POSTAL OFFICIAL RAPS FOX-TV FOR SCURRILOUS PROGRAM

United States Postal Service ^ | December 10, 2003 | Azeez Jaffer

[Kudsman]

POSTAL OFFICIAL RAPS FOX-TV FOR SCURRILOUS PROGRAM

WASHINGTON - In an unprecedented move, a senior U.S. Postal Service official called upon the nine million employees of the mailing industry and the three-quarters of a million employees of the Postal Service to contact the head of FOX Entertainment Group to protest the scurrilous and abusive depiction of postal workers in a "Mad TV" segment set to air Saturday.

In a promo for this coming Mad-TV show, two postal employees are seen brandishing guns, talking about a shooting spree as customers cower near the floor.

In a reference to the movie "Network" - starring Peter Finch - Azeezaly S. Jaffer, Vice President of Public Affairs and Communication declared, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore. For the last year, I've been working hard to 'Set The Record Straight' whenever a media outlet takes an unfair swipe at the Postal Service or its employees. And this is unfair. It's ugly. It's untrue. It's an insult to every man and woman in the Postal Service."

Mr. Jaffer issued a special message to employees and reached out to its postal partners in the mailing industry advising them of what was happening and urging them to contact Sandy Grushow, the Chairman of FOX Entertainment Group.

In August 2000, the U.S. Postal Service Commission On A Safe And Secure Workplace issued a 249-page report following a two-year study. The groundbreaking report includes the most comprehensive survey ever conducted of violence in the American workforce and was prepared by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

As Commission Chairman Joseph A. Califano Jr. noted, "Going postal is a myth, a bad rap causing unnecessary apprehension and fear ...This report should shatter the myth that postal workers are more violent than other workers and discourage the pejorative use of that expression."

Mr. Jaffer noted, "It's my guess that they didn't even read it, and they probably just gave it a few seconds on their news show."

Mr. Jaffer told employees offended by the promotion of the program, "As our holiday commercial says, no one works harder or goes farther to keep us all connected for the holidays. That was true in 2001 when you were at the front lines in the war on terror. It was true last year. It's just as true this year. And this is what we get from FOX."

He appealed to employees "to join me in setting the record straight. I've never asked for your help before, but I need you with me on this one. Together, we're going to turn the volume up so high that senior executives at FOX hear us loud and clear - and pull this insulting piece. Funny's funny. And this skit isn't. Let's take the skit - and a lump of coal - and stuff it in FOX's Christmas stocking with the clear message, "Return to Sender!"

Contact: Media Relations 202-268-2155
Release No. 098 www.usps.com

[Kudsman]

All USPS employees in my office were handed a copy of this on the workroom floor. Good use of revenue?

In August 2000, the U.S. Postal Service Commission On A Safe And Secure Workplace issued a 249-page report following a two-year study.

Please allow me to inform some of the type of USPS "commision" or "workplace committees" I have been acquainted with. They start with a Statement or "finding" and then manufacture/edit all sorts of data to support said Statement. To heck with facts and what the craft employees say. The service's theory is absolute. For those who may be unaware, the USPS craft workforce is heavily weighted with military veterans (and in the case of the NALC over 92% organized). Hence our affinity and proficiency with guns.

[Prime Choice]

All good satire is founded in truth. There's a reason why they call it "going postal"...

[Doctor Stochastic]

From an old Mad cartoon showing two postal workers tossing packages into a truck:

First Worker: "You know that package marked FRAGILE?"

Second Worker: "What about it?"

First Worker: "They were right."

[Tribune7]

to contact the head of FOX Entertainment Group to protest the scurrilous and abusive depiction of postal workers in a "Mad TV" segment set to air Saturday.

Real good move. Tell the public it's controversial and when it's going to air.

Nobody's going to watch it now. < /sarcasm>

[freebilly]

Mr Jaffer... appealed to employees "to join me in setting the record straight. I've never asked for your help before, but I need you with me on this one. Together, we're going to turn the volume up so high that senior executives at FOX hear us loud and clear - and pull this insulting piece. Funny's funny. And this skit isn't. Let's take the skit - and a lump of coal - and stuff it in FOX's Christmas stocking with the clear message, "Return to Sender!"

