It was announced earlier this week that the network G4 will be airing a “reality show” this spring called Bomb Patrol: Afghanistan, which will follow a real-life bomb-disposal squad on duty. This just doesn’t sit right with Maddow. Prefacing her stance with the argument that viewers watch reality shows like The Bachelorette and Jersey Shore for the “incidental disasters,” Maddow criticizes the apparent “packaging of the war as entertainment” here: “Certainly the prospect of … American casualties is what they think is going to make people tune in, and is already what they are marketing about the show,” she says. Frank Rich stops by, too, giving a brief history lesson and then describing the planned series as having a “snuff-movie quality that’s depressing.”
