Saturday, May 23, 2015

Short Story over Crime and TV

Germany runs it's own version of "seeking a superstar" (called DSDS).  It's virtually the same as the US show.  Over the years, I've probably watched about half the shows.  It's rigged up to a great extent and I generally come to some conclusion near the end of each season that it's bogus (like WWE wrestling).

This year, we had a fairly non-dramatic season of DSDS.  From my prospective.....the highlights were one gal who fell off a truck, and one guy was doped up on marijuana for each of his performances.  As the last show came up....it was down to two Italian-Germans and one teenage German gal.  One of the Italian-German guys won.

Twenty-four hours after this guy wins.....Bild suddenly comes out and notes that the guy has been under some cop investigation and facing court appearances over robbing several old ladies around the Frankfurt area.

So, as the story goes.....somewhere around three years ago.....this guy and a couple of others.....convinced some old ladies to give up some personal cash.  The other guys in the group have had court appearances and gotten some disciplinary time.  This guy had the luck of a sick judge for a while, and delayed his court episode until after the DSDS episode.

When you read over the accusations.....it's pretty crappy.  He's robbed some old ladies in some immature fashion and got caught.  If they'd put this info out a month ago, the public would have avoided voting for the guy and he would have lost.  So, it appears that everyone from the news media just avoided saying anything until DSDS was wrapped up.  Maybe there was some ethical argument to this.....but he looks like an idiot now being the winner of the contest (pays 500,000 Euro) and a criminal who robbed old ladies.

The news media (mostly Bild) says that the amount of money involved is roughly 19,000 Euro.  If so, I'd hustle up some cash....pay each lady a ten-thousand Euro bonus, and try to have charges dropped.

As for this hurting DSDS?  If you walk around and ask folks to remember who won each season over the past three years.....ninety-five percent of the viewers would have a problem.  Maybe they'll forget this guy in six months and things just continue on.

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