Wii Contest Fatality Update
Earlier this week I and many other gaming news websites reported on a story about a women in California who died from suspected “water intoxication” while participating in the “Hold you wee for a Wii” contest well according to a post I found on Kotaku 10 employees of radio station 107.9 “The End” have been let go by the station. Kotaku commenters have already weighed in on the news of the dismissals and the reaction is mixed. Some readers feel that it was a dumb idea for a contest and they should get fired. Others feel it is unfair to terminate employees when the women’s official CoD (Cause of Death) is still under investigation. What do you think? Is 107.9’s reaction 100% right? Should the employees be blamed for the women’s untimely death? Or is 107.9 a little premature in their actions. I throw this one into the court of public opinion.
Everyone is also entitled to my opinion.
I find it hard to believe that 10 people were responsible for this contest but apparently the entire morning show has been canceled and it was that staff that was let go. My guess is that the move by 107.9 to terminate the employees was due to pressure from advertisers or possibly Nintendo themselves. Can you blame the family friendly Nintendo from wanting to be associated with such a tragedy. Although ill advised I doubt that anyone on the “Morning Rave” crew could have foreseen the contest taking such a terrible turn. There is also increasing pressure on the District Attourney and Sheriff’s office to persue a criminal investigation.
but no decision on that has been made…….yet.
After all is said and done I really hope that Nintendo or 107.9 The End at least gives the family of the woman a Wii and some games. It’s noway to replace a life but it couldn’t hurt.
Source: Kotaku
January 17th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
When a radio station kills a listener everyone involved should be fired.
January 17th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
No, if someone doesn’t know when to quite at a game show, to the point where they DIE. That’s just natural section. She’s obviously not bright enough in the first place, so DIED because she didn’t want to stop. That’s not Nintendo or the radio station’s fault. What kind of person sits there and dies of drinking to much water and doesn’t urinate just for a Wii. I repeat, Natural Selection!
January 17th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
Ouch! Paul are you going to take that???
January 18th, 2007 at 9:33 am
The truth is to be safe all the contestants should have signed a release so they would not have been liable for anything. As I have stated before the woman did not use her head she was trying to win it so bad for her son now the son does not have a wii or a mom. What is more important?
January 18th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
People are stupid. I don’t think that all 10 people were 100% at fault. I don’t think the women was either…it’s a collection of everybody. And i mean, hey, the listeners too! Why didn’t someone with an MD call in and say “Look, this is dangerous!”
Everyone can point fingers, but we are all to blame.
January 18th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
Good point about the Doctor Allison
January 18th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
I am honestly shocked that they decided to do a contest like this one. The idea probuble seemed good, but you would think that after looking into it you would back out. Or did they not even consider the possibility of injury and death. If that is the case then yes they deffinantly deserve to be fired. There is a leavel of responsibility that they should take for not informing themselves or the contestents properly. Careless behavior can not be ignored because when ignores events like this one can accoure again. By making this bold move (firing 10 employees) the station is saying they don’t approve of this careless behavior and it will not be tollereated
January 18th, 2007 at 7:19 pm
Alright, this story drives me nuts. I’ve WORKED for a radio station before, and it’s not that easy to come up with harmless contests. After I read the story I was shocked! I honestly did not know that you could die of water intoxication!
Generally, when you do a contest like that, you have to sign a waiver so that not only can the studio use your name and voice on-air, but so that they’re not liable for anything that happens.
I think it’s very sad, but come on, it’s water! It’s not like they said “drink vodka every 15 minutes”.
January 19th, 2007 at 10:02 am
Actually I was just listening to Opie and Anthony this morning and a nurse called in and warned them that the contestants can die from water intoxication. The jocks just laughed and asked around if anyone was dead over there and all the contestants said nooo. Its pretty creepy listening to it. She even complains on the show that her head hurts.
January 19th, 2007 at 10:21 am
Ouch, man Adam, that was harsh!!!
I have to admit, when I first read this post I thought it was some joke. I even checked it out online and was shocked to find out even CNN had an article on it. How crazy? I guess it just goes to show that people will do anything for material things.
Don’t get me wrong, I called every store in the area right before Christmas almost daily to see if I could snag a Wii myself for my husband (with no luck), but I can’t imagine being so die-hard about it. (sorry, no pun intended).
You read about these people that sit outside in the freezing cold and camp out for days, but I would hope that people pay attention to what their bodies are telling them and should know when enough is enough. But then again, in this case, like someone else said, who would have thought that water could kill you?
January 28th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Hi,
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Just saved your feed in my reader, have a nice day