A&E Networks carved a prominent place for itself using the tools of its trade. But those are not tools of social healing, cooperation and social equity. Instead, this network has brought a constant stream of social destruction and degradation into American living rooms.
Their tools are cynicism, arrogance, racism, religious intolerance, ethnic hatred and the most essential and insidious component of their work—falsehoods. Their mix of “reality” programming has been exposed time and again as neither real nor responsible.
The cynical leaders of A&E—network president Paul Buccieri, president of programming Rob Sharenow, and executive vice president and head of programming Elaine Frontain Bryant—are just three of those directly responsible for racist and socially destructive content. They have created for their audiences a new kind of “reality” for television viewers: A dystopian world that glorifies extreme violence, promotes discriminatory attitudes, and foments hatred. How is it that executives at the Disney Company and their A&E co-owners Hearst Communications justify such agendas?
Most recently, A&E Networks canceled Live PD, a police reality show in which the network destroyed evidence of brutality, racism and the kind of police violence that resulted in the deaths of George Floyd, Javier Ambler and other black men and women. With the high viewership show’s cancellation came the announcement that A&E has lost 49 percent of its primetime audience.
Dan Abrams, an executive producer of Live PD, has publicly defended this racist programming and destruction of the video of the March 2019 death of Javier Ambler in Austin, Texas. After police attempted to stop Ambler for failing to dim his headlights, A&E cameras rolled while police tased Ambler four times as he pleaded that he had congestive heart failure and then died. The network said the unaired footage was destroyed after they learned the investigation had concluded.
What other crimes did Live PD contribute to or cover up? They have been called out by prosecutors, elected officials and police themselves for actually encouraging the kinds of violent confrontations and racist behavior their cameras have recorded and manipulated in their quest for sensational footage and corporate profits.
This programming by A&E used lies and distortions to fool the public into believing that their “reality” programming was not scripted, shaped and manipulated to perpetuate the social and racial injustice Americans are seeing played out in the streets.
Where is the leadership advocating a more sane society? Where is the programming that upholds values of honesty, integrity, compassion and tolerance? It is not on the agenda of Buccieri, Sharenow, Bryant and the others who have traded responsibility for fat profits. They are the carpetbaggers of our age.
When A&E Networks produced their failed reality series on the Ku Klux Klan, their showrunners and producers encouraged the use of the “N-word” by the “racists” they filmed. When it was exposed that Generation KKK was scripted, that participants were paid, that producers were not documenting the evils of racist ideology but promoting racial stereotypes by building crosses for their subjects to burn and buying fuel to fire them, pressure on A&E mounted and the show was finally canceled before it aired.
Leah Remini’s false and destructive programming on the Church of Scientology in Aftermath promoted and encouraged violent attacks against Church members. In Australia, it contributed to the murder of a young Scientologist by a man driven by these proddings. Though Remini’s show was finally ended, the taint of its intolerance and falsehoods continues.
A&E reached large audiences with its debased messages. Duck Dynasty gave a platform to express hatred toward homosexuals. First 48 crime investigation programs have been widely assailed for promoting and reinforcing racial stereotypes.
Buccieri, Sharenow, Bryant and other major executives at A&E have betrayed their audiences and their social compact, instead creating a more hostile world. That betrayal is costing them their audience. They have lied to the public, avoided responsibility, created distrust, disruption and false narratives for personal profit. When will Disney and Hearst hold those executives—and their own—accountable for this?
On a day that can’t come too soon.
