Smackfests?!

What are we coming to?

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A New York radio station has agreed to pay $240,000 after sponsoring "smackfest" contests in which young women took turns slapping each other for a chance to win concert tickets and cash.

In a statement, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and State Athletic Commission Chairman Ron Scott Stevens said on Monday that WQHT, an FM station owned by Emmis Communications Corp. , had also agreed to donate $60,000 to a nonprofit group that promotes awareness of domestic violence. ...

"Despite the fact that the contestants voluntarily participated in what was supposed to be harmless entertainment, it was not our finest hour, and New York City deserves better," Emmis Radio President Rick Cummings said.

You got that right, Rick. And Mr. Atty. Gen., perhaps you could have gotten to Air AmeriCON a little quicker by putting it ahead of Smackfest, no matter how good the Smackfest publicity is for your public image.