Transcripts For WPVI Nightline 20150115 : vimarsana.com

Everything life throws my way. Olay total effects. Nourishing vitamins and seven benefits in one for youngerlooking skin. So while your life may be everchanging, your Beautiful Skin will stay beautiful. From olay your best beautiful. Number one in 60 seconds. Good evening. Thank you for joining us. Tonight, violent depictions of women being beaten raped, and run over by cars. Its not the movies its video games. And now the women calling for change in this multibillion dollar virtual industry are facing a very real backlash including Death Threats. Heres my nightline coanchor juju chang. Reporter for anita sarkisian, this is the new normal. Armed escorts at public events. Tracking her every move. Im constantly aware of the fact that theres an enormous amount of hate directed toward me. Reporter hate in the form of bomb threats, rape threats, even Death Threats. On this morning, high alert at Loyola University in chicago. Its anitas first speaking engagement since threats of a shooting massacre forced her to cancel her last appearance. All because this media critic dared to criticize something millions of us play every day. Video games. Reporter video games. The threats making splashy headlines around the world. On shows like Melissa Harris perry. And web casts like democracy now and huff post live. Violent threats for pointing out sexism in video games. Things got heated to say the least. Reporter the harassment became part of whats now known as gamergate. What started as an online spat about the ethics of gaming journalism quickly escalated into a fullblown culture war. Women shouldnt be mere disposable objects or symbolic pawns in stories about men. Reporter and a small but hardcore group of gamers resistant to change. God ordained that it is one man, one joystick. Reporter but gamergate doesnt just affect boys playing in a basement. The stakes are much higher than you might think. Were now spending more money on games than movies and music combined. To the tune of 21 billion. And what might surprise you, there are now more adult women playing video games than there are teenage boys. Were talking about fantastical scenarios like the ones in bio shock, epiced a ventures in games like mirrors edge. What is it thats so disturbing in some games thats making women like anita willing to face Death Threats . Just when you think your hurt the worst example, the most misogynistic example, you find another one. Escapism is big business. Half of us are playing games like this one, grand theft auto 5. Critics say in these Virtual Worlds things take a turn for the dark side. As a player you can solicit a prostitute, kill her, and if thats not enough, you have the option to run her over. The sense of violence against women being used as almost background decoration. As texture to make an environment gritty more real. Reporter there are plenty of games that arent violent or sexualized. But some of the bestselling games are especially egregious. On her website, anita dissects these games. Developers regularly utilize the brutalization of womens bodies. And faeshl the bodies of female prostitutes. Reporter her goal, to bring attention to what she calls the inherent misogyny in the gaming world. In watchdog she points out how women are murdered to give the hero a reason to chase down a bad guy. It gets worse and worse, reinforces this idea as women of sexual objects, reinforces this idea of women as playthings for their amusement. Reporter its this kind of talk that makes her a target. Thats when the cyber mob descended. Reporter bombarding her with mostly anonymous tweets and messages. I will rape you when i get the chance. Hiding behind user names and claims of free speech. Im sitting outside your apartment with a loaded gun. Your neighbors wont hear your screaming in pain. Someone created a grotesque game where players can beat and punch a picture of her face. Ow ow reporter the virtual harassment turned very real when her online attackers published her Social Security number, her home address. And shes not the only one. They told me they were coming to kill me. They told me specifically they were going to castrate my husband. Reporter women like briana wu, an independent game developer, was driven out of heir home all for tweeting her opinion. When someone posts your address online and they tell you theyll murder your whole family . You dont really feel safe staying at that location. Reporter so far, the gamergate harassment against briana and other women like her has remained online. But the fbi is taking it seriously enough its started a file. Im so hesitant to use the phrase terror. Because i think its such a politically loaded word. But this is its terrorism on women in this industry. Its scaring every single one of us. Why such hate why such anger . I think a lot of it comes from this