You have to wonder just who at CBS thought that Kid Nation would be a good idea. To recap: 40 children between the ages of 8 and 15 were left to their own devices at New Mexico's Bonanza Creek Movie Ranch for a month to build a viable "kid nation." Although cameramen, producers, a medic and a child psychologist were on site, all were under orderers to interact with the children as litle as possible. Now it turns out that the show's treatment may have included abusive acts to minors and possible violations of child labor laws. At the very least, some of the child contestants accidentally drank bleach from an unmarked bottle. Whoops.

Nikki Finke deconstructed the whole Kid Nation backstory and is raising some troubling questions about Les Moonves' behavior:

While some board members were led to expect a serious internal investigation by CBS, I can only characterize what Moonves has done to look into this matter as perfunctory at best. "He's spoken to the executive in charge of the show. He's spoken to the people involved with the show. He's seen the show," a CBS source described to me Moonves' only actions so far. "And if anything further comes up" he'll involve himself.

A good read and we even found out that the New Mexico Department of Labor's PR rep is named Carlos Castaneda. Recommended.