Comments on "huntingforbambi.com"
I make a distinction between a hoax and a scam. You can read more about this in "The Art of the Con", an article I wrote for Extra! (see http://www.joeyskaggs.com/html/comm/comm3.html).
To me the huntingforbambi.com site, even though it contains some funny and satirical elements, looks to be a contrived, staged, theatrical performance with the intent to make money. They say they are already in business, but they probably are not. If a fool or two actually want to book their overly inflated service, I'm guessing that, for the money, they'll actually provide the service. This is a great example of how you don't have to do anything. You just have to say you've done it. You get media attention and you make money. It's better than selling real estate.
To test this, attempt to buy the video. If the product exists, the answer is clear. But if attempts to purchase it fail (i.e., the credit card order is never processed and the tape is not delivered), then perhaps it is an attempt to make social commentary (but, then again, they may have just pulled the plug for legal reasons). If it is an attempt to be a satirical hoax, one wonders what are they saying? Sex sells, some men are pigs, some women will do anything for a buck, the news media will spend a lot of ink covering it, and millions of people will read about it.
With all the attention they've gotten, they'll probably turn this into a book, a movie of the week, and a reality series on Fox.
That Channel 8 in Las Vegas jumped on this story is evidence of their inability to resist the siren call of a sexually oriented story. This offer is coming from Nevada where in some areas prostitution is legal. This, I believe, pertains to some news media as well!
You might be interested to check out a satirical recipe I wrote about how to catch and cook a journalist that was recently published in a European newspaper (I doubted any American media would want to print it). It's called "The Well-Cooked Journalist". You can read it on my Web site at http://www.joeyskaggs.com/html/comm/comm15.html.
In the back of my mind, I keep thinking about the Jason Blair/New York Times folly and how the Times, with all its self-examination and hypocritical spin failed to admit that news rooms would be emptied if every journalist who had ever stretched the truth, took something out of context, embellished a quote or contrived a story admitted to it.
I look at the news with a great deal of skepticism as I hope most readers do. Media literacy is one of the things on which my work focuses. Obviously, there's a lot more work to be done in this area.
As for these types of stories, they're like a wet fart. Not a lot of substance, but still pretty annoying.
By Joey Skaggs
In response to numerous questions I've received about "huntingforbambi.com" here are my thoughts...
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