Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.issues From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: issues Wed, May 6 1992 Date: Wed, 6 May 92 05:32:34 EDT Message-ID: 05-06 0000 DECISIONLINE: Issues & Debate USA TODAY Update May 6, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network Here are some of the issues and topics being debated across the nation Wednesday morning in USA TODAY: Telemarketing; Reagans; Hostage. TODAY'S DEBATE - TELEMARKETING: USA TODAY'S OPINION: This month, the Federal Communications Commission is taking comments on rules to implement the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by this fall. The much-needed rules will ban auto-dialed calls to emergency lines and require autodialers to free your line within five seconds after you hang up. And commercial autodialed calls to your home will need your consent. Such recorded calls now generate 90% of FCC telemarketing complaints. But some privacy advocates want to make a federal case out of the other 10%. ... The FCC shouldn't waste taxpayers' money pursuing those options. If we want cheaper government, we can't demand protection from every annoyance. ... Consumers can protect themselves without turning Uncle Sam into a junk-call cop. ... We can more easily say no to telemarketers by just hanging up. OTHER VIEW: EVAN HENDRICKS, editor:publisher of Privacy Times: Many Americans consider computerized sales calls an annoying invasion of privacy and want them stopped. By December, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act is supposed to guarantee you the choice of no more phone-sales intrusions. Unfortunately, the Federal Communications Commission is trying to deprive you of that choice by gutting the law. Instead of proposing an easy, low-cost system for you to opt out of receiving unsolicited calls, the FCC would leave the telemarketers in charge ... Moreover, the FCC wants an exemption that would leave automatic dialers free to smoke out your unlisted phone number; an exemption for local boiler rooms; and an exemption for businesses that have a "relationship" with you, so future phone harassment could be channeled through your bank or department store. ... But we can preserve our newfound privacy by mobilizing quickly against the FCC's bid to subvert the law. ... Dial 1-800-NO-CALLS and, for $9.95, you will receive a "privacy care package," including a preprinted post card with critical comments for the FCC that you only need sign and mail in. VOICES ACROSS THE NATION ON PATTI DAVIS' NEW BOOK: TULSA, Okla, Ellin Iselin, 26, TV producer: I always question the motives behind why anyone would go public with negative claims about their own family. I can't say that the incidents Davis wrote about didn't happen, because there are a lot of skeletons in people's closets. But the motive is what worries me. MEDON, Tenn., Jarvis Marshall, 26, customer service representative: It's possible that (abuse) did happen. But I don't think she should be writing a book about it. It's really a family thing. It's really private. LAKEVILLE, Mass., Connie Stinson, 45, barber, stylist: A lot of parents spanked - I wouldn't call it abused - a child back then. Now it is coming out that they should not have done that. The younger generation is jumping on the bandwagon. If they have something against their parents, they're using it in the wrong way. HOUSTON, Texas, Russ Schimmel, 69, retired sales representative: I don't think all of it is true, but where there's smoke, there's fire - and she is selling a book. She feels she really has a grudge against the family and is in a position to vent it and she's taking advantage of that. Later, she'll probably recant and say she's sorry. MOUNT MORRIS, Ill., Domenick Castaldo, 35, nutritionist, editor: I tend to think she's just doing this for publicity. She keeps bringing the same things up, but each time she tells the story, she makes her family situation sound worse. Even if it were true, there would have been more constructive ways to handle it. TOPIC - TERRY ANDERSON: Former hostage Terry Anderson was interviewed in New York by USA TODAY's Lee Michael Katz. CAN YOU EVER BE THE SAME PERSON YOU WERE WHEN ALL THIS BEGAN? I don't want to go back to being that Terry Anderson. Whatever changes have been made to me or I've made, I'd like to keep, because most of them are good changes. Defining the rest of my life, yes, that's what we're doing now. We're defining the rest our lives, and not just in the sense of what are we going to do. Am I going to go back to being a foreign correspondent? Am I going to remain a journalist? Am I going to do something else? That, I think, is important. But it is less important. WHAT'S MORE IMPORTANT TO YOU NOW? How are we going to live? How are we going to be Christians? How are we going to be good parents? I enjoy my life right now in a way I never could have before. I find the world a fascinating and very good place, despite all the bad things that happened. And I'd like to keep that sense of freshness and brightness and focus that I have now. I hope I'm not going to lose it. WAS IT TOO PAINFUL TO TELL YOUR STORY IN INTERVIEWS UNTIL NOW? My first priority when I got out was that we needed time by ourselves just to get away, to get to know each other, to reconnect, to connect with my daughter. I was not ready to simply try to go about my daily life, especially when that daily life was going to be the kind of life that I have to live now. I'm not just a daily, ordinary journalist anymore. Issues & Debate Editor: Beth Mann. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM