December 29, 2007
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Hannah Montana and Iraq
Hey everyone, papercup_alibi here posting for Dan.
In Garland, TX a six year old submitted an essay in a contest that scored her four tickets to see Hannah Montana’s sold out show on January 9th in Albany, NY. She also won a free makeover and airfare to see the show. The only problem: the essay was a fake. Here is the link: link
The essay began with, “My daddy died this year in Iraq.” The mother confirmed this and told the press it was true. “She had identified the soldier as Sgt. Jonathon Menjivar,
but the Department of Defense has no record of anyone with that name
dying in Iraq… the mother has admitted to the deception.” The girl may now lose her tickets to the show.Who deserves the larger punishment- the six year old or the mother?
Comments (84)
The mother?
The mother, of course.
mother
If the girl wanted to win, and did the essay, she should be punished.
If the mother was the only one involved, she should be punished.
It seems like it was a joint desicion to deceve the judges, so both should be given what they deserve.
The mother for teaching her child to lie. Maybe ticket promtors should give those tickets to a child whose parent has died while serving in Iraq
The mother. I’m fairly certain a six-year-old couldn’t concoct that lie…not with the explicit details.
punishment? what punishment? she loses the contest, simple as that.
Mother. Everything a child does could and should be traced back to the parentage.
The mother. I agree with same old ridiculousness.
<33
Oh my goodness. That’s some fucked up shit, yo. The girl is 6 flippin’ years old…. don’t give her the tickets; end of story.
The mom sounds like she might suffer from some form of histrionic personality disorder. How sad.
mother, easily
If the tickets are taken away….the little girl will be heartbroken…the mother’s punishment…it doesn’t pay to lie.
The mother- for teaching her child to lie & cheat… Cant wait to see what she turns out to be like as an adult.
I hope they lose their tickets.
Hannah Montana.
I agree with the consensus. The girl is six years old… give me a
break. Taking the tickets away from her would be punishment enough.
And anyway, what’s the big deal with Hannah Montana? I don’t get it.
This makes me sick, a little.
Who wrote the essay?
Mother, duh.
The mother. A six-year-old child doesn’t come up with that kind of lie on her own. Take the tickets away from the child, but make the mother sit through the concert. That should be punishment enough.
The mother for sure.
The mom.
I’d think that at 6 years old, the child wouldn’t really know, or could easily be persuaded.
No contest–the mother, definitely.
The girl MAY lose her tickets?? Don’t give her the damn tickets. Why reward someone for lying, especially about something so horrible?
Though a Hannah Montana concert would be punishment for me. >_<
The mother.
Definitely the mother. If the kid was 16, then the kid should be punished more. But the kid is 6 years old and is being taught to be a liar.
That reminds me of a story a kid at my daycare told me: “My mommy got food at a restaurant and she didn’t like it, so she pulled out a piece of her hair and put it in the dish. Then she told the waiter there was a hair in the food and she wanted something else.”
I hate it when parents do something like that for their children to see.
The mum is in the wrong, so the kid has to lose her tickets. Punishment all around.
’nuff said…
The mom is a responsible adult, and the little girl was a victim of her mom’s deception, in a way.
The mom deserves punishment.
Mom – how low can you go? She answered with “pretty low.”
The mother.
But even a six year old knows if they have a Dad, and they should definitely know if their Dad is dead in war or not.
What a stupid situation.
i think her tickets should just be taken away
maybe a nice b*tchslap for the both of them too
Getting the tickets taken away is enough punishment for the kid. That’s pretty disturbing that a grownup would lie about something like that. The Mom should be forced to go to the concert unless she’s the one that pushed the kid into lying.
The mom, because she probably wrote the essay anyway.
But to the girl it will feel like she has the larger punishment because now she won’t get to see Hannah Montana.
don’t give them the tickets! make them wait and wrestle like the rest of us!
I say let the girl keep the tickets but charge her mom for them or maybe for the street value of the tickets. Then give another set to the runner-up.
Punishment all around. The girl was wrong for lying, and the mom was wrong for going along with it. I know Hannah Montana tickets are hard to come by but that’s just going too far.
Both.
The girl for being a stupid cheater.
And the mother for being a bad parent D:<
Who uses a lie like somebody dying to go see some floozy named Hannah Montana!?
the mother, poor kid :[
The contest judges.
I don’t blame the kid for lying, she wanted to win the tickets and she just used the all-time-instant-win-assurer, a sad story about war and patriotism and a daddy dying.
One guy I knew was a crap writer, when standardized tests rolled around, he concocted a story about contracting HIV. It was crap writing, but because he wrote a sob story, he passed.
Oh, and I love how the links open in a new window instead of redirecting the whole page.
It is wonderful not to have to murder my back button.
The mom…6 years old is really young and would totally need help writing an essay anyways..not to mention coming up with a story like that.
The mother. Six year olds are pretty stupid. They should be held responsible, but their age should be considered. The mom has no excuse to hide behind.
The mother.
I believe the mother should have her face published on NATIONAL newspapers. To show the rest of the world how greed and selfishness is disgusting. To say my daddy died in Iraq is not fuckin fair to the rest of the ones who really had their daddy/mommies/brothers/sisters die. disgusting.
Both. That’s horrible.
the mom. I misread. she’s not 16, she’s six. that’s different.
the press for allowing themselves to be deceived first
Interesting little conundrum. Was this a contest about verifiable truth or excellence in writing? Was the essay truly better than the rest? If this were both about excellence in writing and the essay was truly better than the rest, why do anything? The girl would have met the requirements however loathe we are to condone lies. Now, if the contest were about excellence in writing and the girl’s essay won because of the amount of pathos it inspired (as I suspect is what has happened), then take the tickets away. That will be punishment enough. Princessfiveanddime said it right: that will be punishment enough for the mom, too as she will have to admit her wrongdoing and eat mud in front of her daughter–and publicly.
