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OMG...Could this be true?
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<blockquote data-quote="Marguerite" data-source="post: 332070" data-attributes="member: 1991"><p>I hate it when the person who sends you the rubbish then gets angry when you shoot it down. But if I DON'T shoot it down then tis person will continue on their merry way spreading misinformation and increasing the tendency of people to simply press 'forward' without thinking or questioning.</p><p></p><p>Even the media do this, increasingly. In a newspaper/magazine office, press releases flood in all the time. Many of them are thinly disguised (or not disguised at all) advertising for this product or that. "Researchers are thrilled with their latest discovery - a treatment to eliminate obesity, once and for all!" You look into it (if you have a brain) and discover that the "researchers" are the company's own R & D people; that nothing has been published in peer review journals (thereby giving it some scientific validity) and that it comes with a hefty price tag and no guarantees.</p><p>But reporters who these days seem too lazy or too busy to take the time out to actually do an interview, or do some independent research, simply take the press release verbatim and put their own name to it. The company, by working their advertising as a press releases, wins because it gets published as a news story (and therefore they don't have to pay the hefty advertising fee for it) plus by having it labelled as news, people will be more likely to believe it to be true.</p><p></p><p>In the past a reporter doing this would be sacked. But these days it is done all the time. The journal I worked for (for a while) used to get the company to also pay for an ad and would ten put the ad plus the article (usually written by the company's advertising people, never by us) right next to the ad. That way they capitalised on the coverage, plus got a boost in sales. Highly immoral, the Press Council should have taken action but again, not these days...</p><p></p><p>I ALWAYS reply to debunk an email, but I do recognise that you have to be really diplomatic. With your security bloke, Step, if you've expressed your response as diplomatically as possible, "Thank you for your recent interesting email. Unfortunately, it is not true, although we may wish it to be. I have included for your information some other background research into this very topic."</p><p></p><p>If he accuses you of insubordination after that, then he's clearly trying to cause trouble. Unless he is the sort of person who has to know everything, has to always be right, has to control everyone else's opinions and doesn't like to be disagreed with. Someone I know (I avoid calling her a friend) does this - she sends out either misinformation (although she's getting better at checking it out) or strongly biased political right-wing stuff (often US-based but disguised as Australian) and ten gets really upset if I even reply. One time I replied and worded it very carefully; I even made it look as if I was agreeing with her, but she detected a hint of "I have a different view on this" and attacked me by return email. I think all I said was, "It was very interesting to read those opinions. There are a wide range of views on this topic, it is a very difficult problem." She picked up on the "wide range of views" and accused me of "shoving your left wing propaganda down my throat."</p><p>As if she hadn't just shoved her (actually someone else's, but adopted by her even though she doesn't understand it) right-wing propaganda down the throats of everyone in her address book!</p><p></p><p>At least I had the option of cutting off contact with this person. It's not so easy in the workplace. However, surely if he keeps this up, you could let the boss know that this is happening? It does waste office time and energy, especially if he gets abusive about your response saying you don't want it and it's not relevant. Unless he IS the boss, of course...</p><p></p><p>Marg</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marguerite, post: 332070, member: 1991"] I hate it when the person who sends you the rubbish then gets angry when you shoot it down. But if I DON'T shoot it down then tis person will continue on their merry way spreading misinformation and increasing the tendency of people to simply press 'forward' without thinking or questioning. Even the media do this, increasingly. In a newspaper/magazine office, press releases flood in all the time. Many of them are thinly disguised (or not disguised at all) advertising for this product or that. "Researchers are thrilled with their latest discovery - a treatment to eliminate obesity, once and for all!" You look into it (if you have a brain) and discover that the "researchers" are the company's own R & D people; that nothing has been published in peer review journals (thereby giving it some scientific validity) and that it comes with a hefty price tag and no guarantees. But reporters who these days seem too lazy or too busy to take the time out to actually do an interview, or do some independent research, simply take the press release verbatim and put their own name to it. The company, by working their advertising as a press releases, wins because it gets published as a news story (and therefore they don't have to pay the hefty advertising fee for it) plus by having it labelled as news, people will be more likely to believe it to be true. In the past a reporter doing this would be sacked. But these days it is done all the time. The journal I worked for (for a while) used to get the company to also pay for an ad and would ten put the ad plus the article (usually written by the company's advertising people, never by us) right next to the ad. That way they capitalised on the coverage, plus got a boost in sales. Highly immoral, the Press Council should have taken action but again, not these days... I ALWAYS reply to debunk an email, but I do recognise that you have to be really diplomatic. With your security bloke, Step, if you've expressed your response as diplomatically as possible, "Thank you for your recent interesting email. Unfortunately, it is not true, although we may wish it to be. I have included for your information some other background research into this very topic." If he accuses you of insubordination after that, then he's clearly trying to cause trouble. Unless he is the sort of person who has to know everything, has to always be right, has to control everyone else's opinions and doesn't like to be disagreed with. Someone I know (I avoid calling her a friend) does this - she sends out either misinformation (although she's getting better at checking it out) or strongly biased political right-wing stuff (often US-based but disguised as Australian) and ten gets really upset if I even reply. One time I replied and worded it very carefully; I even made it look as if I was agreeing with her, but she detected a hint of "I have a different view on this" and attacked me by return email. I think all I said was, "It was very interesting to read those opinions. There are a wide range of views on this topic, it is a very difficult problem." She picked up on the "wide range of views" and accused me of "shoving your left wing propaganda down my throat." As if she hadn't just shoved her (actually someone else's, but adopted by her even though she doesn't understand it) right-wing propaganda down the throats of everyone in her address book! At least I had the option of cutting off contact with this person. It's not so easy in the workplace. However, surely if he keeps this up, you could let the boss know that this is happening? It does waste office time and energy, especially if he gets abusive about your response saying you don't want it and it's not relevant. Unless he IS the boss, of course... Marg [/QUOTE]
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