idea that gaming is a maledominated space. And that games are for men, by men. Its a very misogynist backlash. Women are not meant to be treated with respect. Reporter something even the most casual female gamer is familiar with. Watch what happens when the men in this online session of counter strike learn theres a woman playing in their midst. Are you an archaeologist . I have a big bone for you to examine. Reporter its less brutal than what anita and briana experienced but it does show the ease with which offensive behavior is tossed out at women. Id give you my skin first if you know what i mean huh . Im really just here to play like everybody else. Reporter but shes not treated like everyone else which is at the heart of gamergate. Media critics argue women like stephanie need to stop being abused as players in the real world and as avatars in the virtual world. Given that women make up nearly half of this countrys gamers this isnt a feminist issue, its just smart business. The demographic should be a hajj makeup call to executives of Gaming Companies because there is a huge amount of money to be made out of taking women seriously. And out of demonstrating to women that you are taking them seriously. Reporter weve reached out for comment multiple times to rock star games, ub soft, the companies behind these games, to ask about the way women are portrayed. But thus far weve received no reply. And yet there are some signs of change in the gaming community. Its time we realized things from a different perspective. How would someone else how would a woman look at this . Reporter more and more Developers Like tim shaffer are seeing the need for more women programmers and girlfriendly games like broken age. Once you sat down and tried to play the game with your daughter, tried to find games where she can play a character that she identifies with you start to feel bad about not putting that option in your own games. Reporter even lara croft, tomb raider got a makeover. More clothes, less curves. I remember playing tomb raider guardian of light. Produced by a woman, a really good game the game did well. Well see more of that. Reporter the majority of gamers like chris scott, manager of 8bit and up condemn gatorgate threats of violence. But hes not alone in believing critics like anita exaggerate the problem. Shes trying to capitalize on controversy. Reporter he also says the gaming world on the whole shouldnt be judged by a few extreme examples. When people complain about games like assassins creed, grand theft auto, whatever its similar to complaining about hiphop and rap music today saying, well, its vee lent. Thats not what hiphop is about. You cant judge gaming by whats selling, you have to really get into the medium to understand it before you start saying this is what gaming is about. Reporter scott suggests at the end of the day, theyre just games. I know in the real world there are strong women that dont need to be saved. How do you respond to critic hot say, this is fantasy, this is not reality, you have to lighten up . Yeah, thats a fun argument. Games have a huge impact on our society. So its not just fantasy. It actually works to potentially reinforce some pretty harmful messages about women. Reporter for nightline, im juju chang in san francisco, california. Next from catwalk to cell block. How an extop model reality star strutted her stuff straight to the slammer. Where did it all go wrong . And a reallife wedding ring history would give kevin hart a run for his money. [vet] two yearly physicals down. Martha and mildred are good to go. Heres your invoice, ladies. A few stops later, and it looks like big ollie is on the mend. It might not seem that glamorous having an old pickup truck for an office. Or filling your days looking down the south end of a heifer but. I wouldnt have it any other way. Lo ok at that, i had my best month ever. And earned a shiny new office upgrade. I run on quickbooks. Thats how i own it. cough, cough mike . Janet . Cough if you can hear me. Dont even think about it. I took mucinex dm for my phlegmy cough. Yeah. But what about mike . He has that dry, scratchy thing going on. Guess what . cough it works on his cough too. What . Stop, dont pull me spoiler alert she doesnt make it only mucinex dm packs 2 medicines in one pill to relieve wet and dry coughs for 12 hours. Start the relief. Ditch the misery. Lets end this. Huh, fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Yeah, Everybody Knows that. Well, did you know that playing cards with kenny rogers gets old pretty fast . You got to know when to holdem. Know when to fold em. Know when to walk away. Know when to run. You never count your money, when youre sitting at the ta. What . You get it . I get the gist yeah. Geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Thank you, cable. For the slower internet upload speeds. For fewer video on demand titles. For taking longer to upload our movies. For making me wait longer to share my photo albums. Thank you, cable. Thank you, cable. Because if we never had you we wouldnt know the incredible difference verizon fios makes. The numbers dont lie. In Customer Satisfaction studies, fios is rated 1 in Internet Speed and reliability 8 years running. 