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Game show trivializing

BlueRaiderFan

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Oct 4, 2003
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Those in student loan debt

http://www.beaconbroadside.com/broa...an-debt-crisis-trutvs-game-show-paid-off.html

Trivializing the Student Loan Debt Crisis: TruTV’s Game Show “Paid Off”
July 19, 2018
A Q&A with Alan Michael Collinge


Paid Off
TruTV premiered a new game show on July 17. On Paid Off, contestants answer trivia questions to win a prize that would be a dream come true for most of us who are dogged with higher education fees: their student loan debts are paid off! But is a game show really the best way to raise awareness about a financial crisis that continues to plague so many borrowers? Our blog editor Christian Coleman, who’s also addled with student loan debt, caught up with Alan Collinge, author of The Student Loan Scam: The Most Oppressive Debt in US History—and How We Can Fight Back, to find out.

Christian Coleman: What do you think about this game show’s premise?

Alan Michael Collinge: First: Let's look at the facts.

TruTV rose to cable prominence airing shows including:

  • America’s Dumbest. This is a series which features videos of people doing very stupid things. This has expanded to include World’s Dumbest and also Dumbest Criminals. These shows all ridicule, humiliate, and degrade their subjects.
  • Storage Wars. This show
 
  • Storage Wars. This show celebrates auctioning off storage lockers, where the personal assets of unknown, misfortunate people are pilfered and examined for their value. The more valuable the items that were lost, the more exciting the show becomes.
  • South Beach Tow. This show puts the spotlight on people losing their vehicles and documents their reactions to this loss. Often, the towing company resorts to jacking the cars late at night and in other dramatic manners.
  • Las Vegas Jailhouse. This show documents all manner of arrestees at a Las Vegas jail. Like South Beach Tow, the show is from the perspective of the police/towing company, rather than the perspective of those losing their vehicles, or being arrested.
This just scratches the surface of the shows on TruTV that degrade, humiliate, and exploit, all for the purpose of “entertainment.”

The creator of this show promises the show will attempt to address the seriousness of the student debt problem at the end of the show by urging viewers to “call [their] representatives, because we need and deserve a better solution than this show.” The producer, however, explains it much differently: “We’re a comedy channel first and foremost,” said Lesley Goldman, senior vice president of development and original programming at TruTV, which often targets viewers under age thirty-five. “But we fell in love with this idea because of the unique hook of a game show taking the bite out of a student debt crisis. It seemed so incredibly innovative, relatable, and timely.”

Given their history of doing shows that humiliate, degrade, and demean people shamelessly, it is fair to guess that this show will be more along those lines. Any politically-correct, fifteen-second “wrapper” during the rolling credits of the show (or similar) will be greatly outweighed and overpowered by the disempowerment, discouragement, humiliation, and loss of hope that this show, by its very nature, will seed in the minds of the viewers for the other 29.75 minutes of the show.

Also, ingrained in the premise of the show is the notion that everyone has an obligation to repay their loans. This, frankly, is a very dubious premise at this time. In fact, I would say that if HR. 2366, at a minimum, is not passed this session, the most wise, patriotic, and sensible action anyone and indeed everyone should take is to cease paying their loans.
 
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