The Daily Beast today published a story headlined “The 22 Most Dangerous TV Shows.” See http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-11-14/dancing-with-the-stars-glee-survivor-more-dangerous-tv-shows/?om_rid=Ni$D6U&om_mid=_BM4TPKB8Vuau5b.
The list starts with The Vampire Diaries (1 minor injury, 0 major injury, 0 deaths) and continues through various drama, talk, and reality shows in what seem like glorified product placements.
The phoniness of the list is exposed by the “most dangerous,” Deadliest Catch, a Discovery Channel documentary covering perils on fishing boats. According to the article, Deadliest Catch has been “responsible” for 8 minor injuries, 8 major injuries, 26 deaths. None of the other 21 listed programs had a single death.
Nowhere mentioned are the shows of World Wrestling Entertainment and other wrestling promotions. Like legit sports, of course, pro wrestling claims many minor and major injuries; unlike real sports, the industry also churns out regular and systematic death. And in contrast with Deadliest Catch, wrestling’s mortalities are mostly avoidable. Some are linked to brain trauma that is a byproduct of scripts for entertainment. These are not spontaneous dangers in nature in the gathering of food. But they don’t make the cut because, I guess, they’re too stupid to think about.
Connecticut’s senator-elect, Richard Blumenthal, who defeated WWE co-founder and centimillionaire Linda McMahon for the seat he will assume in January, has already announced that he will be taking on Internet sex offenders, phone scammers, the Better Business Bureau, and an alcoholic beverage blamed in the deaths of frolicking college students. Let’s hope he also follows through on the public-health hazard of occupational health and safety in wrestling.
Irv Muchnick
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