MIAMI (AP) - Telemarketers are now screening their calls, instead of the other way around.
The American Teleservices Association isn't laughing at Dave Barry, not after the Pulitzer Prize-winning humor columnist for The Miami Herald listed the group's telephone number in his Aug. 31 column and sparked a flood of phone calls to the group's offices.
Barry told his readers to call and ``tell them what you think.''
``I'm sure they'd love to hear your constitutionally protected views! Be sure to wipe your mouthpiece afterward,'' Barry wrote.
Thousands of Barry's readers have done as they were told, forcing the association to stop answering its phones. Callers now hear a recording, which says that because of ``overwhelming positive response to recent media events, we are unable to take your call at this time.''
``It's difficult not to see some malice in Mr. Barry's intent,'' said Tim Searcy, executive director of the ATA, who said the added calls will be costly to his group because of toll charges and staffing issues.
Barry hardly sounded apologetic.
``I feel just terrible, especially if they were eating or anything,'' he said. ``They have phones like the rest of us have phones. Their attitude seems to be if you have a phone, people are allowed to call you.''
ATA officials have said about 2 million of the 6.5 million people working at telemarketing call centers across the nation will lose their jobs because of the rules that established the nationwide ``Do Not Call'' list.
Barry also attacked that logic in the same column.
``Of course, you could use pretty much the same reasoning to argue that laws against mugging cause unemployment among muggers,'' he wrote. ``But that would be unfair. Muggers rarely intrude into your home.''
Barry's column is syndicated to about 500 newspapers across the country.
The American Teleservices Association isn't laughing at Dave Barry, not after the Pulitzer Prize-winning humor columnist for The Miami Herald listed the group's telephone number in his Aug. 31 column and sparked a flood of phone calls to the group's offices.
Barry told his readers to call and ``tell them what you think.''
``I'm sure they'd love to hear your constitutionally protected views! Be sure to wipe your mouthpiece afterward,'' Barry wrote.
Thousands of Barry's readers have done as they were told, forcing the association to stop answering its phones. Callers now hear a recording, which says that because of ``overwhelming positive response to recent media events, we are unable to take your call at this time.''
``It's difficult not to see some malice in Mr. Barry's intent,'' said Tim Searcy, executive director of the ATA, who said the added calls will be costly to his group because of toll charges and staffing issues.
Barry hardly sounded apologetic.
``I feel just terrible, especially if they were eating or anything,'' he said. ``They have phones like the rest of us have phones. Their attitude seems to be if you have a phone, people are allowed to call you.''
ATA officials have said about 2 million of the 6.5 million people working at telemarketing call centers across the nation will lose their jobs because of the rules that established the nationwide ``Do Not Call'' list.
Barry also attacked that logic in the same column.
``Of course, you could use pretty much the same reasoning to argue that laws against mugging cause unemployment among muggers,'' he wrote. ``But that would be unfair. Muggers rarely intrude into your home.''
Barry's column is syndicated to about 500 newspapers across the country.
