Buying Into Lies:
The Serial Frauds of “Kid Nation”
by Paul Petersen

“It is time for a formal hearing to determine whether CBS is entitled to the use of our broadcast airwaves, and whether their “Permit to Employ Minors” should be suspended.”

CBS has broken new ground with the entirely fraudulent television show (laughingly labeled Reality TV), “Kid Nation.” The network would have you believe that minor children can give “Informed Consent.” They categorically cannot give such consent. The 40 kids on “Kid Nation” have been asked to promote and defend a series of fabrications that are absolutely breath taking in scope.

Let’s start with the Casting process. This show held auditions. The selection of the kids who would be whisked away to New Mexico was a conscious act. California kids were discriminated against because those inconvenient California child labor laws would travel with them, along with a mandatory Studio Teacher/Welfare Worker.

The very presence of cameras…and a crew to man them…puts the lie to anything purported to be “reality.” The very act of filming these unschooled and untrained children altered their behavior. Moreover, most of these kids spent weeks in the company of the 22 Producers listed on the imdb.com credit sheet in advance of actual production, weeks in which the Producer’s preconceived notions of nation building, kid-style, were routinely transmitted. In short, the kids got a pretty good idea of what their employers expected.

Employment contracts, and subsequent Confidentiality Agreements, as reported in today’s New York Times, were so one-sided and exploitive that one is reminded of slavery’s Bill of Sales, were placed before 40 sets of incomprehensively naive parents giving CBS the “right” to their child’s image in perpetuity, with an onerous Liquidated Damages section calling for “$5 million” in potential risk if anyone broke the compact.

The Parents bought into this fraud. What were their expectations? They knew that this project was being done in secret, that their children would be without on-set tutors for at least five weeks during the school year, and entirely in the hands of the production team.

CBS claims that these children, all of whom received a $5,000.00 “stipend,” and the hazy promise of future emollients ($20,000.00 is the figure being bandied about), were not employees, or even Actors, and that they were actually going to “Camp” and the film crew would just be taking their picture as they went about their business.

New Mexico was chosen as the “Kid Nation” location because that fair State and its Governor (who just happens to be running for President), Bill Richardson, just hadn’t gotten around to passing meaningful child labor laws for Entertainment. You see, on a Federal level, children in the Entertainment Business are exempt from child labor laws, and have been since 1938. (See the “Newsie Exemption” in the Fair Labor Standards Act). If your state has no laws protecting kids in entertainment then it’s all too easy to say “No laws were broken in the making of this film,” precisely the words of the New Mexico sheriff who addressed the complaints of one of the “Kid Nation” parents who wrote an anonymous letter claiming abuse.

The publicity machine of “Kid Nation” says these kids were plunked down in an abandoned mining town. Wrong. The Bonanza Ranch is a well-known and heavily utilized movie set a mere half-hour from Santa Fe, and heavily promoted by the New Mexico Film Commission. The publicity further states that these kids were “on their own.” No parents. No adults. No supervision. If you believe that I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn for you.

Here are some of the so-called Adults working behind-the-scenes: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1039921/fullcredits

The more curious among you will note that down at the bottom of the crew list appear the names of the Animal Wranglers. You see, the animals that were utilized on this production had protection, but not the kids. Can’t hurt the little fuzzies, don’t ya know.

Once assembled at the location the children were put through their paces, generally starting at 7 AM and on some days finding that they were still on-camera at Midnight. CBS says the kids set their own hours. Sure. Kids ages eight to fifteen years old actually like 17-hour days.

Moreover, in defiance of even the Biblical injunction to reserve one day of the week for a day of rest these kids worked for forty straight days without let-up, hauling wood, drawing water, even making their own meals. April 1st to May 12th.

Tom Forman, the Producer of this misbegotten project, says the kids aren’t actors, and not really employed. He’s right. They’re victims. The “Kid Nation” workplace reality is to my mind the worst serial workplace violation since children were lifted from English coal mines in 1812. Those little girls chained to sewing tables in Cambodia have nothing on us, No Siree.

The fiction of watching kids engaged in Nation Building is nevermore fraudulent than when the subject is Education. The producers say they got permission from various school superintendents in several different states, but I have yet to see a single name of a School Administrator who allegedly gave such permission. You see, no one has the authority to simply waive mandatory educational requirements. No local school official has the power to waive attendance rules. Neither do Parents.

Well, you say, what harm can come from a truancy that only lasts five weeks? What if I told you that I have reports that date the children’s actual participation actually started on February 18th 2007 and that this engagement lasted until May 12th 2007! Not five weeks, but twelve weeks. Tom Forman, the producer, is quoted as saying that he flew parents and children into and out of California for at least a month before production so that “everybody knew what was involved.”

As to actual harm…and mind you, this is in advance of what will surely come crashing down on these 40 kids once this program airs and their faces and personalities become known…we have now learned that one young child was burned by splashing oil while slaving over a hot grill. Four children actually drank bleach, which was contained in an unmarked soda bottle. The company says medical attention was provided at once. By whom? What credentialed doctor and/or licensed medical person provided this medical attention? Who, exactly, was standing-by to render such immediate first aid when no First Aid person is listed in the crew list and the company conveniently neglects to mention that a word or a shout from one of those adults standing around might have prevented four teenagers from swallowing bleach!

The imperative for the crew, you see, is the same as it is for Naturalists filming the behaviors of wild animals. Never interfere. In fact, Mark Brunett, the Producer of the worn out “Survivor,” was once asked why his camera crew didn’t go to the aid of a “Survivor” contestant that had fallen into a raging fire.

“If the cameraman had dropped his camera and gone to help I would have fired him.”

In the crew’s mind, you see, these weren’t real live kids they were viewing through their camera lens, but mere biological specimens. Have we come so far down this path that America’s children are now no more than a tribe of baboons?

They were and are children, for God’s sake.

The most troubling aspect, however, comes down to the lack of attention by officials from a host of responsible state agencies. When an inspector for New Mexico’s housing department came out to the location to see about “congregate housing” he was denied permission to inspect the site. Think of the arrogance of this production company. Since when does a television show have the right to deny access to a state official in pursuit of his duties? And why did this official slink away and not demand access?

We now learn that the state of New Mexico did, in fact, question CBS’s interpretations of that state’s employment laws, which were disturbingly flawed (for obvious reasons). The continuing presence of Minors at a place of employment constitutes employment, says New Mexico. By the time they got around to questioning CBS, however, production had wrapped and the whole “Kid Nation” cast and crew had departed New Mexico.

Is it too much to ask that responsible officials at a state and federal level intervene? Is there not sufficient evidence to at least temporarily prevent the broadcast of this show over the airwaves that you and I own? A host of laws and regulations have been violated. Interstate lines have been crossed in what I believe to be a criminal conspiracy to deprive children of their right to be free of commercial exploitation. Where is the Department of Labor? Where is the National Association of Government Labor Officials (NAGLO), a group I addressed several years ago warning of shows just like “Kid Nation?”

I believe and have written that CBS has crossed a line with “Kid Nation.” https://minorcon.org/cbs_crosses_the_line.html

It is time for a formal hearing to determine whether CBS is entitled to the use of our broadcast airwaves, and whether their “Permit to Employ Minors” should be suspended.