Punking the Hypocrites

Years ago there was a popular American television show called Candid Camera. The idea of the show was to create artificial situations where the reactions of unsuspecting people would be filmed. Some were puerile: A dollar bill on the ground with a tiny thread attached so that every time the person bent to pick it up the bill would be pulled out of reach, voices from hidden sources that the show's employees refused to acknowledge to the confusion of the "mark". Some were uglier; a cast member would shoplift in front of the "mark" and, when reported by the honest target, other cast members would aggressively defend "the thief". Once a beautiful woman stepped out of an office building naked and all the passers by desperately tried to cover the seemingly deranged girl. A currently popular show called "Punked" does a similar thing with celebrities.

Watching people being taken advantage of, struggling to do the right thing (or not--but victims still), is never pleasant. It may come from our regard for their privacy and our sense of fair play. Another factor might be our willingness to put ourselves in the victim's position; we see the victim as a proxy for us. We respect him as ourselves. This may explain our tolerance for the current gonzo journalistic approaches to public figures; like grifters, we do not respect our victims so anything goes. Minnesota's governor is put on the phone with someone he believes is a donor and supporter; he turns out to be an agent for his opponents. The NPR head walks into a lunch with several men he thinks are sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood and says some terrible things about the voters; the lunch mates are conservative operatives. In a similar vein, people actually interview prostitutes about their famous clients.

Public affairs have become entertainment. The audience is more than salacious, it is contemptuous.