Journal: A television fraud

Some days ago, a friend of mine told me a story that astonished me a lot. We were in the middle of a conversation which was about very popular TV shows. Especially, about the prizes that those shows give to the people who take part in the talent competitions that they hold. We all agreed that those contests about dacing, singing and other abilities could be a fraud. But this story ended to convinced us that we were right on thinking that.
There was a girl from Tucuman who sang our traditional folclore. She started her career when she was just 5 or 6 years old. After gaining some re-known in our province, she tried to make public in the rest of the country. For that reason, she started to appear in many TV programms which are broadcasted in Buenos Aires. At that moment, one of the most popular TV shows of Argentina was giving a talent competition. The girl's dream encouraged her to enter in the competition. But what she obtained there was a lie, sustained in a sort of terrible pshycological pressure and an illegal attempt to bribe her parents.
Being aware of the fame that the girl had obtained until that moment, the TV channel offered the girl's parents what they called a "treat". They assured them that their daughter would win first prize. But the parents had to sign a contract that din't allow the girl to performed anywhere else appart from that channel and only when they called her, for at least two years. I was told many other details of the contract but let's go to the important part of this story: The girl had to enter the channel in the morning before the competition, with the other children who participated. She was going to see her parents again, at least, 18 hours after this entrance. She and the other contestants were going to be assisted by a baby-sitter, for they were all little children. And each of them would also have a sort of "tutor" whose task was to prepare them for the big moment. Do you imagine how? by telling the children the extact words they had to say and the exact attitudes they needed to have on stage. But this was not done with the idea of encouraging them to performe well, but with the idea of making the children to place themselves in advantage within the positions that the producers and parents had agreed on before. So, the competition itself was a fraud and noone really cared about the children and their talents.
In this way they all assured themselves that the fraud cannot be noticed by the audience. Because in fact, the child who was chosen to win in advantage, was told to perfrom in certain way (let's say that was told to perform well) and the "lossers" were taught techniques that would innevitably lead them to sencond positions.
The mother of the girl rejected to sign the contrat and the little girl, who is now an young teenager, left the channel with empty hands.
The important thing is that this story still continuous to go on. Not every parents think as the ones of this girl and they force their children to go into this sort of contests where they are treated like that. And just in order to win a prize or a little bit of fame.
This facts should de re-thought by parents, because this situations can leave marks on their children that may affect them for the rest of their lives.