No Contest

But the stability of the United States of America—that was his to protect.

More and more people and nations looked at the U.S. as the world’s biggest bully, and anti-American sentiment was getting an extra boost from these foolish, dangerous games watched by foolish people. Still, Smith was tempted to believe that these acts were designed to further discredit the U.S.

The truth was, ESN had a vested interest in killing people. Viewership dropped when people stopped dying, only to rebound after a fatality. Two fatalities meant a big jump. The more footage it had to show of the actual death-causing chain of events, the more viewership it drew in.

ESN played spots with its VP of programming, Herbert Essen, produced to look like a public-service announcement for hunger-relief donations. Instead, they informed ESN viewers that they would not broadcast video of the fatal accidents themselves. This would be disrespectful and a violation of community standards. In addition, ESN had programs in place to provide extra compensation to the families of those killed during ESN-sanctioned events.

This thirty-second spot was paired up with a three-and-a-half-minute commercial for ESN extreme-danger DVDs. It promised to show what ESN could not show on cable—and it delivered. Horrific accidents and on-screen deaths were there in high-definition, wide-screen video and surround-sound stereo. Volume one sold so fast that Volume two was rushed out ahead of schedule. An extreme edition box set, with a third DVD containing ten bonus minutes of life-ending accidents, was under a hundred thousand Christmas trees during the holidays.

There was a hullabaloo when the major TV news channels broke the story of a “massive deception” perpetrated on the American people. None of the profits from the wildly popular DVDs, it was revealed, were actually going to the victims. Because the DVD spots ran side-by-side with the serious promises of the vice president of programming, the public was deceived into believing that the DVDs were the programs that ESN had in place to help the victims’ families financially. In fact, the programs were nothing more than a policy of tiny donations made by the network to the victims’ families.

“Buyers are outraged,” insisted the network news programs, desperate to prop up the traditional professional and college sports programming that subsidized the news. The networks had interviews to prove just how angry the public was.

“They played on our sympathies for the poor victims,” one weeping mother said. “I didn’t buy those repulsive programs to watch. I bought them as a way of helping the less fortunate.”

A federal investigation was launched to determine the extent of the fraud while hordes of angry customers were deluging the irresponsible cable network with refund demands, or so the broadcast news networks said.

“Show me hordes,” Herb Essen asked when interviewed on a nonbroadcast cable news network. “Where’s the federal investigation? If the federal government was investigating, don’t you think I’d know about it?”

The broadcast networks tried to save face. “There’s now evidence to prove what forces were at work to derail the federal fraud investigation against the cable network before it even started,” one commentator said, then winked at the camera.

“This I love,” Herb Essen said when interviewed again on cable news. He and the correspondent were watching a broadcast of the network anchor and chuckling. “Wink!” Essen laughed. He had the moment looping on his television. “Wink! Wink!”

Within twenty-four hours the new American catchphrase was “Wink! Wink!” Comedians, newspapers, all the late-night talk shows used “Wink! Wink!” It even appeared on the network of the commentator who made the original wink.

The ridiculed commentator wanted to sue ESN, but calmer marketing heads prevailed. They convinced the anchor and the entire news department to pretend the whole sorry thing had never happened—but it was months before “Wink! Wink!” fell out of the lexicon of John Q. Public.

Harold W. Smith had never been a TV watcher, but he knew the power of television. He knew the ridiculous reality-television trend and the love of sports were conning together in the Extreme Sports Network and creating a media giant with the power to command big ad dollars. And maybe, with the power to create an international crisis.

Chapter 6

The woman saw a beautiful soul among the obnoxious rabble—a man of great age and insight, steeped in the vast wisdom of the Orient and dressed in the beautiful, aura-enhancing colors of heaven.

The old Asian was so unlike the others who came here, such as the ugly retiree with the bad toupee and the facelift scars. “Hey, freaky ticket lady,” the wig wearer said. “Give me my tickets, would you?”