TV Reviews : CNN’s 4-Part ‘The People Bomb’ Takes Aim at Overpopulation

“The People Bomb,” airing at 6 p.m. Sunday on CNN, is more polemic than documentary. After viewing the first two segments of this four-part series, one wonders if “Bomb” wasn’t done to placate the boss’ new wife--it clearly seems like the Fonda-ization of the all-news channel.

Consider the first episode of this look at “the consequences of overpopulation”: One segment compares the lifestyle of a small, middle-class American family with a large Nepalese family eking out a living. The American family of four is the real population bomb, according to the program, because of their impact on the world. A show about overpopulation suddenly becomes an attack on rich nations for brutalizing the environment, for “strip-mining” the world. Of course, the Nepalese family of eight is blameless--after all, you can’t be accused of trashing the world when you can barely get by.

Not convinced? Consider the segment on India, where we learn that if women were empowered they would instantly stop the country’s population explosion. Reason: Indian women are in “bondage,” forced to bear children to meet the demand for boy babies. Get rid of this “son mania” and everything would be fixed--just like that. Forget religious and cultural norms built up over thousands of years--all would melt in the face of feminist rationality.

These and other segments are given superficial treatment. Worse, the link to overpopulation is assumed, not demonstrated. Did anyone think to examine whether shortsighted government policies may have a more immediate causal effect on the problems?

Additional half-hour installments will air May 10, May 17 and May 24, and excerpts will be shown in some CNN newscasts.