Sorry, Jaffer, if the shooting fits, wear it....

[new cruelty]

Azeezaly S. Jaffer, 'you're a stranger! Stay away from my danger'.

[WackyKat]

If the Post Office has any sense, they will fire Jaffer.

By making a big deal out of this, he drew the attention to it of millions of people who otherwise would never have heard of the episode

What an idiot

[jwh_Denver]

First Worker: "You know that package marked FRAGILE?"

When I was a postal worker the standing joke was "How many fragile stamps did we break today?"

[Lawgvr1955]

I wouldn't give this guy too hard a time. You don't want to PO a postal employee. Ever since I saw "Three Days of the Condor" I have feared the mail man.

[breakem]

I may be in some time warp, but I saw this last week. There were two white guys, one played by a Dr. from Scrubs and a third guy, heavy set black guy from the cast, comes in during the skit. They all argue over who gets to shoot the place up and then decide based upon seniority.

[Dont Mention the War]

I hope this MAD TV skit makes some postal worker really, really ANGRY.

[joesnuffy]

The post office is a place of violence and intimidation...its run by gang mentality
and affirmative action..discrimination against non ethnic persons is institutionalized

The best thing that could happen to this giant waste of tax payer dollars
is privatization...its a long overdue...

imo

[Doctor Stochastic]

The postman always shoots twice.

[Lawgvr1955]

The postman always shoots twice.

Good one!

Did anyone see the Seinfeld episode when Kramer stopped his mail and Wilford Brimley played the Postmaster General and intimidated him to take his mail? Excellent episode.

[martin_fierro]

[tbird1]

Wonder what the basis of your opinion is??
I worked for 38 years in the Postal Service.--During the first 20 years, there were Colt 45's placed at strategic places on workroom floors!!! Not once did I hear of any shootings, except when robberys were attempted. All employees knew where the guns were. I think that the problem today is a lack of self-discipline of young people coming into the workplace, who have absolutely no concept of TEAMWORK, to get the job done.
tbird1

[NMFXSTC]

I have always questioned the mentality of an institution that can;t get a half ouce envelope acroos town in less than four days, yet maintains a stamp botique in it's facility!

Maybe it's time we halted this ever changing stamp motif and got out of the artsy business and into delivering mail? The money wasted on new and exciting stamps every month or so has got to be more than enough to obtsin better equipment and devlop better delivery methods!

Why is the US government in the art business and collecting business?

[#3Fan]

Naked Gun 33 1/3 is on right now and they have a gang of Postal Workers with AK-47-type weapons rampaging a hotel. Why all of a sudden are they protesting it?

[hunter112]

I guess when they watched that movie, they were all gruntled.

[Kudsman]

You don't want to PO a postal employee. Normally I would agree, but this fellow is Vice President, Public Affairs and Communications. In other words part of the brain(less) trust at L'Enfant Plaza (HQ). Truth be known probably a Socialist Elite working at propaganda central with an axe to grind with FOX. I've searched everywhere for the guys e-mail. I would love to show him what a real FReep is. This is an update showing he has received a whopping 4000 replys.

[TigersEye]

My wife is a mail carrier who services a rural route. It is unbelievable how hard she works. Today she worked in freezing rain turning to snow coming down on the 18"'s of snow we had two days before. Tomorrow she'll run the route with 4"'s of new snow on top of that ice. The cost of her Jeep Wrangler right wheel drive comes out of her pocket.

During the anthrax scare she sat through day after day of 'training sessions' or whatever they call them. She isn't paid by the hour so that was on her time. She goes out of her way to make all of her customers feel special and make their service the best. Her hands are cut and bruised by the old rusty mailboxes with sticking doors but at least she hasn't opened one with a bomb in it like several Postal Workers did last year.

I built houses in the CO winters for several years from foundations to framing to rock work but it's not as hard as what she does. Not as important either. I was replaced by illegals who can't read or speak English long ago. They couldn't do her job.

[Kudsman]

Craft or management?

[Lawgvr1955]

I wouldn't take the jokes about postal workers too much to heart. Most people genuinely like their postal carrier. When I see humor directed to postal workers, I figure it is simply that; a joke, etc. Heck, I am a lawyer and don't take most lawyer jokes as personal.

