Stupidity

It is very hard not to lose faith in the intelligence of the American public when you read that, in this day and age of information, a contestant died during a water drinking contest held by a radio station in a major city.

It's understandable that the morning DJs of KDND in Sacramento didn't know any better, morning DJs generally fall just above local TV talking heads when it comes to smarts, but there had to be any number of people at the station that could have pulled the plug on this before this woman died. To make matters worse, they were even warned on the air. From ABC News:

Judy Linder, a registered nurse, was listening to the program and was so alarmed that she asked a colleague to call and warn the station.

"She told them you could die from water intoxication," Linder told ABC affiliate KXTV in Sacramento. "He [the disc jockey] pretty much blew that off and said they signed a release so, so what? Then he said why don't your guys come down here and do it, and we said because we don't want to die."

According to a tape of the show, the disc jockeys appeared to joke about the possible dangers of consuming too much water and alluded to a college student who had died during such a stunt in 2005.

"Yeah, we're aware of that," one of the disc jockeys said.

Another disc jockey said: "Yeah. They signed releases, so we're not responsible. We're OK."

Needless to say, the DJs and others have been fired, and a lawsuit is in the works. I think the station is likely to find out that those waivers were worth the paper they were printed on.