Tim Dower: Are we, the viewers, responsible for the dark side of reality TV?

I remember the beginnings of the reality TV genre and wondering at the time whether it was entirely desirable. Back then, it was mainly cameras chasing ambulances and police cars. And I upset one TV producer when I asked if it was really in good taste to film people lying in the road after they'd just been hit by a bus. But anyway, people watched it, and compared to your period drama or even your soap it's cheap to make. So it's exploded; we have any number of cop shows now and hospital shows, helicopter rescues, car chases, and they've spilled over into things like border shows or home renovations. It's uncovered our voyeuristic desire to look into the lives of the glamorous, the unusual, the outrageous and even the downright sad. People with houses stacked to the ceiling with garbage, people with giant zits or bad teeth. The more gross it is, the more we seem to like it. Somewhere along the line reality morphed into crap like the Kardashians, Big Brother and now, just when you thought we couldn't go any lower, staged marriages and soft porn dating shows. Somewhere, what we almost believed was education became exploitation. You have to ask who'd want to put themselves up for something like that and we've seen unintended consequences. But even if they are attention seekers, wannabe famous people, do the broadcasters not owe these a proper duty of care? Are they not duty bound to thoroughly research the contestants and weed out the dodgy ones? Or do they quietly let the odd flake slip into the mix, just to see what happens? Bottom line, no pun intended, the broadcasters wouldn't be making this stuff if we weren't watching it. Does that makes us responsible when something bad happens?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.