Columnist Ruthe Deskin: Let’s play dialing for guilt

Ruthe Deskin

Thursday, Aug. 3, 2000 | 9 a.m.

Ruthe Deskin is assistant to the publisher. Her column appears Thursdays. Reach her at deskin@lasvegassun.com.

So why do I feel guilty? The pestilence known as telemarketing has become a No. 1 pet peeve for many of us, and seems to be accelerating in frequency and intensity. The latest gimmick is to get personal by using first names.

The phone rings. Answer, and a pleasant greeting sounds something like this: "Good morning, Ruthe, how are you today?"

You are caught off guard for a moment, and that is just long enough for the spiel to begin. It could be a carpet-cleaning service, an investment opportunity, a request for a charitable contribution, a chance for an out-of-state trip to a new retirement community, an offer of a special prize, a loan company, an inexpensive telephone service, delivery of groceries and fresh meat, a house-painting company and, with the political season upon us, pollsters.

The latter is easy for me. I don't give information about my politics via the phone. Sometime back I decided on a routine answer -- "Thank you but I am not interested." At one time I had used, "I don't do business over the phone," but it only seemed to encourage the other end of the line.

Often telemarketers will become very aggressive and insist on explaining their offers. Hang up. What's most frustrating of all is to discover that the call is a recorded message. As you politely decline the recording drones on. Hang up.

Naturally, most calls come at meal time, during a favorite TV show, or in the middle of an afternoon nap. The idea that my phone line, for which I pay dearly, is being used by someone to conduct a profitable business is galling. And private lines are no guarantee against telemarketing. Someone explained to me how the numbers are called, but it's too complicated for a lay person to understand.

So why do I feel guilty? Every time I politely decline to listen I think that there is someone on the other end of the line just trying to eke out a living. Maybe it's a guy trying to feed his family and pay the rent, or a single parent, or a senior citizen needing to augment a small retirement income. It's not a career option for most, but a way to keep the wolf from the door. The hard-core business professionals are the exception.

Guilt or not, I'm still hanging up with a "No, thank you," but if ever anyone comes up with a way to eliminate solicitations by phone, please call me.

From the sublime to the ridiculous. That seems to be the road taken by the Nevada Ethics Commission if it is actually considering the banning of newspaper and magazine articles being entered as evidence in ethics cases.

Granted, such material should not be the basis for indictment, but certainly should be accepted as evidence and then investigated. We all know how damaging statements can be taken out of context, but good reporting is based on fact, not fiction.

To disallow the articles and reporting of the media and educators as evidence is foolhardy. Investigators from the commission should have no problem ascertaining the truth of published material. Those who would bar media reports as evidence need to be reminded that the publication of false information, in itself, is unlawful and subject to libel laws.