No Second Chances

There was a story in the news today about the man who's getting a new house on "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" — apparently he's got a criminal record. Nothing serial-killerish, mind you, but still pretty serious: an armed robbery conviction when he was 17 or 18, and a couple of DUIs.

Why this is news escapes me, but CNN decided that they needed to put a poll on their front page today asking the important question: "Should convicted criminals be allowed on TV shows that offer big money prizes?" And a resounding 68% answered "No".

The wording of the question is pretty severe. The issue isn't whether people should be rewarded for their criminal behavior, but simply whether someone with a criminal past should be allowed win money on TV. And two-thirds of the respondents indicated that people who do wrong shouldn't get any second chances, even if they had to cut off their own arm because of a horrible work-related accident years after their last crime.

A more interesting question might have been: "Should media companies be allowed to profit from the suffering of other human beings?" But then again — could there be any TV without it?