The show COPS

[longneckone]

Originally Posted by TracySam;42357903


11. [B

A whole lot of people have no shame[/b]. Maybe if they had a healthy sense of shame, they wouldn't have done stuff to end up on COPS in the first place. But if you are being arrested, and there is a TV crew there, capturing what is (hopefully) the lowest point in your life on camera, and you're crying, with snot running down your face, you've peed your pants, and you've just done something criminal, what would possess you to later sign that consent to let them show your image on TV? Think about it: every one of those people on the show signed a consent to let them show their apprehension and arrest, not matter how embarrassing it was. Is being on TV worth showing thousands of people the lowest moment in your life? Even if they pay you, how much can that possibly be? Do they pay your bail or something? How do they convince these people to consent to being on the show?
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When this was a primetime show many years ago I watched it regularly. Now when there is " nothing on" I am often glad to find Cops on one of our cable channels.
I have often wondered what would cause a person to sign a release showing allowing their very unflattering moments to be shown to the world on TV.

[Tracysherm]

Originally Posted by semispherical

But Cops is actually a"cheesy reality show" in that it presents a distorted, simplistic, and sanitized view of the real world.

Well, I never said of implied that the TV show, or any TV show, including the "news" for that matter, is a 100% accurate portrayal of how the real world is. I don't find the show "cheesy" however, because it does not include artificial conversations and conflicts, as other "reality" shows do. Of course they have to pick and choose what to air. Much of police work, I'd imagine, is sitting and waiting, or completing reports, writing ordinary traffic citations, and probably quite boring. But the incidents they do show are real events, not scripted. I don't find it "sanitized" because it shows people pretty much at their worst, in addition to people being pretty decent, as well as those somewhere in the middle. They show police officers of all colors, both sexes, and all levels of experience. and the police are not portrayed as perfect or in a sanitized way. They even make mistakes and leave them in the show. As far as "reality TV" goes, this show is probably the most reality-based.