Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: David Gast Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: AT&T Change in Corporate Donations Policy Message-ID: <6131@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 5 Apr 90 20:52:54 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 47 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 237, Message 2 of 8 AT&T which has donated money to Planned Parenthood for years recently decided to stop donating money. I recently called AT&T to find out if it was true that they had capitulated to right wing extremists. After getting through a voice mail system (I despise all VM systems), the operator asked me how I got the number. (I told her it was common knowledge). She asked: "You remembered it?" (Obviously, one of the boxes on her form). Yes. Then she asked for my telephone number. I said I didn't want to give it. She said she had to know before she could answer any question. I told her "123456789." After typing that number in, she told me that she really had to have it. I suggested that AT&T had ANI and so she she did not need to ask me for my number. I also pointed out that AT&T advertises ANI and recently lowered it rates for ANI. She said that she knew what ANI was, but that she did not have it. I said I only want to know if it is true that AT&T really stopped giving to Planned Parenthood. She read me a press release stating all sorts of things that AT&T supports. When she had finished, I read her a couple sentences from the paper and asked her if it was true that AT&T had caved into right-wing extremists? She found a few more paragraphs in PR-speak to read to me about Planned Parenthood, but I really did not think that she believed them. I asked her if she thought that denying a woman the right to make choices about her body was a good decision? She wanted to say no, but she finally said that she did not want to comment, that it was AT&T policy. I thanked her very much and hung up. What I don't understand is why AT&T would cave into these right wing extremists? Could it be that one of the right wing extremists in the proper bureaucratic channels (or elected ones) suggested that denying funding to Planned Parenthood would result in favorable rulings? I would not mind telling her my phone number as part of my call. I am pro-abortion and I don't mind admitting it. I object to giving my phone number as condition of speaking and as part of a marketing survey, however. I am opposed in particular since some unscrupulous companies have been known to use that information to bill the customer for unwanted services (like new long distance carriers). David Gast gast@cs.ucla.edu {uunet,ucbvax,rutgers}!{ucla-cs,cs.ucla.edu}!gast