Before I make my argument that Montana Republicans are the party of reality TV, we need to define what we are talking about, so here’s a definition from Wikipedia:

Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s with shows such as The Real World, then achieved prominence in the early 2000s with the success of the series Survivor, Idol, and Big Brother, all of which became global franchises.

The obvious connection Republicans have to this form of entertainment is the former president, Donald J. Trump, and his show The Apprentice, but I’m specifying MONTANA Republicans, so how does this interest in reality TV trickle down from Donald Trump to Montana?  Let’s begin with the reality TV dude who recently interviewed Trump, Theo Von, since “Von” will be performing his stand-up comedy routine in Billings next month.

I put “Von” in quotation marks because that’s NOT Theo’s actual surname.  Nope, Theo’s FULL name is Theodor Capitani von Kurnatowski III, and he’s part of an aristocratic Polish bloodline.  If that changes how you see this “comedian” who interviewed Trump recently then GOOD because the whole setup of the reality TV genre is a con.  Unscripted real-life situations?  Please.  

Theo was grown in the MTV petri-dish where music videos once played, starting with Road Rules, then bouncing around that channel’s endless reality TV programming.  It’s this hip edge, honed on the competitive comedy circuit, that puts Von in the perfect position to bring the important topic of cocaine use into the national conversation when he said, “cocaine will turn you into a damn owl, homie, you’ll be out on your own porch, you’ll be your own street lamp.”

Closer to home, it was the reality TV show, Live PD, that seduced the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office into allowing cameras to follow around Sheriff Deputies, like Bill Burt.  Here’s what the Undersheriff, Rich Marcelli, had to say at the time (2019) about his goal for involving the Sheriff’s Office in this A&E reality TV show:

The Missoula County Sheriff’s Office appeared in the first episodes of the new season of “Live PD” on Friday and Saturday on the A&E cable channel, and Montana is abuzz with what they saw.

Undersheriff Rich Marcelli says that they have received positive and negative comments, but so far it’s been about 10 positive to every negative comment.

…

One thing that the Sheriff’s Office hopes to achieve by being on the show is the ability to recruit and retain more deputies.

Is recruiting the only potential benefit Marcelli saw in this opportunity?  Or is face time in front of a camera good for something else, like preparing a badge to be a politician?

Long before Bill Burt ran for the elected office of Justice of the Peace here in Missoula, he was getting to know the film crew behind Frontier Force: Montana.  The year was 2011, the reporter was Gwen Florio, and the entertaining content included Sheriff Deputy, Tony Rio dealing with a meth van.  Are you ready to be entertained?

“Auto theft, drug overdoses and trespassing grizzly bears are all in a day’s work for the Montana police,” the tease for the show promises.

So are two frightened little girls. That’s what it came down on a cold night last March, when Missoula County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a tip that an East Missoula woman was moving a 90-pound meth shipment.

The deputies – and a “Frontier Force” production crew from PSG Films in Seattle – swung into action and ended up with an episode called “Meth Van Takedown.” It features a jittery, high-tension soundtrack, a fistful of syringes pulled from a pink backpack, and a woman protesting that the tracks on her left forearm came from a bad stick at the doctor’s office. Sgt. Tony Rio pointed to her right. “What’s up with that arm then?” 

“Me and my kids were wrestling around earlier.”

But the woman assured him that she hadn’t used until after she’d put the kids to bed.

Rio and Deputy Duncan Crawford exchanged long glances.

At that moment, the meth shipment ceased to be the issue.

Later in the article, the public gets an idea of how Sheriff Deputy, Bill Burt, claims to be an advocate for accuracy.  If the scenario you are about to read should doesn’t alarm you, then you might be a member of the reality TV political party!

PSG first approached the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office nearly two years ago, when it was looking for a follow-up to its Alaska State Troopers show. Then-Sheriff Mike McMeekin put Deputy William Burt in charge, and for about month, the PSG crew hung out with him, going on ride-alongs and collecting footage for the pitch they’d send National Geographic to persuade it to fund the new show, Burt said.

“We got to be pretty good friends,” Burt said of the crew. “But we got into arguments about keeping it accurate.” Sometimes the film crew folks wanted more dramatic action from the deputies – say, drawing a gun when they normally wouldn’t. But crew members backed down when the deputies refused, he said.

Going back to the other article telling us why it was good for the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office to involve their publicly funded deputies in reality TV, the Jermain Charlo case is referenced.  

Another big reason for being on the show is to highlight cases that they might need tips from the public to help solve — like the case of Jermain Charlo, missing for more than a year , that was showcased on Live PD last week.

“The Jermain Charlo [segment] — the missing and indigenous person report. I mean we have already been receiving tips on that we didn’t have before. That in itself has made this a huge success,” Marcelli told MTN News.

Was Jermain Charlo found?  No, she has never been found, so the case remains open.  That is NOT a success, especially if my suspicions about what happened to one of those tips is accurate.

If anyone expects accuracy from reality TV, I won’t waste my time stating what I think about that expectation.  Instead I’ll conclude with a suggestion for ANYONE thinking of casting a vote in this upcoming election:  DON’T.  Because, at the end of the day, none of it is real.

Reality TV moon-lighters, like Detective Guy Baker, used to come to my kids school to get some attention by expounding on the true crime podcast about Jermain Charlo, titled Stolen, which was being used as a part of the curriculum.  When I offered to bring MY reality as a citizen journalist to that discussion, the school made a smart decision and stopped using the podcast.

I guess some realities just aren’t meant for prime time.

Thanks for reading!