the CBS TV show, “The Amazing Race.” Apparently, the show’s organizers and producers, which include, among others, Les Moonves, a CBS executive, and Jerry Bruckheimer, a prominent TV and movie producer, are ignorant of and/or insensitive to the strong feelings that still linger from the Viet Nam War. It’s not easy to get conservatives and liberals to agree on anything these days, but these idiots at CBS have managed to do so.
For the benefit of those of you who are either too young to remember or have fading memories, this war dominated the lives of a generation of young people in the ’60s and ’70s and tore apart the nation socially, politically, economically, emotionally and morally. Oh, and by the way, nearly 60,000 Americans died and many more were wounded physically and/or emotionally.
Briefly, what the show’s producers did was send the contestants to Hanoi where they visited the wreckage of an American B-52 bomber. The wreckage was set up like an ordinary prop with markings, clues and instructions for the contestants to follow in their glorified scavenger hunt. In addition, they were required to memorize a communist propaganda song. Nice, huh.
Fox TV reports that emails and tweets to its station haven been running 10-1 against CBS. Veterans groups and other critics have demanded an apology, however, to date, CBS has been mum, no doubt hoping that some celebrity will eventually do something stupid to divert attention.
CONCLUSION AND PREDICTION
CBS can’t be that ignorant and insensitive, can they, so there is a distinct possibility that they did it on purpose to gain publicity for the show. After all, as they say, “There is no such thing as bad publicity.” Now, why won’t they apologize. Stubborness? The desire for more pubilicity? Because Fox is leading the criticism? Your guess is as good as mine. All I know is that there are hundreds of thousands of living Viet Nam veterans, including me, who are outraged and demand an apology and an explanation. One cannot underesimate the impact this war had on the nation. Even young men who escaped unscathed had their lives and careers delayed or interrupted. Many vets can’t bear to even visit the country to this day. As one critic stated, what venue is next, Normandy, Iwo Jima, a concentration camp site?
I hope that CBS does the right thing and apologizes.
We Built It Blog by Larry Jacob 