Re: Fluorescent Bulbs Are Known to Zap Domestic Tranquillity; Energy-Savers a Turnoff for Wives

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Dave Houston" <nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:464b3994.164877781@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> "Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> >Ever been interviewed by a reporter?
>
> Been there, done that, got a scrapbook full of such fictions. Of course, I
> wasn't always as meek and mild-mannered as I am in CHA - I'm mellowing
with
> age. ;)
>
> Actually, I tried to educate the NYT reporter whose inflated figures first
> caught my eye. I emailed him with links to DOE statistics for residential
> and industrial electricity end uses, telling him I couldn't find similar
> reports for the commercial sector. He responded by saying the commercial
> sector figures for lighting were high enough to support his overall figure
> (IIRC, 22%). I disagreed and suggested he could get accurate figures from
> EIA (maybe even later, unpublished ones, given his position). He didn't
> respond. I now view all his environmental articles with a wary eye.

Even if you were to find a published, vetted study that showed the figures
were questionable, the result would still be the same.  It's the new
America, where people are conditioned from birth not to be responsible for
their words or actions.  See the nearby alarm contract thread for details.
(-:

About the only time I've gotten through to reporters is when there's a beat
switch and I can say "Your predecessor wasn't accurate . . ."  That doesn't
put them in such a defensive mode.   The WashPost recently redid their site
(to increase the number of clickthrus) and I got into a discussion with
their Executive Editor.  He claimed that although the posted comments about
the new design were almost completely negative, his private email was much
more positive.  Sure.  Joe McCarthy had a similar list.  They took down the
online comments the very next day after someone else pointed out that anyone
who ever lost a Usenet argument resorted to the same "I have supporting
emails but I can't post them because they are private" trick.

The bottom line is that news organizations are not much different from any
other organization.  They can dish it out, but when their turn in the line
comes, they don't seem to take it as well as they give it.

--
Bobby G.