The Amazing Race Apologizes For Supposedly Anti-American Episode

After the March 17 Hanoi episode aired of The Amazing Race there have been noises made that CBS and The Amazing Race needed to apologize for using a B-52 Memorial as a prop for the location of a Double U-Turn. The Roadblock before the B-52, where racers watched a musical production singing the praises of communist Vietnam, was also criticized.

At the start of the Sunday, March 24 episode of The Amazing Race, Phil Keoghan said the words we were reading on the screen.....

“We want to apologize to veterans – particularly those who served in Vietnam – as well as to their families and any viewers who were offended by the broadcast. All of us here have the most profound respect for the men and women who fight for our country.”

For me,  I took no offense. I also took no offense when, on a previous season of The Amazing Race the racers were sent to the Hanoi Hilton where they saw the flight suit on display that John McCain was wearing when his plane was shot down.

I also took no offense when in a previous season of The Amazing Race the race went to Hiroshima.

Like I said when I previously blogged about The Amazing Race Visit to Hanoi's B-52 Memorial Has Some Viewers Irrationally Upset I watch The Amazing Race because I like seeing places I've never been, sights I've never seen, parts of the world I knew nothing about or did not know existed.

I had never seen a communist musical production number before. I thought it was interesting and amusing. And rather demented propaganda.

Fox online this morning is characterizing the controversial episode as Anti-American in the below headline to the article about The Amazing Race apology.

The Fox article says, in part....

CBS apologized Sunday night one week after the television show “Amazing Race” broadcast what critics called an “anti-American” segment that offended Vietnam War veterans.

The episode caused widespread outrage among war veterans.

James Koutz, the national commander of the American Legion, sent a scathing letter to CBS, calling the episode a “disgraceful slap-in-the-face administered to American war heroes.”

“The show is called ‘The Amazing Race,’ but I call it ‘The Amazing Gall,’” Koutz said — noting that the show was reminiscent of a Tokyo Rose broadcast.

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I always wonder how it is determined that there is widespread outrage over something. Was a poll conducted?  Anti-American? Disgraceful? Reminiscent of a Tokyo Rose broadcast?

Does the B-52 Memorial exist? Yes. Does the Vietnam Department of Propaganda put on silly propaganda musical productions? Yes. Was it Anti-American for The Amazing Race to show either of these things to its viewers? No, not in my opinion.

The Amazing Race Visit to Hanoi's B-52 Memorial Has Some Viewers Irrationally Upset

UPDATE: At the start of the following week's episode CBS and The Amazing Race apologized for the controversial Hanoi episode.

The number one reason I have been an Amazing Race fan from the start is due to the fact that The Amazing Race takes me to places in the world I've never been, may never see in person and sometimes have never heard of.

Watching the latest episode's visit to Hanoi, Vietnam was a classic example of why I'm an Amazing Race fan.

I thought the Patriotic Communist Song Propaganda Roadblock was interesting and amusing. The production was like an American high school halftime show, complete with cheerleaders. One could have looked at it as an homage to Americana.

(You can watch a YouTube video, below, of this Vietnamese Propaganda Production that has somehow managed to upset some people)

And then there was the clue that directed teams to Hanoi's B-52 Memorial, where a Double U-Turn was located and where those who were not U-Turned were directed to make their way to the Pit Stop at the Vietnam National Museum of History.

I was appalled, appalled I tell you, to learn that there were viewers of The Amazing Race who took extreme umbrage to both the Propaganda Halftime Show Roadblock and the B-52 Memorial being used as a destination.

There have been demands that CBS apologize. Apologize for what? Showing viewers another country? Not showing a sanitized, propaganda-ized  version of that country?

There is a historical marker at the site of the B-52 Memorial. The text on that historical marker is in both Vietnamese and English.

The fractured English text on the historical marker says....

At 22:05 on December 27, 1972 the battalion No.72 Air Defence Missile Regiment shot down on the spot a B52G of the US Imperialist violating Hanoi air space. A part of the wreckage fell in to the Huu Tiep Lake. The outstanding feat of arm contributed to achieving the victory "Dien Bien Phu in the Air." Defeating the US Imperialists strategic air raid with B52 against Hanoi at the end of December 1972 and creating an important change that led the Vietnamese people's anti-US resistance for national salvation to the complete victory.

The fact that I am able, without fear, to share some communist propaganda, whilst those who live in Vietnam do not have a similar freedom, well, really, which country is the winner in the bigger picture?

I went to Survivor Sucks for a sampling of the reactionary reaction to this Amazing Race episode that has some people irrationally upset. Below is a series of comments, combined together to make one big comment about this serious Amazing Race glorifying communism issue....

The tards on Facebook are flipping out it's hysterical

Without even looking at TAR's Facebook page I can already tell there's going to be complaints about socialism and Obama.

OMG their Facebook page is hilarious...

"And INSTEAD of showing HANOI Hilton you show case a B52 Bomber that was shot down! On top of that the song you end the episode with is the socialist propaganda song! CBS is on board with this should wake you sleepers UP!"

(The Amazing Race visited the Hanoi Hilton a previous season. I remember seeing John McCain's flight suit on display)

"I will never watch again.....typical Hollywood !!!!!"

" I hope CBS is ready with an apology. Is your staff so dumb that they didn't realize the significance of that song about communism in Hanoi?"

There seems to be more level headed people who aren't pissed off though.

Like this guy who owned all the tards....

"The Amazing Race is an amazing cultural experience, and it's sad that everyone is missing the point and overreacting to three minutes of a theatrical communism performance. This race does so much work to show us the unique lifestyles and beliefs of people from other countries, and what we should be getting out of it is that no matter what history, politics, and religions other nations take part in, the people there are just as hardworking, caring, and equal as we are. I guess some people can't get over the fact that other people live differently than us but are just as great as we are."

The intelligent person would watch this and think it was just interesting seeing the difference between cultures. I mean, in America don't we have rituals celebrating the joys of democracy and capitalism.

And below is the aforementioned video. It may not last long on YouTube before CBS insists it be removed or some sort of copyright issue...