Posted on 09/09/2004 6:50:06 PM PDT by TC Rider
I'm urging all Freepers not to pick up the phone and call CBS.
If you are angry about what Dan Rather and CBS news did on Sixty Minutes II, don't call.
Don't email.
Don't write them a letter or a postcard.
Instead, call your local CBS affiliate, they will answer your calls, they will let you talk to the General Manager, tell them how you feel.
The affiliates are CBS's customer, without the affiliates, CBS has no outlet for ads, without ads, no revenue.
They exert enormous influence over the way CBS does business.
Believe me, when the GMs of the affiliates start calling CBS, they will pay attention.
No, if you're going to make calls, call the money men, the advertisers!
Calling affiliates is pointless. They just say they have no control over the content the network produces, which is correct.
You need to call the source, not the folks on the fringes.
I would frankly hang up on these folks after awhile if I was working at an affiliate.
Freep the CBS Evening News, where Dan Rather's office is based....this gets you to the newsroom:
212-975-3691
Number found on this thread: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1133594/posts
Ask just what "investigation" went into authenticating the memos and whether they will offer an on-air retraction.
Demand they apologize for this EXTREME lapse of journalistic practice and basic skills.
Also, contact the president of CBS News, Andrew Heyward:
Phone: (212) 975-4321
Fax: (212) 975-1893
Tell it to the President of CBS News, Andrew Heyward.
Andrew Heyward -- CBS News
Title: President
Department: Headquarters
Phone: (212) 975-4321
Fax: (212) 975-1893
Address: 524 W 57th St, New York, NY 10019
FAX him. Load his desk tomorrow morning. My FAX is already there.
I basically asked him if he was satisfied having his reputation dependent on Dan Rather and the folks at 60 Minutes.
Maybe we can get some Vietnam Vets to go to New York for us and personally rape, cut off ears, cut off heads, tape wires from portable telephones to human genitals, etc. to Dan Rather and the people at CBS... /sarcasm off
From my post on this thread, regarding complaining to a radio station...
Have your husband call back and ask to speak first to the Director of Sales (the guy who sells the ads).
Tell that guy you're putting together a boycott and it would be easier for you if he'd just mail you a list of advertisers. That way you won't have to be insulted anymore just to get YOUR boycott up and running. Be firm, polite, and insistent. Let him know you're a reasonable person who finds the content he's providing very offensive. And make no mistake: he's the guy behind the content. If he doesn't sell the ads that pay for these two schmucks' show, they won't be on. HE is convincing advertisers to put their money down.
Sales guys are capitalists by nature and he will be FAR more open to your entreaty than the dope-smoking ex-hippie/commie program director (the genius who hired the schmucks)
When you're done pissing the sales guy off, ask him to transfer you to the Director of Operations. Ask that guy for an appointment to look at their FCC license file, and tell him you have a list of complaints you'd like to drop in. Use alot of liberal wording like 'discrimination', 'disenfranchise', 'hate-speech', etc. You know the drill. Tell him you may bring some friends, and you're going to cc the local churches and PTA clubs, etc.
When that's all done, ask him to transfer you to the General Manager. Ask the GM to send you, via certified mail, a list of ownership for the station. Tell him you're putting together an enormous website that links the owners of radio stations to various nefarious anti-american groups. In particular suggest to him that you've pretty well established a link between political organizations, his staff, the stations' ownership and questionable funding trasfers. Casually ask if he's heard from the forensic accountant yet.
The ping me back and let me know how it went.
: )
I don't watch CBS. Does anyone know the 60 Minute sponsors, the night of this report by Slather, and their contact phone numbers and or email. I think alot of calls to them regarding 60 Minute report may catch their attention.
LOL Impressive!
LOL!
Why do I get the feeling you've done something like this before?!
Is it too late to do this today? Please consolidate your advice and start a new thread....with the title, "How Freepers can close the deal on the forgeries or something like that" if enough freepers call and do EXACTLY what you advise, then we can make the difference!
"we don't have any control over what the network does...blah blah blah..."
I worked for an O&O (a station owned and operated by the network, as opposed to an affiliate run by Cox or the like)
Freeping in the manner I've mentioned in post #8 works extremely well... at the network AND when directed at affiliates.
Affiliates get their bread and butter from the small businesses that buy airtime in the one-minute or thirty second 'holes' that the network leaves in all of its programs.
Thus Joe-Bob's furniture can buy a spot in their local station's broadcast of CBS Network news; the network makes it's money on the ads that it sells during the same broadcast.
Talk to the sales managers, and if you can, the national sales manager (one guy sells local car dealers their ads, the other guy tries to sell airtime to McDonalds) at your local station. They'll understand.
Remember: You must talk to sales, not news.
Ping your friends and do it first thing in the morning. Each call to the station represents XX-thousand pissed off people who didn't call.
I can tell you with certainty to avoid the news-side. They laugh at you; they send each other sound files of complaining listeners, and they have a bulletin board where they post your mail.
Union schmucks in the biz are not above calling your house the next time they draw a midnight shift if you're foolish enough to put your phone number or real name on the letter you send.
And make no mistake, any station over about market size 30 (Danville or Peoria Illinois) is going to have union newswriters, reporters, tech people - even the operators are in the CWA.
Go for it- it does work when done the way I have described.
I'll do that.
Everyone responding has good ideas. I just remember when Conan put the crosshairs on Bush at the 2K convention. Everyone called CBS, yet he's still on the air today.
Call CBS news, call the sponsors, but, call the affiliates too. Let them feel the pressure from all sides.
The larger message is CALL. Don't sit on your hands and just b!tch here at FR.
bump
You are MEAN!
Love ya, man...
I second that motion!
WORD...call the local advertisers! Follow the money.
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