Email Hoax Not A Hoax This Time... No, Really, We Mean It

from the bill-gates-will-really-give-me-$1,000? dept

The downside to something becoming a well known email hoax is that should it ever happen for real, most people won't believe. That, apparently, is the problem faced by a group of people who are pushing out an email campaign to try to save federal funding for PBS and NPR. In the late '90s, a similar email started making the rounds, but it was based on more of an urban legend than reality. So, the new campaign tries to back up the claim with clear footnotes pointing to the current situation -- but, part of the reason they went with an email campaign was because they realized how quickly and how far the original hoax email spread. Of course, now how will Microsoft ever convince people that they'll get $1,000 for forwarding an email to 1,000 people as a way to test their new email program?
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  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 20 Jun 2005 @ 8:06am

    Why is government support needed?

    The interesting part is that there are plenty of corporations who would happily support either of these stations. If this is the case, why is government support needed?

    As for Children's TV, let's keep in mind that Sesame Street pulls in over a billion (that's a b) in merchandising each year.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 4 Jun 2007 @ 1:41pm

    Government backing is needed, because these are PUBLIC stations. That means public support and public accountability. Even so, the public funding of these stations are decreasing more and more each year. The quality of the programming, luckily, is not.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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