#402649 - Sun Dec 30 2007 02:43 AM
Fake essay
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Multiloquent
Registered: Wed Apr 11 2001
Posts: 4224
Loc: Texas USA
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Not sure if this should go in Current Events, Music or Not The Nine O'Clock News. I just finished reading an article here about a girl who wrote a fake essay to win tickets to Hannah Montana. Not just show tickets, but airline tickets to get there. Her essay stated that her father was killed in Iraq. When it was discovered no such person died there, the mother actually admitted that she did whatever she had to do to get the tickets. Now the company that sponsored the give-away is "thinking about" taking the tickets back. I can't believe that any show tickets, for anyone, is worth lying, conniving or cheating for. And besides, with the mother's admission, it sounds like she is the one that probably wrote the essay. And what kind of example is this mother setting for her six year old daughter? I'm (almost) speechless! What is your take on this?
_________________________
If you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying. It's the worry that gets you, not the lack of sleep.
-Dale Carnegie
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#402650 - Sun Dec 30 2007 03:20 AM
Re: Fake essay
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Moderator
Registered: Thu Sep 30 1999
Posts: 12593
Loc: Kowloon Tong Hong Kong
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I don't know. Did the rules state that the essay should be based on truth? An essay can, after all, be based on imaginary events and characters and written in the first person.
_________________________
Wandering aimlessly through FT since 1999.
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#402651 - Sun Dec 30 2007 04:18 AM
Re: Fake essay
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Multiloquent
Registered: Wed Apr 11 2001
Posts: 4224
Loc: Texas USA
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Well, you could be right ren. The article doesn't state the rules of the contest, so I suppose it is possible it could have been written as fiction. However, the way the response is made from the company awarding the prize leads me to believe it should have been truthful.
Additionally from the article: "The mother had told company officials that the girl's father died April 17 in a roadside bombing in Iraq, company spokeswoman Robyn Caulfield said." Why would the mother tell the company the father died? Since that is the spoken word, not written word, that isn't fiction in my book, that's lying, no matter what the rules are of the contest.
_________________________
If you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying. It's the worry that gets you, not the lack of sleep.
-Dale Carnegie
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#402652 - Sun Dec 30 2007 06:27 AM
Re: Fake essay
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Administrator
Registered: Sun Dec 19 1999
Posts: 38004
Loc: Jersey
Channel Islands
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Hang on a minute here, is this child some sort of prodigy? Six years old and writing essays? I thought my children were fairly advanced at that age but I don't recall them writing essays, a few sentences would have been about the limit.
_________________________
Many a child has been spoiled because you can't spank a Grandma!
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#402653 - Sun Dec 30 2007 06:44 AM
Re: Fake essay
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Moderator
Registered: Thu Sep 30 1999
Posts: 12593
Loc: Kowloon Tong Hong Kong
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Yes, you are right Sue, and it would be called a composition, or a story or a narrative probably. Essay is a bit Secondary Schoolish
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Wandering aimlessly through FT since 1999.
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#402654 - Sun Dec 30 2007 09:06 AM
Re: Fake essay
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Forum Champion
Registered: Tue Apr 17 2007
Posts: 5097
Loc: Ohio USA
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I can't put into words how offensive and crass that is. How do the families and children of those who have lost someone in that war feel reading about this? Can you imagine being a child who's lost a parent and you find out another would actually lie about such a horrid thing to get tickets to a concert?! This just disgusts me. Sandy
_________________________
The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof.-- Richard Bach [i]Illusions
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#402655 - Sun Dec 30 2007 09:44 AM
Re: Fake essay
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Moderator
Registered: Thu Sep 30 1999
Posts: 12593
Loc: Kowloon Tong Hong Kong
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You are right, Sandy. To lie about a thing like that beats understanding. I was really trying to find an excuse . There isn't one.
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Wandering aimlessly through FT since 1999.
