Entries Tagged 'Awful Publicity' ↓

Not much more that we can say about this, other than to point you to the sad story of Maxwell “Toot”, a cute little dog in Texas who was killed when a Sears delivery driver refused to stop in his owner’s driveway.

A member of the owner’s family had held up his hand, and while the driver initially stopped, he continued after pausing, and ran over the dog. Sears’ excuse was that, “most dogs move out of the way.” Yes, someone from Sears actually said that.

Read the account here, and don’t forget to let Sears know what you think of this:

Contact Sears: (847) 286-2500 [Executive Customer Service line]

Update: Wells Fargo donates $25,000 to help animals on foreclosed farm.

When Dan MacKenzie, a Glocester, Rhode Island farmer, lost his property to foreclosure earlier this week, the bank that repossessed the farm - Wells Fargo - refused to allow MacKenzie access to the buildings to care for the animals that were housed inside.

Wells Fargo Bank also refused the help of the Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RISPCA), telling the Society that it would make arrangements to care of the animals itself.

Dr. Ernest Finocchio, the president of the RISPCA visited MacKinzie’s property on Tuesday, and discovered that many of the animals, including eight horses and two pigs, had not had any water to drink.

Finocchio placed a bucket of water in front of the horses, and seven of the eight horses drank from the bucket without any hesitation, an indication that they had not been given any water in a long time.

Until Wells Fargo allows MacKenzie back onto the property, students from the University of Rhode Island’s veterinary care program are helping the RISPCA care for the animals.

Let Wells Fargo know what you think about their behavior in this case:
Call Wells Fargo: 888-818-9147

The East Syracuse/Minoa School District in Central New York is declaring war on Christmas this year, and it’s putting Santa Claus right in the crosshairs.

The district, in suburban Syracuse, sent home a letter to parents that stated that programs involving a singular tradition were not allowed to take place during regular school hours. They were directly referring to the long-standing tradition of Santa Claus visiting children in their classrooms.

Parent Patti Puma told TV station WSYR, “We are going to take [petitions] to the school board to say to them maybe there is one family who doesn’t want it, but there are a whole lot more that do and that there really is no legal precedent to take Santa Claus out of the school or to celebrate other traditions.”

What do you think - should the East Syracuse/Minoa Schools allow Santa back in the classroom?

Let them know:
E-Mail Dr. Donna DeSiato Superintendent of Schools or call the district office at (315) 434-3012

In this new information age, newspapers are having a hard time hanging on to their old business models, and are struggling to hold on to readership and monetize their on-line content.  The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has obviously not run into this issue, or they wouldn’t be shooting themselves in the foot by getting people fired when they post to the paper’s online comment boards.

So here’s the scoop - Post-Dispatch columnist and Social Media Director Kurt Greenbaum posted a note on the Talk of the Day section of the newspaper’s Web site, stltoday.com, asking readers to write in and comment on the strangest thing they’ve ever eaten.  It was somewhat related to a story the paper had run on eating venison.

Well, before you know it, someone writes in on the comment box “Pu**y.”  For those of you who can’t read between the *’s, it is a feline expression for a part of a woman’s anatomy.  Got it now?  Good.

The moderators at the stltoday.com site removed the post, and the commentor tried again, and it was removed a second time.  Now, here is where the line was crossed.

In violation of the newspaper’s privacy policy, Greenbaum traced the IP address of the anonymous commenter to a private school, and contacted the headmaster of the school to tell him of the two offending posts.  He also provided the headmaster with the IP address of the poster’s computer, and timestamp information that allowed the IT staff at the school to pinpoint the exact computer and who was using it at the time the comment was posted.

The poster turned out to be a school employee (we don’t know yet if it was a faculty member, support staff, administrator, etc.) and that employee, when approached by the headmaster, resigned from the school upon hearing that his comments had been traced.

After the employee resigned, the headmaster called Greenbaum to let him know how the incident played out, and Greenbaum blogged about it on his personal blog, as well as on his blog on the stltoday.com site.

So what’s the lesson here?  Don’t trust the news media with your IP address - your anonymous comments could be tracked down by an irate editor with an axe to grind!

What do you think - was Greenbaum in the wrong here?  Let the St. Louis Post-Dispatch know how you feel:

E-Mail: generalmanager@stltoday.com
Telephone: 800-365-0820

Nathan Johns, a fourth-grader at Van Buren Elementary school in Baldwinsville, NY came home earlier this week and told his dad, James, that he was in trouble for wearing a New York Yankees t-shirt at school.

The 9-year-old claims that his teacher, Peter Addabbo, instructed him to go into the bathroom and turn his shirt inside-out. The shirt Johns was wearing that day was blue, and read “New York No. 52” on the front and “Sabathia” for the Yankees’ pitcher C.C. Sabathia, on the back.

Addabbo is a Boston Red Sox fan, according to Nathan, and the classroom is decorated with Red Sox paraphernalia. “Just because my teacher doesn’t like the Yankees I should still have the right to wear a Yankees shirt,” he told the Syracuse newspaper, the Post-Standard.

After complying with his teacher and reversing his shirt, Nathan was teased on the playground at lunchtime by students from fifth-grade classes. He continued to tell the paper, “It was such a horrible day, I don’t ever want anything like to happen again.”

Baldwinsville Schools Superintendent Jeanne Dangle claims that the district is conducting an investigation into the student’s claims, and has told his parents that she will report back to them in a few days.

“I was stunned, absolutely flabbergasted,” Nate’s dad told the Post-Standard. “I couldn’t believe it. He was distraught. The school preaches all about not allowing bullying, and this really felt like he was being bullied.”

What do you think, was the Red Sox supporting teacher in the wrong here? Let the school district know:

Van Buren Elementary School
Phone: (315) 638-6121
Principal: Terry Bick

Baldwinsville School District
Phone: (315) 638-6043
Superintendent: Jeanne Dangle

District e-mail contact: pmckenna@bville.org