Fabricated essay costs Hannah Montana fans

Fictional story about father dieing to roadside bomb in Iraq discovered... tickets lost because of it!

from JoeUser Forums

Great to see the news that a mother/daughter combination that submitted an essay to 'win' much sought after tickets to go see Hannah Montana in concert lost those tickets after the essay that was submitted was found to be a lie.

You see, the essay was a tale of a little girl that lost her dad to a roadside bomb in Iraq.  A tale that would be heartbreaking and is sure to gather sympathy.  The kind of sympathy that would certainly have the judges in an essay contest seeing themselves as heroes for helping to pick up the spirits of the now reportedly fatherless child.  Except it was not true.

I'm glad to see the news that the couple lost their tickets, which instead were awarded to someone else.  It's nice to know that cheaters don't win and that there is a price to be paid for trying to tell a lie like this to the world.

If this was a true story, then my heart would certainly go out to the child and the mother.  I hate the fact that thousands of children of military families have lost loved ones in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (and other wars in our history).  It does tear at my heart and makes me long for a day when the world is at peace and we aren't arguing over people being the wrong color, worshiping the wrong gods, or whatever other reasons we may use for fighting.

 

News source for this quick article: Garland girl wins Hannah Montana tickets, trip with false essay and here: Garland girl with fake contest entry won't get to see Hannah Montana after all Prize to see pop star in concert pulled (actually it was awarded to another individual, name withheld at this time)

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1,500 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
TMZ.com had this to say:

Priscilla Ceballos, the mother of the young girl, had told the company sponsoring the contest that the girl's father died April 17 in a roadside bombing in Iraq. When the spokesman asked the girl's mom if the story was true, the mother said no. God bless America.

"We never said this was a true story," Ceballos told FOX 4 in Dallas. "We do essays all the time. My daughter does essays at school all the time. It never did say it had to be true, but [the contest organizer] said, 'That's what we expected.'" Duh


Un-freaking-believable!

That mother has mental problems, and the girl won't be far behind. What a thing to teach your kid, lady!


Definitions of essay on the Web:

* An essay is a short work of writing that treats a topic from an author's personal point of view. Essays are non-fictional but often subjective; while expository, they can also include narrative. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essay

* A brief work of nonfiction that offers an opinion on a subject. The purpose of an essay may be to express ideas and feelings, to analyze, to inform, to entertain, or to persuade. ...
www.armour.k12.sd.us/Mary's%20Classes/literary_terms_glossary.htm

* A short literary composition on a single subject expressing a personal view.
www.peabody.jhu.edu/1437

* A short article on a single subject written from the author's personal viewpoint.
www.sideroad.com/Article_Writing/article-marketing-terms.html

* In the classical sense, the first-person singular commenting upon, questioning, debating, arguing about—a subject. Although “essay” is often used interchangeably with “paper,” the term properly refers to a type of writing that blended the personal with the learned. ...
www1.cuny.edu/academics/oaa/uei/wac/glossary-terminology.html

* a short work of nonfiction that deals with a single subject.
www.wallkillcsd.k12.ny.us/glt.htm



"My daddy died this year in Iraq. I am going to give mommy the Angel pendant that daddy put on mommy when she was having me. I had it in my jewelry box since that day. I love my mommy."

Sick and twisted.


"We wrote whatever we could to win," (the mother) said. "It said to write an essay. It never said it had to be true." Um, by definition of "essay," yes it did! "I never said it was true. ... It was just an essay. We wrote whatever we could to win."

This woman knew what she was doing. She knew she was scamming them to get tickets. Her daughter obviously didn't write the thing, even though mommy keeps pinning it on her with the "we."

Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
I feel kinda sorry for the little girl. Here she thought she had won. She spent days being excited. Now it's all pulled away from her. There's no way the company could have rewarded that deceit, though.

Poor little thing probably has to listen to her mother railing on and on about how unjust it is. Hopefully the girl won't grow up with a gun fetish and a Miley Cyrus obsession.

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Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top

I don't feel sorry for the kid at all. She is old enough to know right from wrong and lying is wrong.

I feel sorry for the youngster, but only because she has such a slimeball for a mother.

I understand doing almost anything to please your child, but that should still be "short of lying, cheating and stealing..."

Yes, I know that tickets to these concerts are being scalped at ridiculously high prices, and that the scalpers have been out in full force (perhaps with some inside help) for these concerts, but fabricating a story about the death of the child's father and then letting the world believe it was true is just plain sick.