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#402656 - Sun Dec 30 2007 03:59 PM
Re: Fake essay
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Prolific
Registered: Tue Jun 19 2007
Posts: 1309
Loc: Dijon France via S Wales UK
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There is simply no excuse for this - it is disrespectful, insulting, and down right GREEDY. To use such an emotive issue to gain sympathy and reward is ,,,,,,,,, I am lost for words now ,,,,,,,,
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Quiz author - Crossword author - Proud leader of 'Torrential Reign' - Terry Fords biggest fan - and part-time nice bloke 
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#402657 - Mon Dec 31 2007 08:11 AM
Re: Fake essay
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Pure Diamond
Registered: Fri May 18 2001
Posts: 123698
Loc: Canton
Ohio USA
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The ultimate conclusion that I'm pretty much expecting to see happen on this will come from the "Hannah Montana" camp itself (not the sloppy promoters or soulless parents/contestants). I know nothing about the TV program, but I have read and seen a good bit about the young woman who stars in the series (Miley Cyrus). This is one grounded, sensible AND socially responsible young woman and I'm sure that she (and her 'camp') will have NO business with this sort of squirmy nonsense at all. Much as I still want to jump into the nearest (deep) body of water every time I hear Billy Ray Cyrus sing "Achy Breaky Heart", I must say he and his wife have raised their daughter very well, by the looks of it, and also seem to look out for her best interests at all times (they actually treat her like a teenager who needs boundaries while at the same time cultivating her status as millionaire/role model, too). Unlike a lot of these entitled young celebs in America, this group seems commendable on many levels. I feel safe in predicting that this "contest winner" won't be going to this concert. Or if she does attend, the Cyruses will make their disgust as to how she managed to get there very public. Loudly.
_________________________
"The best teacher is not the one who knows most but the one who is most capable of reducing knowledge to that simple compound of the obvious and wonderful." ... H. L. Mencken
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#402658 - Mon Dec 31 2007 11:46 AM
Re: Fake essay
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Champion Poster
Registered: Sun Oct 05 2003
Posts: 24575
Loc: near Stafford, Virginia USA
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Quote:
The ultimate conclusion that I'm pretty much expecting to see happen on this will come from the "Hannah Montana" camp itself (not the sloppy promoters or soulless parents/contestants). I know nothing about the TV program, but I have read and seen a good bit about the young woman who stars in the series (Miley Cyrus). This is one grounded, sensible AND socially responsible young woman and I'm sure that she (and her 'camp') will have NO business with this sort of squirmy nonsense at all. Much as I still want to jump into the nearest (deep) body of water every time I hear Billy Ray Cyrus sing "Achy Breaky Heart", I must say he and his wife have raised their daughter very well, by the looks of it, and also seem to look out for her best interests at all times (they actually treat her like a teenager who needs boundaries while at the same time cultivating her status as millionaire/role model, too). Unlike a lot of these entitled young celebs in America, this group seems commendable on many levels. I feel safe in predicting that this "contest winner" won't be going to this concert. Or if she does attend, the Cyruses will make their disgust as to how she managed to get there very public. Loudly.
I echo your sentiments, Gats. I know nothing about the series either, but know when she performed here in Dallas recently, people were waiting up to five days for tickets. Nothing was asked to write a composition/essay to get tickets. A couple of radio stations did have a contest to win tickets if you were the XXth caller and all.
Ren, I'm in agreement that grades 6/7+ (or middle/jr. high school in the USA) call a paper an essay, and I can't see any six year old (not even Mozart - who did write a symphony at five) write an essay of this caliber. How many six year olds can even say "roadside bombing"...or know what it is? My niece is three, and she is extremely smart, but to get her to write a sentence...not yet; she's just too young.
I hope the "Hannah Montana" production crew do NOT allow this said person to attend, as it will make others not want to go, and popularity will dwindle to oblivion. Miley may be 15, but she acts as a very mature 15 year old.
_________________________
The way to get things done is NOT to mind who gets the credit for doing them. --Benjamin Jowett
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. --Eleanor Roosevelt
The day we lose our will to fight is the day we lose our freedom.
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#402660 - Mon Dec 31 2007 12:10 PM
Re: Fake essay
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Multiloquent
Registered: Wed Apr 11 2001
Posts: 4224
Loc: Texas USA
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I'm glad they took the tickets, but do feel sad for the 6 year old. She is probably the innocent in all this. At least I would like to hope so. Her mother sounds like just the type of person they need to apply to appear on Survivor! Having said that, I found this follow up article. (there are two pages) It seems that the mother told the company doing the give away that the store wasn't true, but only after someone with ABC News did the research only to find there was no such person that ever served in Iraq. So it seems she told the truth only after confronted with the lie. I'm now waiting to see news that she is suing for distress or some such thing! Wouldn't be surprised.
Edited by Jar (Mon Dec 31 2007 12:17 PM)
_________________________
If you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying. It's the worry that gets you, not the lack of sleep.
