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Author, direct marketing guru, and always entertaining Denny Hatch focuses on a major story in the news and shows how businesses can take advantage of–or avoid the pitfalls from–the lessons to be learned in terms of marketing, sales, PR and communications.
Aug 26, 2008
: Vol. 4, Issue No. 48
The Scams, Scandals, Hoaxes, Frauds and Pranks of August
All a bemused observer can say is, 'Whew!'
IN THE NEWS
Sour Grapes
The news that Wine Spectator magazine was scammed into giving an Award of Excellence to a non-existent restaurant has been greeted with guffaws by schadenfreude fans and with fury by the magazine's editor.
--Nick Fox, Diner's Journal, The New York Times, August 21, 2008
The news that Wine Spectator magazine was scammed into giving an Award of Excellence to a non-existent restaurant has been greeted with guffaws by schadenfreude fans and with fury by the magazine's editor.
--Nick Fox, Diner's Journal, The New York Times, August 21, 2008
--KING5.com Staff, MSNBC
--19 Aug. 2008
Defense: Prosecutors bending law for MySpace hoax
LOS ANGELES -- A defense attorney for the Missouri woman charged in a MySpace hoax that allegedly led to a 13-year-old girl's suicide argued in court papers that prosecutors are bending a cyber crime statute to prosecute his client. At issue is whether the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act is relevant to the case against Lori Drew of O'Fallon, Mo. Prosecutors filed voluminous motions last week arguing the statute can be used to prosecute cyber bullying, though it has traditionally been used for crimes such as hacking into computers. The defense filed a thin six-page reply arguing that Drew did not violate the statute.
--Linda Deutsch, Associated Press
--20 Aug. 2008
Researcher: Bigfoot just a rubber gorilla suit
As the 'evidence' thawed, the claim began to unravel as a giant hoax
ATLANTA -- Turns out Bigfoot was just a rubber gorilla suit. Two researchers on a quest to prove the existence of Bigfoot say that the carcass encased in a block of ice--handed over to them for an undisclosed sum by two men who claimed to have found it--was slowly thawed out, and discovered to be a rubber gorilla outfit.
--Juanita Cousins, Associated Press
--20 Aug. 2008
Journal takes on drugmaker 'seeding trials'
Harold Sox doesn't seem like a firebrand ethics cop. But this 69-year-old medical journal editor believed that a message had to be sent to the drug industry about "seeding trials." "It's an imperfect world and there are imperfect motivations," Sox, the editor of the 90,000-circulation Annals of Internal Medicine, said yesterday in his office lined with medical books and educational certificates. On Monday, the Philadelphia-based journal--which is considered one of five major medical journals in the United States and Britain--published an article and scathing editorial on seeding trials. Critics say seeding trials are marketing programs masquerading as legitimate randomized trials of a drug's effectiveness, or side effects. And the Annals of Internal Medicine, which typically keeps a low profile in its offices on Independence Mall, had in its sights the ethics of one of the world's largest and most influential drug companies, Merck & Co. Inc.
--Bob Fernandez, Philadelphia Inquirer
--21 Aug. 2008
Too Old and Frail to Re-educate? Not in China
BEIJING -- In the annals of people who have struggled against Communist Party rule, Wu Dianyuan and Wang Xiuying are unlikely to merit even a footnote. The two women, both in their late 70s, have never spoken out against China's authoritarian government. Both walk with the help of a cane, and Ms. Wang is blind in one eye. Their grievance, receiving insufficient compensation when their homes were seized for redevelopment, is perhaps the most common complaint among Chinese displaced during the country's long streak of fast economic growth. But the Beijing police still sentenced the two women to an extrajudicial term of "re-education through labor" this week for applying to hold a legal protest in a designated area in Beijing, where officials promised that Chinese could hold demonstrations during the Olympic Games. They became the most recent examples of people punished for submitting applications to protest.
See What Readers Are Saying About This Story...
--19 Aug. 2008
Defense: Prosecutors bending law for MySpace hoax
LOS ANGELES -- A defense attorney for the Missouri woman charged in a MySpace hoax that allegedly led to a 13-year-old girl's suicide argued in court papers that prosecutors are bending a cyber crime statute to prosecute his client. At issue is whether the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act is relevant to the case against Lori Drew of O'Fallon, Mo. Prosecutors filed voluminous motions last week arguing the statute can be used to prosecute cyber bullying, though it has traditionally been used for crimes such as hacking into computers. The defense filed a thin six-page reply arguing that Drew did not violate the statute.
--Linda Deutsch, Associated Press
--20 Aug. 2008
Researcher: Bigfoot just a rubber gorilla suit
As the 'evidence' thawed, the claim began to unravel as a giant hoax
ATLANTA -- Turns out Bigfoot was just a rubber gorilla suit. Two researchers on a quest to prove the existence of Bigfoot say that the carcass encased in a block of ice--handed over to them for an undisclosed sum by two men who claimed to have found it--was slowly thawed out, and discovered to be a rubber gorilla outfit.
--Juanita Cousins, Associated Press
--20 Aug. 2008
Journal takes on drugmaker 'seeding trials'
Harold Sox doesn't seem like a firebrand ethics cop. But this 69-year-old medical journal editor believed that a message had to be sent to the drug industry about "seeding trials." "It's an imperfect world and there are imperfect motivations," Sox, the editor of the 90,000-circulation Annals of Internal Medicine, said yesterday in his office lined with medical books and educational certificates. On Monday, the Philadelphia-based journal--which is considered one of five major medical journals in the United States and Britain--published an article and scathing editorial on seeding trials. Critics say seeding trials are marketing programs masquerading as legitimate randomized trials of a drug's effectiveness, or side effects. And the Annals of Internal Medicine, which typically keeps a low profile in its offices on Independence Mall, had in its sights the ethics of one of the world's largest and most influential drug companies, Merck & Co. Inc.
--Bob Fernandez, Philadelphia Inquirer
--21 Aug. 2008
Too Old and Frail to Re-educate? Not in China
BEIJING -- In the annals of people who have struggled against Communist Party rule, Wu Dianyuan and Wang Xiuying are unlikely to merit even a footnote. The two women, both in their late 70s, have never spoken out against China's authoritarian government. Both walk with the help of a cane, and Ms. Wang is blind in one eye. Their grievance, receiving insufficient compensation when their homes were seized for redevelopment, is perhaps the most common complaint among Chinese displaced during the country's long streak of fast economic growth. But the Beijing police still sentenced the two women to an extrajudicial term of "re-education through labor" this week for applying to hold a legal protest in a designated area in Beijing, where officials promised that Chinese could hold demonstrations during the Olympic Games. They became the most recent examples of people punished for submitting applications to protest.
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