Given as the whole was bogus and apparently with the mother’s knowledge I say the mother needs to do a better job at teaching her child. Our children do after all learn from us.
If memory serves correctly also the sponsors of the contest said that the tickets would still be the child’s. They said that they would not give a gift to a six year old to take it back. Things certainly could have changed however since I first read the story when it appeared.
They will both learn from losing the tickets.
Who gets punished if the tickets aren’t taken away?
Maybe the children that wrote legit essays.
Aye well the mother is totally at fault in humble opinion.
good grief. what a ridiculous thing to lie about.
how about both of them?
and their family pet. who was obviously in on this, too.
Both.. but more the mother since she is older and should know better and probably had some effect on how her child wrote the essay in the first place.
A SIX year old came up with this idea all on her own? C’mon… It’s the mother’s fault.
If the six year old really did write the essay and just lied in it because the mother told her to, then not only should she not be punished, she should still win the contest. Because truth or lie, if it’s a high quality well written essay she should be recognized for it.
The mother of course deserves some kind of greater punishment no matter what since she either told her daughter to lie or wrote the essay for her daughter entirely.
i say give her the tickets, but instead of a hannah montanna concert take her to say…. a michael jackson concert. when they complain tell them… “man, sucks to be lied to doesnt it?”
the mother should take parenting lessons
That’s a no-brainer; the mother of course. How are you going to hold a six-year old responsible?
the mother.. the child may be too young to know ethics and morality, she likely only knows she wants the tickets.
- Daniel (doubledb)
I don’t believe the contest said anywhere that the essay had to be honest.
no doubt the little girl had been influenced of her mother’s ways… the mom without a doubt.
this makes me throw up.
ok,
A 6 year old can write an essay ? And can go to a Concert?
This is way too young to be doing these things?
Lack of judgement !!
The Mom
I think the blame should be placed squarely on Hannah Montana.
obviously the mother. She probably told the kid to do it, and you can’t really hold a six year old responsible for that…they don’t realize how serious their lie is.
if it’s not plagiarism, i think she should get to keep the tickets anyway. even if the story isn’t true, she wrote compelling stuff with her own words. she was smart to know that an essay like that would win – it’s all about tugging on the heartstrings. who can turn away the kid of a dead soldier, right?
It is really bad when a parent involves a child in deception. Hopefully, the embarrassment and shame, as well as losing the tickets, will teach both mother and child not to lie.
I remember a story in the Bible about a mom who told her son, Jacob, to lie to his father in order to get the inheritance birthright that should have gone to his brother, Esau. The Bible shows how for the next 20 years he lived on the lamb and was deceived repeatedly by others. “Whatsoever you sow (plant), that also shall you reap (harvest)” says the scriptures. God bless and have a good day.
something very important to understand is how impressionable children are….especially to people they trust wholeheartedly. A child can be made to think they were abused if you lead them on enough. A child can be made to think anything.
The question is this…..did the father really die? or where is he? Did the mom really make her believe the story? Cause if I was a 6 year old that didn’t know where my father was, I would believe my mom when she told me he died in Iraq. It makes your father out to be a hero….like you think he is. And your mother out to be honest.
So the truth is, the mother deserves punishment far beyond anyone.
the mother, of course. the mommy is responsible for the lying little six year old. children are impressionable and they’ll do anything to please their parents. and funny how the iraq war seems spins so much sympathy out of people.
the mother. although I agree with porcupinesol. it’s not a punishment issue.
It doesn’t mention the dad’s involvement in this. I don’t think there’s a father figure at all. I would think it’s easy to lie to your young kid saying that their dad was in the military and eventually “he died” after he never comes home from a tour as opposed to telling them the real reason that they’re not there.
Is it really the kid’s fault if she didn’t know she was lying?
Really freaking bad judgement on the mom’s part for being unable to tell the truth about why she’s a single parent. It’s okay to be a single parent, you don’t need to make up an elaborate lie to your kid to explain the phenomenon.
No question, the mother, but the little girl doesn’t need to be rewarded either. It was wrong and they shouldn’t get anything for it.Not sure if there should be any punishment though.
Six-year-olds aren’t born liars. They learn to be deceptive. The mother of course, especially since she kept the lie going. It was probably the mother’s idea to begin with.
The father should be sent to Iraq and killed, of course. That punishes just about everybody involved, and eliminates the original conflict.
the mother. a six-year-old couldn’t come up with that plan all on her own.
the mother
really, she was just being creative… yes it was to decieve and lie, but she was writing something. to me writing is a medium of creativity, it shouldn’t be stifled.
She should be banned from Hannah Montanna concerts for life.
And mom needs to go to jail for fraud.
The mother. That’s terrible.
The mom for thinking something this cruel would win a contest. And the outcome will effect both mom and daughter..enough punishment to go around.
Ok I’ve rethought this. The mom is responsible. I still think mom committed fraud.
I think it’s a shame that the little girl, who didn’t know any better, will now forever be marked because of her mother, who should have had better sense. I don’t see what the deal is with”Hannah Montanna” any way. I wouldn’t pay to see her show, but for some reason some people think shes cool
the mom.
The mother. She should be forced to go see Yanni live.
The mother.
Both. Mostly the mother, the child is only six after all. But the child should loser her tickets, she has to learn the consequences of lying now, instead of when she could be imprisoned.