-Dale Carnegie
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#402661 - Mon Dec 31 2007 02:27 PM
Re: Fake essay
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Forum Champion
Registered: Tue Apr 17 2007
Posts: 5097
Loc: Ohio USA
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"I'm now waiting to see news that she is suing for distress or some such thing! Wouldn't be surprised." Isn't that the thruth, Jar! You forgot to include that it will also, undoubtedly, "have deep psychological implications in her daughter's life for many years to come and robbed her of her inncocence" included in the suit. I agree with Gat's assessment of Miley. Everything I have seen or read about her does indicate she is a well adjusted adolescent and has lived with good family values. Far more mature than the "parent"  involved with the fake essay! Sandy
_________________________
The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof.-- Richard Bach [i]Illusions
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#402662 - Mon Dec 31 2007 03:57 PM
Re: Fake essay
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Moderator
Registered: Wed Mar 15 2000
Posts: 16214
Loc: The Delta Quadrant
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The problem seems to be compounded because many times, parents can't get tickets to these shows because they are all snatched up by scalpers. Hence you see 'contests' for fathers to wear dresses and high heels then run a little foot race, the winner getting tickets to see the show.
It seems if they fixed the ticket scalper problem, this wouldn't happen so often and we wouldn't have people sinking to such depths to get tickets for their children. (Although in my opinion, a good parent would just say 'well, we can't get tickets. Disappointment is part of life' and use it as a life lesson.)
_________________________
"Without the darkness, how would we see the light?" ~ Tuvok
Editor for Television Category
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#402666 - Thu Jan 03 2008 01:25 PM
Re: Fake essay
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Forum Champion
Registered: Tue Apr 17 2007
Posts: 5097
Loc: Ohio USA
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daboosh,
For someone who has been on this site for 8 days, you've got a lot of guns blazing for all of us. You made it quite clear to all on the Chat Boards, under 'Political Correctness', as to how you feel that "it is all about whites and their political correctness used as an excuse to call names and slur other races". After reading the above post of yours, I am convinced that you really do have some serious issues. I don't know how you could even promote such a thing, even in a jesting manner, which I am sure it wasn't. Yes, let's all watch the embarrassment of a child. That would gain great ratings in YOUR world. Sandy
_________________________
The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof.-- Richard Bach [i]Illusions
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#402668 - Fri Jan 04 2008 06:55 AM
Re: Fake essay
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Explorer
Registered: Thu Jan 03 2008
Posts: 73
Loc: Bloomfield New Jersey USA
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Quote:
daboosh,
For someone who has been on this site for 8 days, you've got a lot of guns blazing for all of us.
How do you figure? I call things as I see it and just as is par for the course with white folks over the age of 35, nothing, absolutely nothing, has to do with race in America these days. I don't have 'guns blazing' for anyone. I just think using freedom of speech as justification for slinging insults, stereotypes, and racial epithets is not only morally repugnant but invokes a strong gag reflex.
Quote:
You made it quite clear to all on the Chat Boards, under 'Political Correctness', as to how you feel that "it is all about whites and their political correctness used as an excuse to call names and slur other races".
1) I never posted under any 'Political Correctness' topic or title. So I'm not entirely sure where you're getting that from.
2) I'm white so I really don't understand your statement.
Quote:
After reading the above post of yours, I am convinced that you really do have some serious issues. I don't know how you could even promote such a thing, even in a jesting manner, which I am sure it wasn't. Yes, let's all watch the embarrassment of a child. That would gain great ratings in YOUR world. Sandy
Yeah, because that's the mark of an intelligent person: summing up someone else based on a throwaway post about Hannah Montana tickets. Kudos to you Sandy on your well evolved method of judging people. I think if more people in this world passed judgement on everyone else based off of a few sentences, this world would be a MUCH better place to live! [/sarcasm off
Give me a break. It was an exaggerated comment on Hannah Montana meant to express:
1) Just how absurd the lengths are that parents are willing to go to cater to their little cult objects (children).
2) How absolutely meaningless Hannah Montana is in the grand scheme of things.
3) How out of whack Americans priorities are when parents spend more time cheating children out of Hannah Montana tickets when there are FAR more important matters in this country and this world.
Edited by daboosh (Fri Jan 04 2008 06:56 AM)
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#402673 - Fri Jan 04 2008 09:33 AM
Re: Fake essay
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Administrator
Registered: Sun Dec 19 1999
Posts: 38004
Loc: Jersey
Channel Islands
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Please don't get personal, please keep the posts in these forums friendly.
_________________________
Many a child has been spoiled because you can't spank a Grandma!
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