ABOUT CLICKED

The modern news consumer ignores Weblogs and online citizen journalism at his own peril. But not everyone has the time to keep track of what's going on the Web. With this blog we hope to track the highlights of what's being discussed online so when news breaks from the Web, we're ready.

Will Femia is a Weblog enthusiast who, through good fortune and dumb luck, was introduced to the form as his position as chat producer for MSNBC.com careered into obsolescence. On any given day, Will can be found having already spent an unhealthy amount of time squinting at a computer screen.

Send a message to Will at spotter@msnbc.com



Unhappy Valentine's Day

Posted: Friday, February 16, 2007 8:37 AM by Will Femia

Hey Will,
Don't know if you've seen this yet... it still seems to be a Research Triangle thing. A UNC student decided to break up with the girlfriend who recently cheated on him by getting a Facebook group together and inviting hundreds of people to witness it. He got a girl acapella group to sing to her...then dropped the bomb on her. Kind of interesting how the Times person of the year comes out in "support" of one of theirs who was wronged. Don't know if it's real or some illegal social experiment but you can check out the links below.

Links:

Thanks,
Dave

Will replies:  No Dave, thank you!  That's good stuff.  For folks who can't get the Facebook pages to load, you need a login, which is free and not too hard to run through quickly.  Once you're there the biggest attraction is the message boards where people are supporting one side or other and debating whether the whole thing is real.

There are a million cameras on the scene and it's clear that the student TV got a closer view than the YouTube video so I guess we'll have to wait for more to come out.  I'll add on here if as I find more (already our video producer Kevin has dug up a couple more).

UPDATE: Of the alternatives I see, the link Dave gave us is the best.  This one is closer but the sound is worse.  You can see the girlfriend squirm more and how directly the main singer is projecting at her.

The others are from different perspectives and the outskirts of the scene.  This clip of the pre-show crowd gives a good idea of the scope of the event.

The real appeal of these other videos would probably be to someone interested in citizen journalism.  Between these different versions and the photos in the Facebook pages, it's a pretty good model of the casual media capability of typical college students.

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Comments

Man alive. Payback in a form I have never seen before. You can see that the guy is still hurt, and that she doesn't care at all.

Ade (Sent Friday, February 16, 2007 12:30 PM)

Ade, I don't think that she doesn't care at all, in fact I am sure she is sorry for what she did on some level. But if I were bombarded by an enormous crowd of students screaming "slut" at me, I would become defensive by instinct and no matter how wrong I may be I would do what i needed to defend myself. While I feel bad for the guy, I also feel bad for the girl, what she is accused of doing is wrong, but him doing that to her is wrong also. He is hurt, I understand that, but at least act like a gentleman. Hid ugliness is no better than her's. What she did to him was ruin their relationship, now she is all over the internet, her parents and grandparents, little siblings...everyone can see her at her worst. He has in effect ruined her life, if only for a short time.

Shawn, New Haven CT (Sent Friday, February 16, 2007 2:01 PM)

I don't think Shawn has ever been cheated on. I believe the guy in the video acted rather nobly. Rather than doing something self-destructive or dangerous, like beating her (or the other guy) up, this guy plotted an extremely complex, extremely vindicating revenge. And thanks to internet exposure, I bet she'll be a little more hesitant to cheat in the future, and I doubt any girl will cheat on him, knowing of what he is capable.

Alex, Lawrence, KS (Sent Friday, February 16, 2007 3:38 PM)

She made a mistake. But now he's showing HIS true colors. She's so much better off without the jerk.

JE, Detroit (Sent Friday, February 16, 2007 3:59 PM)

It was revenge, pure and simple. She deserved it, but I'm not sure if all this had the outcome that he wanted. To me, he will always be the guy who got cheated on.

David (Sent Friday, February 16, 2007 5:06 PM)

You know, the main event is really the singing. That lead singer was amazing. And the crowd definitely got a few laughs. You can hear some guy in the crowd shout, "I got next!" JE, you said "she made a mistake." And, "he is showing HIS true colors." ?? Is that all? She just made a mistake? No big deal? You have got to be kidding me.

Ade (Sent Friday, February 16, 2007 7:00 PM)

Wish I had a transcript of what was said since it's largely unintelligible. Seems like a fun way to break up with payback...but of course it'd suck to be on the recieving end!

Dave (Sent Monday, February 19, 2007 4:40 PM)

What an awesome production. I don't think there's anything wrong with what he did. She deserved it, and I hope she thinks twice about hurting someone like that again. She definitely didn't come out unscathed either, even if she acts as though she's perfectly fine. Now thousands of people know of her infidelity. She's infamous!

Claire (Sent Tuesday, February 20, 2007 11:14 PM)

"What she did to him was ruin their relationship, now she is all over the internet, her parents and grandparents, little siblings...everyone can see her at her worst. He has in effect ruined her life, if only for a short time. "

Waaaaa. No sympathy for the wicked.
Cheaters get everything they deserve, pregnant, distrusted, family issues, the clap, etc...

Skippy the Heathen (Sent Thursday, February 14, 2008 4:43 PM)



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