Monday, January 22, 2007

Radio, Video Games, Pop Culture, and Civility

Radio sucks. They play a lot of crappy songs over and over again, the DJs are about the most irritating people on the planet, and it seems every show is nationally syndicated anyway so you aren't getting local flavor.

But at least, most of the time, radio doesn't kill you.

When Strange died Jan. 12 of water intoxication after a morning radio stunt on Sacramento station KDND went wrong, it sent a jolt through the industry. And this may not get resolved with a radio network issuing an apology and offering cash to make everything go away.

"There isn't going to be a settlement," says Roger Dreyer, the Sacramento attorney who is handling a wrongful death lawsuit for Strange's husband and three children. "There's going to be a venting in a public forum. That's what we want, and that's what the family wants."

One must assume, however, that it is not what the large corporations that own most of the radio stations in this country want. The water-drinking stunt isn't out of the ordinary. In fact, local station KSAN 107.7 has done it more than once -- although with supervision and planning.


By the way, she died over a Wii. Now, I know a lot of you are big video game fans and really want to get your hands on a Wii. But let's try not to literally kill ourselves trying to get one. No video game is that cool.

Dreyer, the attorney, is going all out. He's not just taking on the radio station, but our culture and its loss of civiliy.

"This gives us a forum to affect change on a national level," he says. "To really do something about this garbage."


Does our culture need this kick in the pants? Maybe we do live in a crude culture of Girls Gone Wild, Fear Factor, and Howard Stern. But when was this mythical time when our culture wasn't somehow flawed? People point to the 1950s as a time of civility, and while Ricky and Lucy were sleeping in separate beds on TV, the KKK was lynching people based on the color of their skin. If I have to choose between a little bit of crudeness in pop culture in order to gain civil rights for minorities and equal pay for women, that's a pretty small price to pay.

Is it garbage? Sure. I find the mean-spiritedness of a lot of our pop culture to be almost unbearable. But I don't kid myself there was some golden age of civility. And we do live in an era of almost unprecedented equality and tolerance. Which isn't perfect, but at least we're trying.

What I'm saying is, at the end of the day, I wouldn't trade our culture for anything. But I still think they should sue that radio station. Because any program named "The Morning Zoo" is obviously evil.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The contest was called, "Hold your Wee for a Wii." Does anyone else find this a bit funny?

Note: I regret that someone had to die to bring you this childish (yet funny) radio contest name. My thoughts go out to Mrs. Strange and her family.

Love,
Matt

jugraham said...

Yea, I heard about this from several folks. Reminder: we are having a discussion about a woman who voluntarily acted like an idiot and it took her life. While this seems so tragic, 24 Americans died yesterday in Iraq, and not one person has mentioned that.

I understand the arguments that this is just one of the annoyances necessitated by a progressing society, but what do you think those who died to protect this country would say...

"Hey, a woman died the other day to win a radio contest, but at least she had her freedoms to protect her ability to choose to be an idiot. Thank goodness there is enough public outrage to assure a lawsuit. Man, that getting shot at in (pick your conflict) was truely worth it."

I am not saying that, historically, people did not act like fools, but back then there was no outpouring of public sympathy. It used to be called getting what you deserve.

OsoDelSol said...

The man I am marrying is deinitely willing to die for a Wii. I recuse myself from the case.

Praise the Highlander said...

Echoing Graham here.

Did anyone force this person to do anything? No

The radio guys are idiots, but as my old friend Obi-Wan Kenobi said, "who is more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows him?"

People do foolish things that lead to bad results sometimes. Mrs. Strange (irony here is amazing) made a bad choice, that had even worse consequences for her. Is it sad? Yes. Is anyone else to blame but her, no.

As to Baker's overarching discussion of the glory years, etc. I largely agree. Yesteryear had its pluses, but its minuses too. Or so I imagine, as I was not alive in what I have referred to as "yesteryear."

Poseur said...

I'm just saying, if we're talking about the "culture of mean-spiritedness", I believe the more mean-spirited culture is the one that involved lynching people.

Contributory negligence is going to be a bear to overocme in this case. For the fairly obvious reasons.

Anonymous said...

Could recklessness, or conscious indifference, affect the liability calculus?

I recently heard there is audio of a caller informing the DJ that people have died from these kinds of things before. The DJ’s laughing response was apparently that it was okay if someone died because liability releases and waivers were signed (and that DJ thought a person would throw up before dying).

Oops! I guess his medical opinion was wrong on that one. What about his legal opinion?

Either way, according to what I was listening to, the DJ was promptly fired.

So, how bout it, Tort scholars? Hit me with the liability calculus.

And, Trial Lawyers, would you settle this case, or take the audio tapes to the jury?

Anonymous said...

I have, interestingly enough, sat through an entire aggravated assault trial where the defendant forced the victim to drink water. My case was a hazing case (http://www.sigmapi.org/spNewsArticle.cfm?articleID=353), but the intent argument was very interesting. I would say the family has a strong case, particularly since someone warned them.

There was a civil trial to go w/ that case too, but I don't know if it's gone, settled or what at this point.

As for those w/ the "maybe she deserved it because she was stupid" argument. That's pretty callous. We all make mistakes and poor decisions. I think drinking too much water w/out the knowledge of the harm it could cause is one of the least of these. As for the Wii, it's just a hunch, but I'd imagine she probably was trying to get one for her kid because they couldn't afford one or something -- Moms sometimes go a little far for their children. Nevertheless, I get that it was stupid, and I get the point of wanting Amercians killed in Iraq recognized before this woman so I'm not trying to argue w/ that.