See here. A boutique had a contest: whoever wrote the best essay got airfare and tickets to a Hannah Montana concert. Little girl writes, at the urging of her mother, about how her father died in Iraq. Except he didn’t, of course.
Check out the video. The skank actually gets offended when a reporter calls her on this. I can’t wrap my mind around someone who would
Tell their six-year-old to lie
About their dad dying
In Iraq
For concert tickets
In support of a show that tries to be wholesome and promote family values and so forth
And then say that it was a matter of doing whatever it took to win.
I mean, the kid is six. Unless the mom flat-out wrote it for her, she had to tell the her, in all seriousness, “Say your dad died in Iraq.” “But he didn’t!” “Say it anyway.” That’s how she’s starting out in life. It’s really not that difficult to corrupt a child. And as a bonus, she’s shaken the credibility of every other kid who’s had a parent die overseas.
Taking a shot in the dark about anyone getting killed is bad. In Iraq is worse. For goddamned Hannah, MT tickets, the girl should be shot. . . or at least exposed to the threat an IED.
No, that map is not of Hannah, Montana. It’s of Hannah Mountain, a street in Clarksburg, NJ- not to be confused with Clarksville, which is where the last train leaves (speaking of wars and monkeying around.) I’m not sure where Hannah, Montana is, but I’m guessing it’s somewhere near Joe, Montana.
The Associated Press is now reporting that the tickets have been given to another entrant “to revive the intended spirit of the contest.” As for this kid’s mother, I wouldn’t be surprised if she believes Sharpay is the true hero of High School Musical.
Common sense tells me to step away from this thread, but somehow I can’t. I haven’t really followed the story nor do I really have an interest to, but here is my input.
First, Soldiers should take pride in what they do. They should do the job that they do because they want to be Soldiers. I will accept the extra tax free pay that I get for being placed in harms way because that is what Congress has decided that I am worth for taking that risk. Getting out of traffic tickets, getting free drinks, and the like I don’t know that I agree with. Using the death of a Soldier to get show tickets should be seen as bad taste.
Be that as it may, people have put crap in their mouths. No, real feeces to win a Toy Yoda. If the contestants were to write a story to win the tickets, then the best story won according to the judges, else there would be no issue.
Yes, the kid is learning bad values because of this, but someone is also placing this kind of value on Hannah Montana. Look at the people that are scalping the tickets and taking the ability of average parents to be able to take their kids to see the show.
Oh, it certainly could be seen as bad taste. But this was a lie about a solider dying.
As for your other contest mention, I know people probably have eaten crap to win stuff, but the “Toy Yoda” thing was a Hooters waitress who sold the most beer. She ended up suing and winning cash.
According to one article, the full text of the essay was “My daddy died this year in Iraq. I am going to give mommy the Angel pendant that daddy put on mommy when she was having me. I had it in my jewelry box since that day. I love my mommy.” I don’t really see why this was ticketworthy in the first place, anyway.
Sure, this is a classic RO thread, but as Sarge points out, what the fuck is wrong with parents that put such a premium on tickets to a fucking teenybop concert? Know what my parents would have told me if Hannah Montana was coming to town and tix weren’t available? “Sorry, kid. Tape the show on the radio.”
Will any of these kids with the $5000 tickets reflect on the show as one of the highlights of their childhood? I doubt it. Every kid who wanted to go who was simply told, “Sorry, kid, tickets are sold out…” would probably sulk, pout, and/or cry and get over it in a day or two.
The scumbag here appears to be the mother, who left this steaming pile of a comment for the press: “We did the essay and that’s what we did to win. We did whatever we could do to win.” The fuck?
Good for the boutique for yanking the tickets and giving it to another non-lying entrant. The six-year old is learning a tough lesson - her mom’s a dirtbag and honesty is the best policy. Geez, between the Myspace suicide mom and this, it’s been a banner year for parenting.
I understand the difference and I don’t want to get off on a hijack here, nor do I want to seem supportive of the woman who lied to try to get the tickets, but unless someone is to the verify the veracity of the others who entered, I believe that most of the entries were either exaggerations or outright lies. She won, she got caught, she lost the tickets.
