Is it just me, or do you find this irritating?
How are media, politicans and any other recepient of this sort of email supposed to take people seriously?
I’ve no doubt Focus on the Family would say they are doing this for the convenience of their readers, but if I may quote John Stossel, give me a break.
(well, yes, that is what they have said)
This organization is continuing to lose what little respect I had for them.
Here is how it works. FOTF subscribers get to cut and paste what they think is relevent paragraphs from supplied copy, add their own thoughts (if they have any) and hit send.
We offer this information to help you put into words your thoughts on this important subject; editors serve the same function at newspapers, helping reporters organize and relate their thoughts in the most effective manner possible.
Here’s how it works:
1) Look over the four sections below. From each section, select one paragraph and copy it into a text document –and feel free to modify the sections in your own words. No matter which paragraphs you choose, the result will be a finished letter of no more than 200 words.
2) Print and sign your letter, making sure you include your name, full address and phone number. You can then mail it to your local newspaper. For contact information for your local newspaper, visit the Media section of CitizenLink Action Center and type your ZIP code into the “Local Media” box.
http://www3.capwiz.com/fof/dbq/media/
3) You also can e-mail your letter through the CitizenLink Action Center, via the e-mail link you will find on the contact information page for your local newspaper. If you do this, however, you must make sure you add your full address and phone number to the bottom of the letter –through the “Message” box itself, not just in the “Your Information” fields. (Don’t worry. If this doesn’t make sense to you at the moment, it will once you visit the Web site.)
I was going to say alert the media - grrrrr. Alert the IT departments.
This may be legal but it is so unethical all I can get out is grrrrr.
Newsrooms don’t need this nonsense.
There is enough happening, enough to sort through without some lobby group encouraging people to flood the inbox.
It’s not only unethical, it’s a sleazy, cheap, lazy, demeaning, lame lobbying stunt.
If I was a news director receiving this kind of email, I’d be tempted to ask IT to block everyone that send it in.
I’d fire off a letter to FOTF.
I’d mobilize my news staff to send a personal response to every person who follows FOTF’s suggestion.
I’d assign a reporter to do a story ethical citizenship.
grrrrrrr.
I’m going to go read a book.
via nonprophet who has a personal response from a staff member and a link to an FOTF article about why it isn’t plagarism.
grrrrrrr.
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It is pretty standard lobbying and it is done because it works really well. If you wait a month or two and do a Google search for the letters, chances are they will appear online in countless small town newspapers. The RNC does it all of the time and their “letters” get published in all sorts of papers.
In a former life I helped write that copy for a certain political party (I apologize) and it got into many Saskatchewan papers who needed filler content.
Politicans are always looking for ink or air time.
This is different.
Bene, I think they do this because they know of the laziness of the average believer. Their intent is control of the issues at hand, and by doing this, they can “honestly” claim that it is the “people” who are calling for some action or change, and not the group FOTF. They are generating false interest and reaction by using the very laziness that their opponents do.
Yes, it is rather “worldly”, isn’t it?
I can accept most people aren’t politically involved. By the time they cut and paste they could use a search engine and look up “How to write a letter to the editor” or pick up the phone and call a newspaper and ask.
This degrades people.
It assumes editors are fools. (Human and prone to the same mistakes any of us would make but not fools)
It assumes believers are lazy and uninvolved, and can’t put together 200 of their own words if they wish to.
And you are correct about using their ‘opponents tactics.
The FOTF article put on an article defending what they’ve done and attempting to put the blame on those that see this as inappropriate.
Talk about spin.
Everyone else does it, so what’s the beef?
It would be great if individuals thought about being ethical in the small things - especially when entering the public square.
Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.
Bene, when I served as a manager in a Christian bookshop, I was amazed at the similarities in some of the books published by Dobson. Whole pages the same. Then a customer commented that he believed that they thought of a new name for a book, took out the folder of previously written works and threw it down the stairs. Those pages which landed with type uppermost were gathered, shuffled and republished. OK, obviously over the top, but this seems along the same lines. At least it explained the enormous amount of almost identical copy.
Shalom,Jan
Grab some text from the pre-written stuff and google it on google news. There are a la carte letters to the editor that have been published in newspapers all over the country from this.
That’s depressing.
I’m going back to my book.
My name is Susan and I live in Orlando. Is there a way to get this blog feed in my email?
Hi Susan:
I don’t know if you can receive the feed by email, I guess it depends on your RSS reader.
Since you used a business URL in your comment I’ve removed it along with your business title - this blog gets enough spam. Anyone stopping by from Florida that needs your professional services can use state and local directories.