Psychiatrists Blame American Idol For Fan's Death

Psychologists and journalists are blaming American Idol for using contestants as a source of humiliation to gain greater ratings, such as Paula Goodspeed, who killed herself after being slammed on the show. It is being stated the show deliberately does a poor job screening contestants, in the hope of getting unstable, crazy people to audition and embarrass themselves, to create higher viewership numbers. 

Side bar: it's amazing that Simon Cowell has not expressed his condolences over a woman he helped to send to her untimely demise. Is that pride or guilt or both.

American Idol judge Paula Abdul, who has a prescription drug dependency that's embarrassed her on air

For years people warned you, Simon, that you were going too far, like when you joked about and disparaged a disabled contestant on the show. If you ask me, you, the other Simon (Fuller) and some of the people you work with, have the greatest disability of all, no heart and no conscience. It is being stated they may face a wrongful death lawsuit from Paula Goodspeed's family.

Rejection on 'Idol' likely contributed to tragedy

For years, I've yearned for "American Idol" to do away with the incredibly mean-spirited audition segments ‹ the ones that fill up week after week of programming, that beg the viewers to mock the eccentrics that yearn to be pop stars.

It's ugly. It's off-putting. And now, I hope it will finally end, although if it does, it will be in the wake of a tragedy. One such mocked contestant, Paula Goodspeed, killed herself this week. Her body was found in her car, which was parked in the same neighborhood that "Idol" judge, and Goodspeed's own idol, Paula Abdul, lives. Police said she died from a drug overdose.

http://www.post-trib.com

Reality TV 'will have blood on hands'

BROADCASTERS are heading towards an inevitable tragedy unless they immediately screen all rejected reality show contestants for "post-celebrity trauma", one of the UK's leading experts on media psychology said last night.

Dr David Holmes, who has advised the makers of Big Brother and other reality TV programmes on the suitability of contestants, accused some firms of using people with "borderline personalities" for entertainment, dumping them and leaving them at risk of depression, self-harm and even suicide...

He added that producers were more interested in audience figures than contestants' welfare. Holmes said: "One of the major things they screen for beforehand is instability, but people with borderline disorders tend to gravitate towards these programmes and the makers like them because they generate disaster and emotional outpourings...

http://news.scotsman.com