My major concern is with the idea of people using the death of a Soldier, real or fanciful to get free shit or benefits.
I don’t see anything in the linked stories pointing to the contest rules, but AFAIK the term “essay” carries no connotation of factual or “historically accurate” writing. The kid wrote an essay with all the necessary heartstring-tugging bullshit to win.
More power to her.
I will certainly retract this if anyone can actually point to contest rules she broke.
Would it have been all right if she’d used the death of a Woman? Or perhaps maybe an Accountant? Is it ok to lie about a dead Farmer? How about a/an $capitalised-noun? Would that be reasonable?
Woman? Depends, who is the woman?
**Accountant? ** That would be way wrong as well as tax deductible, I am sure. Farmer? That would never be ok, unless it was Mr Greenjeans, as I understand he was not a real farmer. Capitalized noun? Now you are just being silly. Nouns have never had the right to life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness.
Boyo Jim, I was going to say that I disagree with you about the connotation of essay. Then I remembered Dave Barry.
I will still say that I tend to think of essays as coming in one of two general categories: opinion pieces, or short, factual pieces. I know that satire has a long history in the English language, though, and I can’t really think of things like A Modest Proposal, or Dave Barry’s column as anything but examples of essays, really. And wouldn’t much care to defend the accuracy of either.
Having said that, while I can see your point, if the private boutique never explicitly stated their judging standards, and simply left it as something along the lines of “best as chosen by our judge(s)” ISTM that their judges are free to claim that fabrications are verboten. I certainly wouldn’t assume that fictional “essays” were what they were looking for, myself, unless they specifically said so in the rules.
What I wonder, now is whether the mother involved is now going to sue the boutique. Given our division on what we might expect from an essay, I suspect she could win a suit.
This might be something approaching a valid point, if, when asked about the details of the story, the mother said “Oh, that was fictional.” She didn’t, though. She gave a name, rank, and a date and cause of death.
It wasn’t until she was confronted with proof of her lies that she admitted to being full of shit.
If this was a serious post, it is most beautiful example of both unfamiliarity with popular culture, and of not reading the linked story, ever.
There is a rule that says “Don’t lie.” Granted, not everyone believes in it. But fine print shouldn’t have to say “Don’t build your contest essay around your dad dying in Iraq if it didn’t happen.” The mom said it herself: it was the most powerful statement she could have made, and the essay won. And it’s an insult to every kid who has lost a parent overseas. Concert tickets would be nice, but probably not uppermost in their thoughts.
And yes, the scalping that was taking place beforehand was disgusting. Look, HM is an okay show. The concert probably is a blast for a kid in that demographic. And in all fairness, Hippy Hollow, it probably was a fairly high point for the kids who did go. I saw a few Broadway shows when I was that age, and I cherish those memories. HM may or may not stand the test of time, but I wouldn’t scoff at a kid for wanting to go now, while it means so much to her. And I’m sure there were plenty of parents who would have paid for tickets they could afford. It’s just that it should be a matter of “HM tickets or that new jacket you want,” not “HM tickets or braces.”
I’m just not sure how the scalping got started. Were Beatles '64 tickets scalped? And if so, by what percentage was the price inflated? I wonder how high Beatlemaniacs would have gone. But that’s maybe not the best example, because Beatlemania was on the cusp between the conspicuous-cosumption '50s and early '60s and the defiantly non-consumerist late '60s and early '70s. Now, though, we’re at the height of another consumerist wave, and entitlement has been added to that. So did anticipation of the tour inspire scalpers, or did the first scalpers take a chance and find that demand far exceeded their expectations?
I mean, it’s not just this woman. There are other people who have lied about Iraq or 9/11 for their own gain, or just attention. There are other examples of reflexive hysteria over the latest latest, and in fact, one woman is dead because of it. It’s mostly noteworthy because this is the only incident I’ve heard of that combined the two.
ETA: neutron star, how exactly did she get busted?