1 in internet Customer Satisfaction. And hd picture quality. So join the millions who enjoy the difference fios makes. Its your last chance to get a fios triple play online at an amazing 79. 99 a month guaranteed for two full years. Speed match uploads as fast as downloads. And all our premium channels included for two years. Plus, an incredible 400 bonus with a 2year agreement. Hurry its your last chance offer ends january 17th go to verizon. Com thefacts today. Call the Verizon Center for customers with disabilities at 800. 974. 6006 tty v she wanted to be on top. But the pressure pushed her down. Were bringing you a cautionary tale of an exmodel who found herself not on the runway but locked up in a cell block. Tonight she speaks out from behind bars. Her advice to keep others from spiraling down the same dark road. Heres abcs linzie janis. Oh my gosh hi. Renee, im 20 im from maui. Reporter she wanted to be americas next top model. Renee and natasha, please step forward. Reporter drive and determination werent enough for renee allway placing a disappointing third in the hugely popular reality shows eighth series in 2007. But one of the next head shots the world would see of this beautiful young woman . This shocking mug shot. Snapped in the summer of 2013. The former models face covered in sores. Allway next seen in court, again almost unrecognizable. Haggard. Her head shaved. The exreality tv star speaking as an inmate from inside californias Riverside County jail. I cant even remember what was happening then. Thats how bad it was. I have bits and pieces of broken broken memory about it. Reporter now 28 allway says it all began after the bright tv lights went out. I couldnt get past the reality tv stigma that had been put on me. Then theres the pressure of the fans, you know. Where are you . What happened . Its almost like a setup for failure. Jimmy so she began heading down a familiar path abusing drugs. Drugs have been a part of my life since i was young. Reporter allway by now a mother of two small children becoming increasingly desperate. There were a string of arrests. Allway accused of breaking into peoples homes and cars, stealing weapons, money, and other valuable items. Once youre on that downward spiral, its its nearly impossible to stop. Reporter Police Reports describing her as a homeless woman living in her car with her two kids. On one occasion allway allegedly under the influence of heroin. An officer writing, she turned and screamed in my face. I feared she was trying to bite my face. I pushed her face away from me with my left palm. Months later, officers answering a call about a suspicious woman trying to climb over a wall into a gated complex in palm springs. You kind of get a case of forget it, then. Im just going to do whatever i do. And youre numb to it. You just go for it. Reporter they say they arrived to find one of the units broken into. Inside, allway lying on a loaded semiautomatic handgun. I remember bits and pieces of it. I remember s. W. A. T. I remember having guns. I remember feeling like well come and get me. I think that the drastic contrast from the spotlight and the constant 24 7 camera presence of being on a reality show to suddenly being thrust back into your old life just going back to being completely anonymous, is a psychological shock. Reporter allway is far from the first Reality Tv Show star to go to the dark side after a stint in the spotlight. Get the [ bleep ] out i am leaving. Get out im keeping her. Reporter take teen mom amber portwood, whose struggle with young motherhood caused controversy on screen. Im keeping her for a while. Reporter offscreen, a debilitating drug problem landing her in trouble. She left courtmandated rehab and served 17 months in prison. American idol contestant Jessica Sierra reporter another exstar who ended up on the wrong side of the law. What led you to want to pursue treatment . I guess after i got arrested and stuff. And the disappointment in my family. Reporter sierra checked into dr. Drews celebrity rehab after plead nothing contest to battery and cocaine possession in 2007. A lot of times, you know these people were picked for reality shows because they had a penchant for drama. It really escalates any risk factors they had. Reporter just weeks before her final arrest renee allway giving birth to a third child. Shed already chosen to give up custody of her other two children. As drugs took over her life. When they were no longer right there with me and i no longer had that purpose its one thing to