Posted on 09/10/2003 12:46:15 PM PDT by PhiKapMom
URBAN LEGEND -- RNC OUTSOURCING to INDIA is FALSE and DEFAMATORY (RNC Email)
Recently, an article published on two web sites in January is being again circulated among some independent "news" sites and bloggers. The article contains incorrect information about the "US Republican Party" using call centers in India to solicit contributions. It is becoming an urban myth perpetuated by these bloggers and too often making it into some real news sources. Below you will find the letter sent from our Legal office to one of the sites asking them to pull the article.
Please feel free to share/forward this letter to anyone that may ask about this situation.
-----Original Message-----
From: Charles Spies - Legal
Sent: Friday, August 29, 2003 1:23 PM
To: 'shishirb@rediff.co.in'
Subject: REQUEST TO CEASE AND DESIST
Mr. Shishir Bhaee
Editor
Rediff.com
Via E-mail: shishirb@rediff.co.in
Dear Mr. Bhaee:
It has come to the attention of the Republican National Committee ("RNC") that you have posted on your website an article entitled "Bush's party to raise funds via Noida, Gurgaon" with the byline "Bipin Chandran in New Delhi | January 31, 2003 11:59 IST."
That article contains false information that is defamatory to the RNC, and we hereby demand that you remove the article from your website and cease and desist from publishing this false information. Specifically, the article states:
"HCL eServe, the business process outsourcing arm of the Shiv Nadar-promoted HCL Technologies, has bagged a project to undertake a fund-raising campaign for the US Republican Party over the telephone."
The term "US Republican Party" can only be interpreted as referring to the RNC, and the RNC has never contracted with the referenced companies. In fact, all vendors for the RNC are contractually obligated to have their phone calls originate from the United States. If the author of the article had bothered to check with the RNC, we would have been happy to confirm this for him or her.
Although the referenced article is now six months old and discredited, the unfortunate fact is that individuals in the United States are continuing to cite to it in an attempt to make cheap political attacks against the RNC and President Bush.
Through this letter Rediff.com and you personally are now on notice that you are publishing false information. The RNC takes these matters very seriously and we trust that you will do the right thing and immediately pull the article from your website. If this false publication does not immediately cease, the RNC will pursue all available legal remedies. Please call me at (202) xxx-xxxx if you have any questions regarding this matter.
Cordially,
Charles R. Spies
Election Law Counsel
Republican National Committee
Please send RNC an email if you see this letter posted or in print!
Thanks!
hey the RNC OUTSOURCING to somewhere...
At least that the the rumor I am starting.
Here it tis, boys....the article you refused to believe.
UPI, Feb 19, 2003
In what it says is an "exclusive," the Buzzflash Web site has posted a news analysis that reads as though the Republican Party and the Bush White House had been caught sending telemarketing jobs to India.Citing a story from the New Delhi Business Standard, the unsigned analysis says, "Bush has launched, surreptitiously, a 'bold' new jobs programs for telemarketers in India. Of course, this 'bold' program means that these 75 jobs have been lost to American workers in need. ... And what will this 'band of young and enthusiastic (Indian) fund-raisers be doing for the Bush GOP Cartel? Why raising money for the Republican coffers, of course."
There are two problems with the story. First, it already appeared in New Delhi's Business Standard; in fact, Buzzflash links to the story on its Web site. It also appeared on the rediff.com Web site -- an Internet portal focusing on India -- and in the Feb. 6 edition of the Washington Times, meaning it's not "exclusive."
Buzzflash says that, with the exception of the Business Standard piece, they were unaware the story had been published elsewhere before they wrote about it. Fair enough. But that leaves the second, and larger problem: It's not true, at least not in the way the analysis implies.
The Republican National Committee, through spokesman Kevin Sheridan, completely denies the allegation, telling UPI, "Any report that the Republican National Committee has hired HCL eServe -- the firm mentioned in the original Business Standard article -- is a case of bad reporting, bad business practices or both. The RNC has no affiliation with HCL. Any inference to the contrary is flat out wrong. The RNC has informed both HCL and rediff.com of the inaccuracy of this report."
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