NIK WALLENDA

Along with I don’t know how many other people, I have just watched Nik Wallenda walk across a 1,400 foot deep gorge near the Grand Canyon.  I am not surprised at the fellow’s derring-do; some people need this sort of stimulation.  What I am really astonished about is that a network agreed to broadcast this event live as he walked with no more safety gear than his balance pole.  What in thunder would the perky announcing team have done had the worst come to pass?  I am told that people watch NASCAR races to see the crashes, and those are televised live as well, but this was different.  When Nik walked across the Niagara Falls gorge, ABC insisted he wear a safety harness, not wanting the responsibility of broadcasting his death on live television, so I wonder how he talked the Discovery Channel into letting him go across the “Wallenda Way”?  I did notice that the event was staged on the Navaho Nation, perhaps to avoid oversight by Federal and state authorities.