mail your parents, its one thing to fail your fans and your friends. Its something completely different to fail your blood, your children. Reporter in the end, allway making a deal with prosecutors. Pleading guilty to multiple counts of burglary as well as vehicle theft, illegal possession of a weapon, and didnty theft. Shes now serving a 12year sentence. So does she blame any of it on her time in the spotlight . I cant really say, but regardless of whether you win or not, you have to recognize the strength in yourself. And be able to be proud of who you are, regardless of what other people think. Reporter for nightline, linzie janis, abc news, new york. Next something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. And now theres something more if youre willing to pay for it. Take kevin hart and the wedding ringer for real. Were on a mission, a mission for underwareness, a cause to support the over 65 Million People who may need the trusted protection of depend underwear. Join us. Drop your pants for underwareness and show off a pair of depend. Because wearing a different kind of underwear, is no big deal. Support the cause and get a free sample of depend at underwareness. Com. If youre suffering from constipation or irregularity powders may take days to work. For gentle overnight relief, try dulcolax laxative tablets. Ducolax provides gentle overnight relief, unlike miralax that can take up to 3 days. Dulcolax, for relief you can count on. It doesnt get much easier than picking 2 things. You pick 2, and. Youre basically done. Look for pick 2. Coming soon from the pennsylvania lottery. Easy to play. Simple to say. What goes into having the perfect wedding . Cinderella over the top shindig memories for a lave time wedding . Thats where jen glantz and her team come in. They provide a professional bridesmaid service to take the stress out of your special day. What exactly do you do . I provide best man services for guys who lack in such areas. Reporter he hires your wedding party. And makes sure youre at your best. My job is to make you look good on your wedding day. Reporter even on the dance floor. Reporter in the wedding ringer in theaters this friday kevin hart is the dream best man. For a price. Youre not buying a friend youre hiring a best man. Reporter its not just a plat line for jen, its her business plan. Jimmy this started when i posted an ad on craigslist offering my services as a bridesmaid to stlamplers around the world. Reporter she received 100 emails in 48 hours. Bridesmaid for hire was born. Weddings are stressful and id rather preserve a friendship than force someone to be in my wedding party. Reporter thats why bride to be Ashley Blanchard jumped at the chance to bring in an expert. What did your fiance say . His exact words were, i dont get it but if it makes you happy, whatever. Reporter jen says she can help drieds with any budget. Shell be everything from a virtual bridesmaid for 199 to the goto gal by your side starting at 1,100. Thats the package ashley selected. So were shopping for lingerie. Is this weird at all for you . With jen . No. No. I have no personal boundaries with other women. Reporter demands for her besmoke services have grown so fast, jen is training two other bridesmaids so theyll be ready for big days like this. Just hours before ashley ties the knot jen is there to make sure shes perfectly polished. Looks good. Reporter and ready to go down the aisle. She even helps with prewedding jitters. Im so nervous, oh my god. Im excited. Reporter ashleys wedding goes off without a hitch. For the professional bridesmaid that means this story has a fairy tale ending. For nightline, im sarah haines in new york. Its been said a wedding is a party, not a performance. If at the end of the day your marriage to the one you love then everything went perfectly. Thank you for watching inging abc news. Were online at abcnews. Com. Good night, america. [cheers and applause] [dramatic music] yo [cheers and applause] whoo whoowhoo [cheers and applause] welcome to millionaire. Im terry crews, and were gonna have a blast here today, because all this week, were playing with some of the greatest Guinness World records titleholders ever, who are looking to win themselves some serious cash. Its millionaire Guinness World records edition. [cheers and applause] and on friday, our special guest will be game show legend ken jennings, who broke a record winning millions of dollars on jeopardy and will be going for another million right here. [cheers and applause] todays returning contestant is the Guinness World records titleholder for the longest uninterrupted live webcast at 36 hours and 23 seconds. After all that i think its time for her to win the million. From indianapolis, indiana please welcome back susan baroncinimoe. [cheers and applause] hey hi, susan. Hi. [laughs] how you doing . Im great. Youre looking great