Don't tell my mom I am a lawyer, I don't want to disappoint her. She thinks I am a piano player in a brothel.

[GOPcapitalist]

All good satire is founded in truth. There's a reason why they call it "going postal".

Just last week wasn't there some postal employee who went nuts and killed himself in Deely Plaza on the spot where Kennedy died.

[Fledermaus]

Hey Mr. Post Office guy...it's called comedy you idiot. If you don't like being the butt of the joke, too bad.

Geez.

[Criminal Number 18F]

I think that Azeez Jafffar has just about zero sense of humour. Where did the USPS find him? Laundering terrorist money at CAIR? Those guys have the same inability to take a joke.

"Going Postal" is in the ever-lovin' dictionary now. He might as well hang it up.

I think I will draft him a nice letter telling him that I am a gun importer and would like to make a "US Postal Service Commemorative Uzi." I figure it will be the first assault weapon to ever kill anybody without actually existing. Poor Azeez will see it mentioned on paper, and his head will explode.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[Lion Den Dan]

maintains a stamp botique in it's facility!</>

If only one could buy the stamps that are offered. In our local KY post offices, the Purple Heart, American Flag, Eid and a stamp commemorating some Marxist are readily available. Try to buy any thing else that is on display and they laugh.

[foreverfree]

bump

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

A friend of mine was once the senior editor of a magazine about a specific team in the NFL; they bulk mailed subscriptions every Tuesday, and one week their headline said, [Team A] GOES POSTAL ON [Team B].

The postmaster actually complained to him about it, and implied that if they were to see something like that again, it could impact their level of service.

Unbelievable.

(They started mailing the paper inside an envelope after that.)

[TigersEye]

You're right. They tell these jokes to each other too.

Don't tell my mom I am a lawyer, I don't want to disappoint her. She thinks I am a piano player in a brothel.

Subject: Dads Job

It was the first day of school and the teacher thought she'd get to know the new kids by asking them their name and what their father does for a living.

The first little girl says: "My name is Mary, and my daddy is a mailman who delivers mail to big government buildings."

The next little boy says: "I'm Andy, and my Dad is a mechanic at a Porsche dealership."

Then one little boy says: "My name is Jimmy, and my father is a striptease dancer in a cabaret for gay men."

The teacher gasps and quickly changes the subject. Later in the schoolyard, the teacher approaches Jimmy privately and asks if it was really true that his Dad dances nude in a gay bar.

He blushed and timidly said, "No, my dad raises money for the Democratic Party, but I was just too embarrassed to say it."

[tbird1]

ALL employees.
tbird1

[John O]

Hey Azeezaly, chill out dude. Don't go all postal on us

[Justa]

Pompous, psychotic, disengenuous, violent, pack-minded communist, anti-free enterprise, union thug bump.

[#3Fan]

Could be. lol

[Lawgvr1955]

Good one!

[TexasCajun]

Note to US Post Office:

Stop Making Your Employees Crazy!!...or

Stop Hiring Crazy People!!

Problem solved.

[raccoonradio]

I've worked as a postal sorter since 1986. We did get a "service talk" and memo about the MAD-TV sketch. I didn't
email or call Fox to complain and I actually did see the sketch when it aired.
It was really just the old "going postal" joke recycled. A couple postal workers lose their cool and grab their
guns, etc., but nobody gets shot. At the end, someone who _isn't_ a postal worker enters the lobby intending to rob the place and the "disgruntled postal workers" promptly
turn their guns on HIM, and we see a newspaper headline:
suddenly the postal workers are heroes for foiling a
robbery.

The sketch wasn't all that funny. Was I offended? Slightly.
I just wish Fox would give equal time to all the good
things postal workers do. There have been cases of
elderly people who collapse in their home and the mailman
discovers them and saves them. Postal workers who do all
kinds of things for charity--including helping our own
(the Postal Employee Relief Fund has helped many postal
workers who have been affected by floods, wildfires,
etc.)

I won't call for a boycott of Fox or anything, but again
it would be nice if they maybe showed the _good_ things
postal workers have done (even just pointing out how
many billions of pieces of mail we collect, sort, and
deliver, in a timely fashion and for a pretty cheap price.

