DKS
Radio Contest Winner Lies About Rape & Winds $10,000
Posted on: 10/06/2012 12:47
Story out of Toronto today where a woman lied about being raped, convinced two others that her story was legit and won $10,000 in a radio contest. Radio station sees no problem and justifies it as "entertainment". Do you?
The game, called Decision Impossible, involves taking three people, asking them why they deserve the money, then forcing them to decide amongst themselves who should win.
On Thursday morning, a woman named Kristyn convinced her two fellow contestants that she was the most deserving of the $10,000 prize by talking about her life with a former boyfriend, who she claimed had been verbally and physically abusive.
“He would beat me, he would rape me,” she said. “I felt helpless, I was trapped.”
But some were suspicious about the story’s authenticity, given she had previously said on air that she would do anything to win the money — “If I have to yell and scream, I’ll do that. If I have to lie, I’ll do that too,” she said.
Appearing on the morning show again Friday to face accusations she was lying, and revealed “the majority of the story” had been “exaggerated.”
“I was not raped,” she said, adding she had not been physically abused at all.
The game, he said, is part-social experiment, and is intended to be entertaining, emotional and fun to listen to — “even if it is a bit awkward.”
“We came up with the concept, but how it plays out is entirely in the hands of three strangers. They 100% decide the outcome. They’re not actors. They’ve never met.”
After the show aired, Weston responded to a tweet that suggested “money is the root of all evil” — to which he said it “also makes for an entertaining show!”
Asked to explain, Weston said he wasn’t saying that lying about rape was an entertainment.
“But money games (based on similar situations) are nothing new. They’ve been a part of entertainment and reality TV for a long time,” he wrote in an email.
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revjohn
Posted on: 10/06/2012 12:57
Hi DKS,
Story out of Toronto today where a woman lied about being raped, convinced two others that her story was legit and won $10,000 in a radio contest. Radio station sees no problem and justifies it as "entertainment". Do you?
Depravity, thy condition is Total.
I regret that I don't find this all that shocking. How many "faked" cases of cancer have there been in the past few years turning compassionate strangers into betrayed chumps? I fear it will become the new normal. That it is acceptable behaviour in "reality" contests suggests that it is only a matter of time.
Grace and peace to you.
John
DKS
Posted on: 10/06/2012 13:37
Depravity, thy condition is Total.
That about says it all. No moral compass, fed by the love of money.
MikePaterson
Posted on: 10/12/2012 14:13
I DO actually find in shocking, John.
I'm dsgusted that KISS 92.5 is still on air.
Maybe I am being Talibanesque about this, but the social endorsement (even acclaim) that this gives to lying, greed, vacuity and the utterly detached explotation of real-life violence and abuse makes me want to throw up.
It's not the shallow imbecilic lying of the woman who deceived the other that is what's worst. It's the construction of the "reality" situation in the first place. Okay, it may closely ressemble fairly normative business practice, but it is calculated to manipulate "players" towards their "dark" sides.
Many people look to the licensed professional media for leadership in the domain of public information. I've long ditched those naive sentiments… but to make a minor celebrity of a person who has tragically lost every worthwhile value, and to pay her for doing so, is far more despicable than her act of morbid deceit.
It passes odium on to her (and she may well have been victimised in other ways) and betrays the public as well as the participants in the name of "entertainment".
I think KISS 92.5 should have its licence revoked. To plead "social experiment" is simply fatuous nonsense… and a further good reason to shred its licence.
InannaWhimsey
Posted on: 10/12/2012 15:28
decision-making memories
balm against cynicism and brute force
the many different types of humour
naive realism think vice versa
one of my favourite radio plays "Temple of Vampires"
Mendalla
Posted on: 10/17/2012 19:05
Mike,
The story doesn't say if any listeners lodged complaints with the CBSC (Canadian Broadcast Standards Council). As far as I know, that has to happen for action to be taken against the station's license by the CRTC. They won't act simply on a media story.
Mendalla
MikePaterson
Posted on: 10/19/2012 09:19
You're right… I was on a bit of a rhetorical rush/ But it surprises me that no-one did complain. I guess that, post-Murdoch, no-one thinks media might have anything to gain from some slight ethical sense.