Thursday, October 18, 2007

Bear Grylls Doesn't Know When to Apologize

Put Bear Grylls with Larry Craig, Al Sharpton, and scads of others in modern life today: people who don't realize they've done something wrong and need to apologize. Doesn't he realize that whether it was his decision or someone else's, his show deceived viewers about the risks he was taking. That was wrong.

Yet instead of the apology, we get the next stage -- the period where he gets complimented for keeping a stiff upper lip in the face of embarrassment about what his show did wrong:

Grylls now says the fallout from the revelation has been difficult to deal with.

"It's been hard," he told Outside magazine in an interview out this week. "I'm not that bulletproof underneath it all! But I just want to say thanks for so much support and encouragement. I will keep giving 'Man vs. Wild' my absolute everything."

Grylls stood out because in "Man vs. Wild" he seemed to do anything to survive, including eating loads of creepy things and spending time in the cold.

But earlier this year, it was revealed that during some scenes where viewers were led to believe he was in the woods, he was actually sleeping inside.

There was never any indication in Grylls's show that anything was staged. There was clearly a conscious effort to mislead viewers. That was wrong -- particularly when it would have been a cool show without the deception.

Just say 'I'm sorry,' for heaven's sake.

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