This article overviews a serious debate on the obligation of
reality TV show Intervention to stop
the subject of one of their episodes from getting behind the wheel of a car
while intoxicated, without an “intervention” as the show name would mislead.
Drunk driving is a serious offense and I strongly defend the
position that if the subject was to cause an accident, the producers who
willingly allowed the subject to drive should also be penalized. The reality TV
show strived to create excitement for the audience by watching the subject
weaving between lanes and the suspense of possibly being caught by law
enforcement. Besides being provocative reality television material, the subject
was at high risk of causing an accident that could seriously injure or kill an
innocent bystander or themselves.
The subject of one of the
Intervention episodes, introduced as Pam, a known alcoholic that takes her
turquoise Pontiac Sunfire on the road while being filmed by the Intervention film crew. The production
crew did attempt to assist Pam by offering to drive for her, but she refused
and they watch as she swigs some hard alcohol on the way out the door.
At a production standpoint, this would be an unplanned and
real event to expose the severity of alcoholism and drunk driving to viewers.
Although the producers argue that Pam would have driven in this state
regardless if they were filming her or not, it is about equivalent of saying,
we watched someone fall into the ocean and nearly drown, but we will leave them
be because we didn’t push them in. I’m sure if the subject attempting to drive
intoxicated were someone close to the producer such as a sibling
or friend, they would not allow him or her to put their life in danger like
they had allowed Pam.
What about the opinions of the bystanders who unknowingly
put themselves in danger by being on the road at the same time as the Intervention reality TV subject, Pam? If
this intoxicated woman was to cause a fatal accident or plow down pedestrians,
the Intervention producers should
receive some liability for the accident and rightfully sued by victims. The Intervention production team knowingly
put the public in danger when they allowed an intoxicated subject to drive
solely to benefit their reality TV show.
The Intervention
reality TV show should hold responsibility of the subjects while being filmed
in their show. If the subject attempts to drive intoxicated, the producers should not allow the subject to put lives in danger. They could also inform law enforcement of
the situation, which teach viewers the consequences of DUIs and the serious
repercussions. Having a subject arrested for a crime they committed, or
intervening like their show title would suggest they do, is much more
appropriate than following around intoxicated drivers waiting for tragedy to
occur. The Intervention producers will likely have trouble sleeping at night knowing that they allowed the show subject to
kill innocent bystanders when they could have easily prevented the tragedy by
actually "intervening".
I do agree with your opinion on this for the most part. The producers most definitely should have intervened before Pam got in the car, but I am also a firm believer in personal responsibility. Pam chose to drink and Pam chose to drive. We cannot have people dictating what actions we should and should not take, in other words I do not think the producers should be the ones taking all the blame. It is unfortunate that we live in a society where producers are so focused on getting good footage to air instead of stopping someone from doing something dangerous. At the same time, people should be held accountable for their own actions, but with something that dangerous the producers should have stepped in. It is good that Pam did not die or kill someone else and hopefully the show Intervention will help her get support so she does not jeopardize her life again.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the title of this article. The producers of Intervention should have stopped the drunk driver, but under a moral obligation. This article seems so be based solely on moral grounds rather than legal. The producers of the show are not police officers, they have no legal obligation to enforce laws. I agree with Natalie about personal responsibility. It seems that A&E is getting all the fire while the person driving is secondary in the argument. Rather, the situation is the other way around. If they were to crash, it is the driver's fault and they should be the one held accountable. Putting this much blame on the producers seems to lessen the severity of the crime that was *actually* committed and I disagree with how the story is being presented. In the future I hope that the show would take some more responsibility, but if a collision did occur, I don't see any legal ground with which to penalize the producers of the show.
ReplyDeleteThe producer should did nothing wrong and should not be at all penalized or held legally responsible for letting the women drive. She drank and they couldn't stop her from doing so, they offered to drive her but she turned it down so they did at least try. However, by them letting her drive she was a potential crash victim but that was out of their control. You can not force someone to do something if they don't consent to it no matter what it is. Should she have been stopped? Yes absolutely but the producers couldn't legally step in and be responsible for her. All the blame should be on her for the actions she took part in.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad that Jessica discussed a solution - by informing law enforcements. As I explained in my comment on the other blog post about this topic, Intervention is show designed to educate the population of these realities' existences. By allowing the law to be involved, they are giving the opportunity to educate the public of the consequences of driving under the influence (while adding the drama of a potential arrest to the show's episode). Again, I agree with Brennan. I feel that A&E is receiving too much attention from this subject. Legally they are not obligated to prevent a cast member from driving intoxicated, but they should have made some of attempt to make another arrangement for this portion of the show. Driving under the influence is not the only time that Intervention has shown clips of other cast members doing illegal drugs, and yet, they had not received any attention from the public.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting situation. I don’t think the producers of this television show have any more responsibility for a drunk driver than a normal citizen. But then we must ask ourselves what we would do in this situation. It was good that the producers offered to give the subject a ride but they shouldn’t have stopped there because by knowingly letting thins intoxicated person drive they endangering the lives of anyone on the road. I agree that they should have involved the authorities because this is what I would have done if I were in that situation. It’s a shame that these people allowed the subject to drive and let it serve as entertainment. Had someone been injured technically they could have been charged for accomplice to murder because they let someone break the law and didn’t say anything about it. In my opinion reality television in general doesn’t have many benefits besides passing the time.
ReplyDelete-Bri Lee