Congratulations .... you have printed spam in the newspaper

This is an email exchange with the News & Observer.

May 18, 2007, at 8:29 AM
Congratulations ... you have printed spam in the newspaper.

See text, same as earlier post

2007/05/21 Mon PM 05:41:58
Thanks for your reaction to the item in the News & Observer. By printing it, we meant to neither endorse the idea nor imply that it would be effective. Pesonally, I share the skepticism of anyone who doubts that loosely organized consumer boycotts will drive oil companies to their knees, but these kinds of boycotts are being talked about by a lot of people these days -- and that's the only reason for printing it. In a different format, of course (e.g., a news story), we would have discussed the potential effectiveness of the strategy.

May 21, 2007, at 7:29 PM
Thanks for your reply. I didn't infer endorsement, and I still object to your having printed it at all - the fact that it was not the individual's own original thought should have knocked it out of contention.

It's the same as printing a letter to the editor that arrives as a bad photocopy with "Dear N&O" scribbled at the top and the "sender's" signature at the bottom. As I attempted to point out, that particular message has been around since 2001 or so, and to print it as anything other than an example of the stupidest kind of spam is simply bad judgment of the worst sort.