Pynchon writing for CBS?

[John Pendergast]

Just saw this story online. What's next, an amusememt park run by children? Impossible! Link to full story  below.


A CBS Reality Show Draws a Claim of Possible Child Abuse 
By EDWARD WYATT
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 17 - The ads promoting "Kid Nation," a new reality show coming to CBS next month, extol the incredible experience of a group of 40 children, ages 8 to 15, who built a sort of idealistic society in a New Mexico ghost town, free of adults. For 40 days the children cooked their own meals, cleaned their own outhouses, formed a government and ran their own businesses, all without adult intervention or participation.

To at least one parent of a participant, who wrote a letter of complaint to New Mexico state officials after the show had completed production, the experience bordered on abuse and neglect. Several children required medical attention after drinking bleach that had been left in an unmarked soda bottle, according to both the parent and CBS. One 11-year-old girl burned her face with splattered grease while cooking. 

The children were made to haul wagons loaded with supplies for more than a mile through the New Mexico countryside, and they worked long hours - "from the crack of dawn when the rooster started crowing" until at least 9:30 p.m., according to Taylor, a 10-year-old from Sylvester, Ga., who was made available by CBS to respond to questions about conditions on the set. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/18/arts/television/18kid.html?ei=5090&en=081d627066c74b98&ex=1345089600&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=print
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