X-Message-Number: 7643 Date: Tue, 4 Feb 1997 23:06:47 -0500 From: Garret Smyth <> Subject: Cryonics marketing - ethics John de Rivaz: > I wonder whether Barry Albin said that 300 people had *enquired*, and this > got translated into 300 people signed up. I wondered that too when I saw the news report, even though the BBC's medical correspondant seemed sure of his figures. If he was mistaken, he wasn't the only journalist to have got the wrong end of the stick. Perhaps someone who deals with Mr Albin could have a word with him about ensuring that journalists he deals with understand the difference between "enquiries" and "members". > I got a letter.. ..from someone in the USA.. ..who said "...Whoever controls the > investments of these 300 people must be sitting on a lot of money..." He had > heard the news on the radio. The BBC World Service is now on both TV as well as radio in very many parts of the world. If it was the BBC that made the mistake then you will make sure that they are made aware of it? There was a reference in the news report to Mr Albin's claim that any cryonics related profits he made went to charity. This has appeared in other media too, so can't be a mistake. Journalists may be cynical, but we are stuck with the ones we've got. Cryonics is not a mainstream activity, hence the interest from the media, and so outsiders - journalists included - look for motives for people to be involved. Someone who provides a service of shipping "the deceased" (as he referred to patients on TV) to a cryonics organisation yet has no personal interest in cryonics and, although he makes money from what both he and most journalists would see as "other forms of funeral" claims not to make any money from cryonics has a bit of a credibility gap in the motive department (from the journalist's point of view, at least). There may be an explanation for this - and if there is please let me know - but the "charity" bit really adds more than just one brick to the wall of cynicism we already face. Don't misunderstand me, I'm trying to demonstrate how some of the journalists I have dealt with think - especially the one that suggested that I exaggerate to make the "story" better. Garret Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=7643