Post by xeno on Apr 25, 2020 2:34:24 GMT
In the early-mid 00s, Focus on the Family (...I know...) released a Christian magazine called Breakaway targeted at teenage boys. A friend who got the magazine at that time remembers an interview with Dirk Been, a very devout Christian contestant on season 1 of Survivor, broadcast from May to August of 2000. I'm a huge fan of Survivor, especially the first season.
The reason this particular interview interests me, though, is - there was eventually a big controversy and lawsuit where it turns out the show's producers pressured Dirk into voting out Stacey Stillman in the third round of the game. Slanting their game against the attorney of all people backfired, shockingly, and she ended up suing, which is where Dirk testified that the producers tried to influence his vote. (If I recall correctly, the lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed amount, and Stacey has of course disappeared from the public eye since.) Now what makes this interview interesting is that in the 2000 interview with Breakaway, my friend says he remembers Dirk saying he regretted the Stacey vote, saying that "Stacey really didn't deserve to go home" but not saying much about why. This would be a really interesting little piece of Survivor history - an indication that he regretted a vote that, we'd later discover, was influenced by the show's producers and the subject of a major lawsuit.
So I'm interested whether anyone, or anyone's religious relatives, might have an old stack of these magazines laying around that could have this nearly 20-year-old interview in it.
The episode where Dirk was voted off, "Pulling Your Own Weight", aired June 28, 2000 - so, in order to avoid spoiling the outcome, odds are this interview wouldn't have happened til the very end of June and probably been in the August issue? However, it could of course have been really any time that year, or maybe even early 2000. I'd say the most likely months are July, August, September, and October of 2000, though. Tough to say.
Leads I've tried so far:
- I e-mailed Focus on the Family and left them a voicemail, asking whether they had any of these old issues or archives thereof. This was just 5-6 hours ago, so I haven't heard back yet, and is obviously the most directly likely way to go.
- Someone on eBay has a lot of 10 Breakaway magazines for sale, but all from 2005-2006. Messaged them asking if they've got any older ones, no response yet.
- I tried using the Wayback Machine to see if any of the articles were available digitally. It seems like SOME, but not ALL, were, and I didn't see the Dirk one anywhere. If anyone wants to help poke around, though -- because there are obviously a fair amount of broken links, it can be tricky to navigate, so I might have missed something, here's the link:
web.archive.org/web/20000830150409/http://www.focusonthefamily.com/teenguys/breakmag/ <-- Archive of the Breakaway digital page from Aug 30 '00
web.archive.org/web/20001026211320/http://www.focusonthefamily.com/teenguys/breakmag/backissues.html <-- Oct 26 capture of the "Back Issues" page that lists previous digital issues. No reference to Dirk in the July, August, or September '00 digital issues as far as I can see; I could go to later captures of the Back Issues page to check later months, and probably will, but it might just not be available digitally at all.
I figured I'd post here, too, in case anyone has any other ideas of where to look for a magazine archive like this or somehow has a 2000 - 2001 copy of a teen Christian magazine sitting around.
The reason this particular interview interests me, though, is - there was eventually a big controversy and lawsuit where it turns out the show's producers pressured Dirk into voting out Stacey Stillman in the third round of the game. Slanting their game against the attorney of all people backfired, shockingly, and she ended up suing, which is where Dirk testified that the producers tried to influence his vote. (If I recall correctly, the lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed amount, and Stacey has of course disappeared from the public eye since.) Now what makes this interview interesting is that in the 2000 interview with Breakaway, my friend says he remembers Dirk saying he regretted the Stacey vote, saying that "Stacey really didn't deserve to go home" but not saying much about why. This would be a really interesting little piece of Survivor history - an indication that he regretted a vote that, we'd later discover, was influenced by the show's producers and the subject of a major lawsuit.
So I'm interested whether anyone, or anyone's religious relatives, might have an old stack of these magazines laying around that could have this nearly 20-year-old interview in it.
The episode where Dirk was voted off, "Pulling Your Own Weight", aired June 28, 2000 - so, in order to avoid spoiling the outcome, odds are this interview wouldn't have happened til the very end of June and probably been in the August issue? However, it could of course have been really any time that year, or maybe even early 2000. I'd say the most likely months are July, August, September, and October of 2000, though. Tough to say.
Leads I've tried so far:
- I e-mailed Focus on the Family and left them a voicemail, asking whether they had any of these old issues or archives thereof. This was just 5-6 hours ago, so I haven't heard back yet, and is obviously the most directly likely way to go.
- Someone on eBay has a lot of 10 Breakaway magazines for sale, but all from 2005-2006. Messaged them asking if they've got any older ones, no response yet.
- I tried using the Wayback Machine to see if any of the articles were available digitally. It seems like SOME, but not ALL, were, and I didn't see the Dirk one anywhere. If anyone wants to help poke around, though -- because there are obviously a fair amount of broken links, it can be tricky to navigate, so I might have missed something, here's the link:
web.archive.org/web/20000830150409/http://www.focusonthefamily.com/teenguys/breakmag/ <-- Archive of the Breakaway digital page from Aug 30 '00
web.archive.org/web/20001026211320/http://www.focusonthefamily.com/teenguys/breakmag/backissues.html <-- Oct 26 capture of the "Back Issues" page that lists previous digital issues. No reference to Dirk in the July, August, or September '00 digital issues as far as I can see; I could go to later captures of the Back Issues page to check later months, and probably will, but it might just not be available digitally at all.
I figured I'd post here, too, in case anyone has any other ideas of where to look for a magazine archive like this or somehow has a 2000 - 2001 copy of a teen Christian magazine sitting around.
