Nobel Winners to NBC: Reality Show Glorifies War

Nine Nobel Peace Prize laureates are standing up to ... NBC. The group claims one of the network's new reality shows glorifies violence. Stars Earn Stripes features such luminaries as Todd Palin, Nick Lachey, and Dean Cain going through military-style training with former Marines and Green Berets. Executive producer Mark Burnett insists the show promotes and honors the military, but the group of laureates protests in a letter to NBC: "It is our belief that this program pays homage to no one anywhere and continues and expands on an inglorious tradition of glorifying war and armed violence."

The signers, including former South Africa Archbishop Desmond Tutu, want NBC to cancel the show. This isn't the first bit of controversy either, the Wall Street Journal notes: Last week, Sharon Osbourne claimed NBC discriminated against her son, Jack, eliminating him from the show because of his recent multiple sclerosis diagnosis. NBC denied any discrimination, noting that all contestants had to be medically vetted (the show involves such stunts as jumping out of planes and firing guns) and that it offered Jack Osbourne alternative roles. (More Stars Earn Stripes stories.)