Once in awhile, a letter that falls behind a file cabinet
or something is discovered..."hey, look at this--
it took 72 years for the post office to deliver a letter!
Ha ha ha!" Yes, and what about the millions of letters
that get delivered in 1-3 days?

Well, the post office does take the usual jest about things like that. And not the first time we've gotten
razzed by Mad (in this case it was Mad TV). I remember
a song parody of "Deck the Halls" in the magazine itself
that went something like:

Wrap your gift with fingers agile
Fa la la la la (etc.)
Send it off and mark it fragile
Fa la la
There's no reason to be nervous
Fa la la
You can trust the postal service
Fa la la

See the package speed to Philly...
Through the air to Cousin Billy...
It will wind up in Havana...
Via Nome and Butte, Montana... (etc.)

[raccoonradio]

>>to contact the head of FOX Entertainment Group to protest the scurrilous and abusive depiction of postal workers in a "Mad TV" segment set to air Saturday

Maybe the USPS should tell Fox they won't advertise on their network anymore. USPS ads have aired on NFL
Football and various entertainment programs. Just have the postal service (my employer) tell Fox they're pulling their
advertising.

Money talks. :)

[DeathfromBelow]

But in reality isn't your wife a "contract employee" not eligible for full benefits like those who take up guns and blow away their co-workers and supervisors. I looked at that game and saw it wasn't worth it.

P.S. THE PO declared something like a 4 BILLION dollar profit this past year????

[DeathfromBelow]

and... why the hell do they have to advertise? It isn't like I can go down the American alternate Post office and mail a letter... Hello!

[raccoonradio]

>>"Going postal is a myth, a bad rap causing unnecessary apprehension and fear ...This report should shatter the myth that postal workers are more violent than other workers and discourage the pejorative use of that expression."

There have been workplace shootings in all sorts of
businesses. Not far from where I am, a software company employee (Michael "Mucko" McDermott, who has been
convicted of murder) killed 6 co-workers the day
after Christmas. How about the fragging incident
in Kuwait last March**, where a soldier intentionally threw
a grenade into a tent? Do we refer to that as "going
Army"? It's not just the postal service...

**--"Sgt. Hasan Akbar, 32, a soldier in the 101st Airborne Division, will face a hearing at Fort Knox, Ky. Two soldiers died and 14 were wounded in the early-morning attack on three tents March 23, days before the brigade invaded Iraq."

[raccoonradio]

Yes...but the P.O. figures they have to advertise to help
revenue (we're paid for not by tax dollars but stamp
and other merchandise sales). Things like collectable
stamps, T-shirts, and other postal-related merchandise
help keep postal costs low. At least that's what they've
told us...

[raccoonradio]

...in other words, sales of ancillary merchandise, etc., gives us money to pour into buying equipment that can
efficiently sort mail, thus keeping stamp prices low...
37 cents to send a letter from Florida to Alaska.. :)

[dakine]

Lighten up, Francis...

[Tribune7]

Actually, just end its monopoly privilieges. Give Fed Ex & UPS a chance to deliver mail. The law prevents this now.

[N. Theknow]

What does it mean when the flag is at half-mast at the Post Office?

They are hiring.

[raccoonradio]

>>Maybe the USPS should tell Fox they won't advertise on their network anymore

As it turns out, the USPS did pull their advertising from
Fox as a protest of the sketch.

[raccoonradio]

>>Actually, just end its monopoly privilieges. Give Fed Ex & UPS a chance to deliver mail. The law prevents this now.

Well, the Post Office only has a monopoly on first class
mail. Other types of mail (newspapers, parcels, etc.) can be delivered by any delivery service. If the USPS loses its first class exclusivity, the other services that step in would NOT guarantee delivery to each and every address in the country, as the USPS now does. (One would hope that the USPS would continue that policy if the monopoly were
to end, but privitization would inevitably mean that
the USPS would wind up cutting back delivery, too.
Our monopoly guarantees that EVERYONE gets service.
Stop that, and soon the complaints would come forth
about addresses not being served; post offices being
closed down, etc.)

So you live in the boonies up in Maine and have to drive
70 miles to Portland to pick up your mail....that doesn't happen now.