Did reality TV finally come to Iraq? Do you think the rise of popular American shows like
\nNBC’s “Fear Factor” and CBS’s “Survivor” have anything to do with the torture and abuse of
\nIraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere? Those top-rated “entertainments” have prized
\nphysical degradation, along with psychological humiliation and plain old human sleaze (NBC’s
\n“The Apprentice,” anyone?).<\/P>
\n
Were prisoners ever asked to eat a piece of horse rectum, per “Fear Factor”? Were their
\nrelatives ever asked to eat tarantula spiders or juicy coconut palm worms, per “Survivor”? Did
\nanybody torture prisoners, per Britain’s “Drop the Celebrity,” which kicks contestants off the
\nshow by dumping them from an airplane? (Hmmm, “Drop the Celebrity” may have taken its m.o.
\nfrom Vietnam-era interrogations.) <\/P>
\n
Anyway, was there an influence? An infection? Did the U.S. military get any sense of
\npermission, if not the actual “pranks,” from our TV pop culture? Just asking.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Did reality TV finally come to Iraq? Do you think the rise of popular American shows like NBC’s “Fear Factor” and CBS’s “Survivor” have anything to do with the torture and abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere? Those top-rated “entertainments” have prized physical degradation, along with psychological humiliation and plain old human […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-680","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-aY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}