Donald Hall's Words Twisted Around by Poetry.scam?

I had a scathing post all written up, and I was ready to hit the "publish" button, but I decided to take another look at the press release.

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Yes, that "lovely" piece of prose is not a real journalistic piece, but a poetry.scam press release that was designed to make it look as though Donald Hall is endorsing poetry.scam, when, in fact, he merely says that children should submit their poems to publications. Notice that he doesn't specifically refer to Poetry.scam at all; the writer was very careful NOT to state explicitly that Donald Hall was referring to poetry.scam; otherwise, Donald Hall could possibly sue them and cause all kinds of grief for that company; this company is known for operating just inside the law.

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However, the authors of that press release want the reader to make that association. Evidently, poetry.scam has hired a fine rhetorician who knows how to plant associations, where, in fact, there may not be any, into the reader's mind through insinuation and juxtaposition of two slightly related facts: Donald Hall's take on children writing and submitting poetry and poetry.scam pushing their bogus contest. It is a well known fact that if two instances are placed side-by-side, without a bridge or explanation, observers will assume the two are related, when, in fact, they may not be. Poetry [dot] com wants you to believe that Donald Hall has endorsed them, but they haven't overtly stated this, which leads me to believe that Hall has NOT endorsed poetry.scam. Otherwise they would have trotted him out big time. Hall may be totally unaware (and, perhaps, even horrified) of how his rather benign words to school children were appropriated and woven into that insidious text.

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In addition, the press release appears on a valid site--in this case, the KCRA 3 website, offering it yet another level of respectability.

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This company plasters the dunderhead media with its press releases, which gives the impression that this company is a non-profit that has only goodwill toward small children and old ladies, when, in fact, it is a multimillion dollar for-profit shark corporation.

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I don't know why the media continue to give this outfit free advertising, but they do, and I can't tell you how many times I have had to deflate my students' egos when I tell them they have been scammed.

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Because we are a bit of a watchdog site (perhaps a lot more tepid version of Foetry), we do have to weigh our words carefully; we should not hurt anyone needlessly. I can see how the press release could be interpreted in the wrong way; I, too, had my finger triggered on that "publish" button.

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So based on what I read in this press release, I have no reason to believe that Donald Hall has endorsed poetry [dot] com.

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If there is evidence to the contrary, send it to me tomorrow; I have saved the other post on my Word Perfect.

Best,

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Bugzita