Reality TV, too!

Since the debut of the smash hit, Survivor, reality TV has been a staple of the American TV consumer's diet. But mixing reality with the potential for fame and fortune is like anything else: dangerous.

VH1's recent show, Megan Wants a Millionaire, is the latest to come under scrutiny. Ryan Alexander, one of the shows participants was accused of murdering his wife, leaving her remains in suitcase inside a trash bin outside a San Diego hotel room. Her teeth and fingernails were removed.

Alexander was arrested after a manhunt on August 23, and subsequently, Megan Wants a Millionaire was cancelled. The situation raises serious concerns about the vetting process for contestants on reality TV.

In statement, the producer said, "The company did have in place what it thought was a thorough vetting process that involved complete background checks by an outside company for all contestants on its shows," it said. "Clearly, the process did not work properly in this case.”

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Air Marshals Lack Proper Background Checks, Endager Lives

In a recent survey conducted on the Air Marshals of the US, many discrepancies in the background of the marshals were found. After 9/11, the US Air Marshal force was increased by thousands (though the exact number of marshals is classified) in an attempt to protect and reassure passengers on commercial flights.

The Federal Air Marshal Service is an elite group of agents, charged with making split-second decisions; they hold the lives of innocent passengers in their hands. It is proper that they should be investigated thoroughly, and it is true that they are required to undergo many stages of vetting before being allowed to serve. The marshals can't serve if convicted of a federal crime, leaving room for misdemeanors, such as DUI though TSA policies state that employees who drive drunk "demonstrate a disregard of TSA's mission." 84% of American citizens interviewed felt that a drunk driving conviction should bar the marshal from service.

Crimes committed by marshals while in service are on the rise. Only a fraction have been charged, but the seriousness of the crimes are astonishing. Air Marshals have:

• Taken bribes
• Been found sleeping on planes
• Pulled a gun during a parking dispute
• Left a gun in the airplane lavatory, to have it found by a teenager
• Hired a hit-man to kill his wife
• Smuggled drugs using high security clearance
• Committed bank fraud
• Hired a female escort and held her hostage using his handcuffs and gun
• Smuggled weapons from Afghanistan

The federal agency had better step up their hiring procedure, lives are state, security is at stake. But the agency has actually loosened it's hiring standards in recent years:

• Recruits no longer have to pass the confined space firearms test that determines accuracy in a space the size of an airplane
• They no longer have to pass the written psychological exam, or the oral interview with a psychologist
• Recruits no longer have to have law enforcement experience. The agency began hiring TSA screeners in 2005

The marshals themselves are getting fed up with the lack of standards and the potential smear on the agencies reputation. The female escort who was held hostage summed it up best by saying, the outcome was "horrific" and that the public should be scared, "He's the only one on an airplane with a freakin' weapon, and he's supposed to have it to be protecting us."

USA Today Article

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ALL Government Officials Should Be Checked, Even Those Who Aren't Being Paid

Phelicia Williams, 26, was interned at the mayor's office in Oakland, CA for 10 months and was blatantly not screened prior to starting.

The mayor's office did not check Williams' criminal record prior to bringing her on as an unpaid intern. Mayor of Oakland, Ron Dellums' spokesperson said in an official statement that the mayor has no plans to change its policy of not running background checks on intern applicants and volunteers.

The citizens of Oakland should be outraged. A simple screen could of alerted Dellums' office of Williams multiple counts of identity fraud before she stole some 100 personal checks from last year's Mayor's Holiday Toy Drive.

Williams was arrested on October 12 for suspicion of charging over $10,000 on the company card of a former employer. She was on probation for forgery at the time of her arrest.

On her job application for the Mayor, Williams claimed to have no prior convictions. The Mayor's office defended their stance, stating the interns go through a vetting process similar to what the candidate's themselves go through.

Hopefully, the elected officials are better behaved than Ms. Phelicia Williams.

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