The Honolulu Star-Bulletin is a newspaper that really sucks. A right wing rag that is now threatening to publish my phone number and encourge people harrass me. Their letter to the editor employee - Nancy Christenson - has gone balistic on me. She doesn't like my letters and rather than being a good journalist - she feels the need to threaten people who don't agree with her narrow point of view.
She called my phone number and hung up. But she wasn't bright enough to block the caller ID which came up 808-529-4700 which is the main phone number for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin
She's also made several attempts to break into my news list by sending email to the list using my email address as her identity - essentially trying to impersonate me and hack into my server to send email to my list of newspapers. And - if she really wanted off my list there is instructions at the bottom of each message to be removed - and the instructions actually work.
Here's some of the email we've exchanged. Her comments are in Red.
> Yes - you can publish my email address with the letter - but not the
> phone number.
If you ever send us your spam again, we will publish your address and
telephone number so you can enjoy being hassled the way you hassle others.
Its not spam - it is a letter to the editor. You are a newspaper aren't you?
I was not engaging you in conversation. You are not one of our readers, and
that is not a letter to the editor. You send us hundreds of these messages
each month, which makes is spam, whether you admit it or not.
Remove the Star-Bulletin from your spam list at once.
I am about to send you another letter. I do not give you permission to publish my phone number. If you publish it - it will be an act of malice. If you don't know what the means you should consult a lawyer.
You are laughably naive. Do whatever you want, little boy -- we'll never see it.
You're pathetic.
Are you really an employee of the Star Bullitin? How is it that you are getting my letters in the first place? (Turns out she really is!)
So - you're calling me up and hanging up on me? Geez - that's really mature of you.
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I'm probably the most published letter to the editor writer in America. I send out a few letters a week to my list of newspapers and papers like USA Today run my letters on a regular basis. So do New York Newsday - Time Magazine - Chicago Sun Times - Kansas City Star - and the Dallas Morning News to name a few.
Normally I ignore threats. I get right wingers threatening me all the time and I just look at it as a sigh of success. If I'm not pissing off Bush supporters then I'm not doing my job. But this is a newspaper threatening to use its power to try to harrass me out of my free speech rights and it pisses me off. In the online world - I control more readers than they do - and one of the things I enjoy doing is exposing corporate and government misbehavior. So - screw you Honolulu Star-Bulletin! You're just another Bush Family Evil Empire publication.
Posted by marc at March 17, 2004 05:14 AM | TrackBackI thought spam was unsolicited commercial email. Key word being commercial in this case.
I dunno, Marc. One of these days I'll read about how you committed suicide by shooting yourself in the back.
Posted by: Andrea at March 17, 2004 09:59 PMYou're a nut.
Posted by: Vortican at March 30, 2004 09:19 AMTo Andrea:
Spam need not be commercial. Junk is junk.
To Marc:
> I control more readers than they do
Control me. Go ahead, I dare you.