INCIVILITY

posted by James Reel

    Perhaps it’s merely coincidental, but shortly after my intemperate post on radio consultants appeared, another blogger declared at her site, “Writing about an organization you work for in a negative way (I’m not talking anonymous blogs; those are another story all together and I'm not going into that for now) seems somewhat foolish.” I agree, and just in case there’s any misunderstanding, I wasn’t complaining about foolishness at KUAT radio, even though KUAZ did switch from jazz to news/talk a few years ago. There were very good reasons for that—like an absolute lack of jazz listeners in the daytime, no matter what the station did to appeal to them—so this was not a case of an idiot station manager kowtowing to doctrinaire consultants. For an example of that, I direct you to Washington, D.C., where there are two public radio stations broadcasting a nearly identical schedule of NPR news and talk programming.
    Immoderate remarks are nearly obligatory in the blogosphere, but I don’t understand why people believe they’ll get far in real life with incivility. My wife and my university professor friends often complain about surly, aggressively ignorant students; do these kids really expect good grades for being needlessly combative, and for openly resisting the education their parents are paying for? There’s a long, honorable tradition of intellectual contests between professors and students, but there’s nothing honorable about being lazy and spiteful and proudly stupid.
    Then there are people who demand customer service in the most obnoxious manner possible. As the Webmaster of Fanfare magazine, every day I get e-mails from subscribers requesting their passwords, or asking help with some aspect of the Web site (usually the subscription process) that has them befuddled. Most are polite, or at least neutral; some are clearly frustrated when they can’t make PayPal work, but they remain civil in their communication. Every once in a while, though, I hear from a real jerk. Here’s a mild example:

    I have never set up an account on line with Fanfare I know this because I subscribed the last time for 3-5 years (I cannot remember which) and paid by check. Until I received you card this week reminding me to renew, I was unaware that you had a web site. SO the [name withheld] you have registered already is obviously a different [name withheld] so what do I do now except:
    1. Stop subscribing
    2. Mail a check
    3. or...you tell me, I have wasted too much time on this lousy website already just trying to renew my magazine for one year.

    This is the only subscriber so far out of hundreds I’ve heard from who didn’t realize that all subscribers have online accounts automatically assigned to them. Not knowing this does not signify a shortage of brain cells, but writing with such needless indignation does suggest a severe lack of manners, if nothing else. I wrote a polite, straightforward reply explaining what he should do (no, not anatomically), and I haven’t heard back from him. Contrition may be too much to ask, but maybe he’s just a little ashamed of himself.