Admittedly Off-Topic: CBS's “The Briefcase”

If you were looking for yet another reason to avoid commercial television, you just found it: CBS’s “The Briefcase,” a reality show in which impoverished families are given the opportunity to keep a briefcase that could be filled with cash, or give some of it away to another poor family. 

I would have loved to have been in the conference room where the show’s concept was initially discussed. Didn’t anyone ask, “Do we think it’s right to exploit the misery and shame that people living in poverty suffer–for the viewing pleasure of people who live in comfort?  I’m afraid there might be people of conscience out there who think we’re pushing our society just another step down the ladder of degradation.”

Perhaps someone said exactly that, but perhaps there were also people there who suggested rounding up some starving children and filming them fighting for food.

Just when you think it can’t get any worse.