Commentary: Could Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy's new travel show be making travel less safe?

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Set us as preferred This is a tale of two documentaries.One is a lightweight reality series that follows a family’s trek across the United States.The other is a powerful exposé on the safety breaches that have caused deadly crashes and accidents on Boeing airplanes.The two August releases, one on Netflix and the other on YouTube, appear to have nothing in common.

But they are unintentionally linked by their stars and sponsors.“Great American Road Trip” follows Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and his family as they celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary by trekking across the country with cameras in tow.It’s Duffy’s return to reality TV after his introduction to fame in the ‘90s on MTV’s “The Real World: Boston.” But there’s more to this show than stopping in diners to eat with real folk or Duffy warning his daughter about the liberal dangers of attending a college such as Harvard: “They have professionalized how [to] take good young girls like you and corrupt their minds,” he says.The show’s corporate sponsors are companies that the Department of Transportation oversees, and Boeing is one such sponsor.Lawmakers, including Sen.

Patty Murray (D-Wash.), questioned Duffy during hearings and requested formal investigations into whether these corporate sponsors expected preferential access or regulatory influence.Duffy has denied wrongdoing.

Watchdog organizations like the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed complaints with the Department of Transportation inspector general, alleging potential violations of federal gift and travel rules, product endorsements, and misuse of an official position.But why should We the People care about a vapid reality show when there are other pressing issues screaming for our attention, like the mysterious origins of tariff-free ground...