OPED17 - The Chamber

OPED17 The Chamber

A recent game show addition to the "reality TV" programming that is proliferating on US television was Fox's 'The Chamber.' You'll notice the use of 'was' rather than 'is'. This is because this show was cancelled almost immediately after it started. The premise of the show was as follows:

Two contestants first "face off in a duel of the minds." The winner "obtains the right to enter 'The Chamber'. "Once you enter 'The Chamber' there is no turning back. Human endurance will be stretched to its very limits. Once inside 'The Chamber' they must endure psychological, physical, and environmental pressures.... all while attempting to enter questions for cash value. As time passes, the opportunity for greater rewards increases.... 'The Chamber' has two distinct modes - hot and cold." The player can leave 'The Chamber' by saying 'stop' or if their stress levels exceed safe levels. Curiously enough, no matter the stress level that the contestants were subjected to, they never seemed to want to leave 'The Chamber' and were usually forced out by getting answers wrong or by exceeding their stress levels.

Hmm, 'The Chamber' seems to bear more than a passing resemblance to.... 'The Senate' Two contestants vie for the right to enter, but only one can. While in 'The Chamber' it blows hot and cold, in 'The Chamber' they undergo continuous pressure, in 'The Chamber' the chase for cash is continuous, the players very rarely leave 'The Chamber' unless defeated or forced to leave, in 'The Chamber' 180 degree turns are commonplace, etc. The parallels go on and on.... And yet another - just as the viewing public finds it hard to get excited about C-SPAN, so too 'The Chamber' got low ratings, hence the cancellation.

All kidding aside, sometimes one can only shake one's head at the antics of the players in 'The Chamber', oops, make that 'The Senate'. Some recent examples:

The Select Committee on Ethics: Recently the Justice Department wrapped up an investigation of Senator Robert Torricelli (D-New Jersey) without bringing charges and forwarded its files to the committee. This automatically triggered a preliminary inquiry by the committee. First, the committee chairman Harry Reid (D-Nevada) recused himself. Initially he saw no need to (even though he had contributed to a defense fund set up by Torricelli) but finally did so under pressure. Then Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said a lengthy inquiry by the Ethics panel was unwarranted because the Justice Department had already conducted a probe into the allegations (that Senator Torricelli had accepted thousands of dollars of gifts from a political donor without reporting them) but had not filed an indictment against Senator Torricelli. "That was thoroughly investigated, it was thoroughly looked at. I'm for Senator Torricelli", said Senator Hatch. Well, is it the Ethics panel or the 'Indictment panel'? Are 'legal' and 'ethical' now synonyms? Apparently Senator Hatch feels that if there is insufficient evidence to file charges and successfully prosecute a case then everything is not just legal, but ethical too! Standards? What standards?
The State of the Union: At the recent State of the Union the players vied with one another to applaud the President's statements. A Republican favorite, the Republicans applaud, a Democrat favorite, the Democrats applaud even louder. The President chastises the assemblage about their propensity to spend, they all jump up and applaud - and whistle, hoot, and holler as well! What a bunch.
The Enron hearings: In this case all the players vie to be in the spotlight and have their own hearing. The Enron executives are paraded in one by one, they take the fifth, and then shuffle off stage left... While in 'The Chamber' they are pilloried (rightly so) by the players... However, there seems to be a direct correlation between the level of the denunciation and the amount of contributions accepted - those who received the most from Enron or Arthur Anderson (or who are most responsible for the relaxing of the regulatory regime that facilitated Enron's misdeeds) are those that have the harshest condemnations of the executives.