Another DUMB@$$ AWARD wiener

WIN THIS BABY

Just when I'd thought that network television couldn't POSSIBLY sink any lower, couldn't POSSIBLY pander to the lowest common denominator more obseqiously, couldn't POSSIBLY engage in more offensive and insulting behavior, Barbara Walters and ABC expose me as horribly naive. Look, listen, and learn, kids- THIS is the stuff that DUMB@$$ AWARDS are made of. Truly, we are in the presence of DUMB@$$ greatness- not something anyone should necessarily want to strive for.

A giant-sized controversy is brewing over a baby adoption special on "20/20" - and sending ABC execs into a tailspin. Millions of viewers across the country watched in surprise over the weekend as the network aired a sensational promo for Friday's segment, which pits five desperate couples against each other for the privilege of adopting a 16-year-old's baby.

A very personal, intimate process was made to look like a reality-show contest, with prospective parents dubbed "winners" and "losers."

Yesterday, complaints flooded into radio stations, Web sites and even the FCC - many of them noting that host Barbara Walters is not only a respected journalist, but also an adoptive mother.

"I've already sent my outrage to [the producer of "20/20"] making a reality show out of something so personal," wrote one user on the Web site eeadopt.com.

"While I haven't seen the show, it definitely sounds like the marketing department at ABC was attempting to add a reality TV spin, which is definitely an all-time low - especially when children are at stake," says radio journalist Jane Braverman, who's adopting a child....

The program, titled "Be My Baby," set to air Friday during May sweeps, follows five couples through open adoption, which means the adoptive parents and birth mother are in contact, identities are disclosed and there is the potential for contact in the future.

OK, so what sort of craven, morally-impaired DUMB@$$ would trade on the life of an infant in the chase for ratings? Well, silly, ABC and Barbara Walters are the obvious answer, that's who. It's one thing to engage in cheesy "reality" shows where people scheme and plan to scramble to the top of whatever pyramid there is to climb. It's quite another to trade on an infant's future. What are you going to tell the kid when he is old enough to grasp that he was part of something grotesque- that his "parents" won him in a game show? Why not raffle the kid off? At least you could make some money for a charity that way.

This has to be the single most disturbing television event I can imagine (next to any Republican convention or George W. Bush press conference, of course). I'd ask what in the hell ABC and Barbara Walters were thinking when they dreamed up this travesty, but that would presume there was something actual, honest-to-God thought process that took place. Hey, its SWEEPS- ANYTHING GOES in the chase for the Almighty ratings, eh??

This idiocy has got to stop. No, I don't think receiving a DUMB@$$ AWARD will have an impact on whether or not ABC will proceed with this insult to their viewers collective intelligence, but it's about all I can do in terms of registering a protest.

There ought to be a special place in Hell for Barbara Walters and the trolls at ABC who green-lighted this project. May you burn long and suffer horribly....