Peopel are also missing the obvious point. All accounts say that the idiot DJ sid "You can win one hundred grand."
NO ONE....Not one single person on the face of the plant would say you can win...followed by the name of a candy bar, without the word "a" or "an". You would not say "You can win Hershey Bar." or "You can win Three Musketeer Bar."
This station will settle. Keep in mind they are probably Clear Channel. So they have plenty of money. They will settle for $150,000 so the woman gets $100,000 aftter the lawyer's 33% cut. Better to do that than face punitive damamges that could be three times as much.
One does not need to have malicious intent to be guilty of fraud. You need to bone up on your interpretation of fraud. Reading an online dictionary's definition is not enough. It is just to give the victim what they lost. It is to force TRUTH IN ADVERTISING. They advertised $100,000. Considering everything that happened in 2004, a station doing this is REALLY stupid. They will not only lose the case for AT LEAST $100,000, but they will probably be fined. And that DJ will be hard pressed to get a job in the REAL industry ever again. He will be an internet DJ from now on.
And the Britney Spears station lost their case. Becuase they put the woman in the dangerous situation through their lies. Again, malicious intent is not an issue at all. They were not charged with pre-meditated murder. But they WERE deemed to be responsible for her death, because without their deception, the woman would have been alive. Plain and simple. It was an open and shut case than never made it to trial. Clear Channel settled for a LOT of money. (Gee...why didn't they listen to you. You seem to know that the station wasn't responsible. I can't believe their lawyers thought they knew more than YOU!)
As for you "can you prove you were a chump to believe them" well, I don't take you seriously anymore. If you heard a radio contest saying that they were giving away 100 Grand, you would have thought it was legit. If you say otherwise, then you are a liar. No doubt about that. It is very easy to say after the fact that you would have known. But the only people who actually do that are those that have no confidence in their ACTUAL ability to so try to build themselves up as smarter than they are.
I have to laugh at all the hypocrites calling this woman stupid or gullible. If you heard a radio station say that they had a contest to win 100 Grand, 95 out of 100 of you would have thought the same thing. That it was for $100,000. (The post that says that it would have been on the news makes no sense. Radio stations DO give away huge sums of money all the time. And the news does not mention it. You see, TV stations don't generally want to promote radio stations. Call them crazy, but promoting the competition generally isn't done.)
Also..Radio is a PUBLIC TRUST. As such, listeners are SUPPOSED to be able to expect honestly unless the program is obviously and clearly labeled FICTION. (The station the originally broadcast War of the Worlds was fined, despite having disclaimers that it ws a fictional story, because they didn't do it enough.)
And why should the station be punished? Here is why. 5 years ago, a radio station in Endicott, NY claimed to have someone that sure looked like Britney Spears in their studio, and then played sound clips to imply that it was her and she was there. The DJ told listeners that she would be outside the studio at a certain time.
In the ensuing stampede that happened, a mother of 3 kids was killed. And it was a Britney Spears impersonator. Clear Channel got sued, and lost. Big time.
The bottom line is, I have never heard a silly prank like this that was actually in the least bit humorous. And, to answer somoene's question above, yes, it IS fraud. Because their lie caused people to listen to their radio station longer than they may have otherwise. Hence, they "stole" ratings from other stations. In fact, technically speaking, this staion could be the subject of a class action suit. People's time is worth money.
Peopel are also missing the obvious point. All accounts say that the idiot DJ sid "You can win one hundred grand." NO ONE....Not one single person on the face of the plant would say you can win...followed by the name of a candy bar, without the word "a" or "an". You would not say "You can win Hershey Bar." or "You can win Three Musketeer Bar." This station will settle. Keep in mind they are probably Clear Channel. So they have plenty of money. They will settle for $150,000 so the woman gets $100,000 aftter the lawyer's 33% cut. Better to do that than face punitive damamges that could be three times as much.
posted by jkfan87 19 years ago
One does not need to have malicious intent to be guilty of fraud. You need to bone up on your interpretation of fraud. Reading an online dictionary's definition is not enough. It is just to give the victim what they lost. It is to force TRUTH IN ADVERTISING. They advertised $100,000. Considering everything that happened in 2004, a station doing this is REALLY stupid. They will not only lose the case for AT LEAST $100,000, but they will probably be fined. And that DJ will be hard pressed to get a job in the REAL industry ever again. He will be an internet DJ from now on. And the Britney Spears station lost their case. Becuase they put the woman in the dangerous situation through their lies. Again, malicious intent is not an issue at all. They were not charged with pre-meditated murder. But they WERE deemed to be responsible for her death, because without their deception, the woman would have been alive. Plain and simple. It was an open and shut case than never made it to trial. Clear Channel settled for a LOT of money. (Gee...why didn't they listen to you. You seem to know that the station wasn't responsible. I can't believe their lawyers thought they knew more than YOU!) As for you "can you prove you were a chump to believe them" well, I don't take you seriously anymore. If you heard a radio contest saying that they were giving away 100 Grand, you would have thought it was legit. If you say otherwise, then you are a liar. No doubt about that. It is very easy to say after the fact that you would have known. But the only people who actually do that are those that have no confidence in their ACTUAL ability to so try to build themselves up as smarter than they are.
posted by jkfan87 19 years ago
I have to laugh at all the hypocrites calling this woman stupid or gullible. If you heard a radio station say that they had a contest to win 100 Grand, 95 out of 100 of you would have thought the same thing. That it was for $100,000. (The post that says that it would have been on the news makes no sense. Radio stations DO give away huge sums of money all the time. And the news does not mention it. You see, TV stations don't generally want to promote radio stations. Call them crazy, but promoting the competition generally isn't done.) Also..Radio is a PUBLIC TRUST. As such, listeners are SUPPOSED to be able to expect honestly unless the program is obviously and clearly labeled FICTION. (The station the originally broadcast War of the Worlds was fined, despite having disclaimers that it ws a fictional story, because they didn't do it enough.) And why should the station be punished? Here is why. 5 years ago, a radio station in Endicott, NY claimed to have someone that sure looked like Britney Spears in their studio, and then played sound clips to imply that it was her and she was there. The DJ told listeners that she would be outside the studio at a certain time. In the ensuing stampede that happened, a mother of 3 kids was killed. And it was a Britney Spears impersonator. Clear Channel got sued, and lost. Big time. The bottom line is, I have never heard a silly prank like this that was actually in the least bit humorous. And, to answer somoene's question above, yes, it IS fraud. Because their lie caused people to listen to their radio station longer than they may have otherwise. Hence, they "stole" ratings from other stations. In fact, technically speaking, this staion could be the subject of a class action suit. People's time is worth money.
posted by jkfan87 19 years ago
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