Why you shouldn't watch "The Scholar" tonight

For the first time, Wal-Mart Stores is becoming a major sponsor of a reality television show, by signing a branded-entertainment agreement with ABC for "The Scholar," a summer series that begins a six-week run on Monday night. Wal-Mart will be woven into the plots of episodes of the show, which is centered on a competition among 10 high school seniors from across the country for a grand prize of a full college scholarship, valued at $250,000, covering tuition and expenses.


The students will compete in a variety of academic, creative and social tasks, including team challenges, oral exams and defending themselves before a scholarship committee. In one challenge, the five members of the winning team each receive a $2,000 Wal-Mart gift card to outfit their dormitory rooms. And Wal-Mart is underwriting the cost of the scholarships for the nine runners-up, totaling $300,000. (The Broad Foundation in Los Angeles is donating the grand prize.)


So America's largest employer whose famously low wages keep thousands of families below the poverty line and unable to even dream of sending their children to college is now involved in a unctuous, self-congratulatory presentation of itself as a good citizen and true patron of the arts? Have you no shame, Walmart?


How dispicable it is that these children have to actually compete for education at all? Wasn't it part of the American experiment that all individuals could recieve a quality education to prepare them for something other than exploitation and menial labor? No, children can only become educated if they grovel at the feet of Sam Walton's spawn and plead for scraps from their table. Thank you Wal-Mart; God bless us every one.