The $64,000 Question Scandal - Essay Example

The show owners of the $64000 began to dictate the outcome. They started by telling the participants how to behave and act while taking their challenges. They told them to choose topics that they were well versed with and at times provided answers to the questions. They choose one who was to be on the lead and the questions they were to get right or deliberately wrong themselves.

In 1957 the producers set to put a new figure into the limelight of the show. In this case, they had to fail the current top contestant Herb Stempel by asking to deliberately get a question that he knew the answer wrong, in order to disqualify him. They wanted to bring in the new top contestant Charles Van Doren. Doren was considered to be more handsome and young. He was also a bit famous because he was the son of a famous political family known in the academic circles. In this light, how would bring more vigor and drama to the show, hence maintaining its popularity? Many people in the studio thought that he was not going to accept but when the time came, he “took the dive”. Although he was against the decision, he never wanted to go against the studio, he did it with goodwill.

Kantian Ethical principles state that the only thing that is intrinsically good is “goodwill”. This principle owes its existence to Enlightenment rationalism from where it was coined. It is there possible to judge the actions of both Herb Stempel and Charles Van Doren based on the above theory.

One thing that is clear is that Stempel was not willing to lie on a question that he very well knew the correct answer. However, since he was a sacrificial lamb he had no option but to play along and cheat in order to put Doren in the top position. He did in goodwill so as to ensure the success of the studio and the famous program.

However, it was not right of Doren to take his brother's position as the top contestant, knowing that he rightfully earned it. Despite this, he had to accept the chance since he was going to be on top of the game and all the focus was to turn to him. This would make him famous and successful. He acted in goodwill for the studio, but not to his brother. Between these changes, the two contestants ended up avoiding a known evil of elimination of contestants unrightfully and committed a known evil, which was the fraudulent nature of the show.