In article <5d80tu$3gu@fcnews.fc.hp.com>, perry@fc.hp.com wrote:

>Subject: Re: Wayne Whitney - Picketing Adventures
>From: perry@fc.hp.com (Perry Scott)
>Date: 4 Feb 1997 18:59:10 GMT
>
>WWhit71151 (wwhit71151@aol.com) wrote:
>: Hi Everyone,
>
>Hi Wayne. You need to fix your formatting. Some newsreaders don't
>wraparound lines.

Let me know if my replies come out O.K. I have no way to tell on my end.

>: After I was done picketing for the day I headed home. When I got
>: back to Hayward I got on the bus. Who should I run into but the very
>: same guy that I met in front of the Org. It turns out that he was also
>: going all the way back to Livermore just as I was ( two busses and
>: approx. 20 miles away ).

>This is quite a coincidence. I think you've been Op'ed.

Someone else also made that suggestion. Jeff Quiros HAS kind of been snapping and snarling at me these past few weeks. Maybe they really ARE trying something new to get rid of me. God knows none of their usual methods have been working.

My opinion is that it was probably just a good ole fashion con job. I've been hustled so many times since I've been out there picketing and I've successfully blown them all off. This guy (Glenn) is the FIRST one that got to me. He did it by offering me something I REALLY, REALLY wanted - another chance to get on TV to get my story out. He sounded SO sincere and SO beleivable. There were just SO many little things that he said and did that added so much credibility to his whole story. > > >: While we were traveling home he said he was so interested in my >: little crusade. He told me that he had a bunch of relatives that worked >: at channel 2 and that he could get me on TV. He then rattled off their >: names. When he found out where I worked he said that his father also >: worked there for 30 years, until his death from cancer. He then started >: rattling off so many facts about where I worked that only a person who >: worked there would have known. He even spontaneously mentioned several >: people that I worked with in my building. All of this added credibility >: to what he had been telling me. > >This "spontaneous" information could be gleaned from other sources. Note >that you did not ask any questions, such as "what color are the buttons >on the elevator?". In God We Trust, but others we verify.

It was HIS FATHER that worked at the lab so I didn't expect Glenn to know minute details like that.

>If Channel 2 (KTVU, right?) was interested, you could have gotten names
>from this man and called them directly.

I kept trying to do JUST that. I finally got the guys name (Ed Brown) but when I called the station nobody I talked to had heard of him.

In our next converstion Glenn said, "Oh he's semi-retired, he used to work there full time but now he just freelances for them. I've know him for 23 years and he's a good friend of mine. When he heard your story he decided to do this as a favor for me AND for you." (Glenn never knew that I called the station to check up on him. He just volunteered this on his own.)

It happens that my own dad is also semi-retired and also freelances for the place he used to work. Because of this fact Glenn's explaination seemed fairly plausable to me. I felt uncomfortable about being kept in the dark like this but I accepted the situation nontheless. It's interesting that when I did the thing on channel 53 I was also pretty much kept in the dark. The producer was very busy and she didn't get back to me with the specifics until just two days before the taping. I figured THAT whole thing turned out well, maybe this was the same kind of situation. I kept going along rationalizing.

When I tried to get Ed's home phone number I was told, "I don't know his number right off hand but I'll get it for you and bring it over with me next time." Every time I tried to ask questions about what was going on Glenn would say, "I don't want to say too much because I don't want to give you any misleading facts. Wait till you talk to Ed because he can answer your questions so much better than I can. If you've got questions, write them all down and I'll make sure they all get answered.

>: This guy said he wanted a copy of my story, copies of my invoices and
>: copies of my account statements so that he could present them to the
guy >: at the station at Jack London Square.

>What account statements and invoices? Why could you not present them
>yourself to "the guy at the station"? My BS detector went off at this
>point, but you're writing this from 20/20 hindsight. Don't feel too
>bad.

At the time I figured that I was just me, a virtual nobody in the scheme of things. What chance did *I* have to get on a major TV station. Glenn had convinced me that he had connections there and that he could definitly get me an interveiw with them. I thought that through him I would have much more clout. Besides, he said that Ed wanted to check out MY story first to make sure that I was for real before setting up an actual interview with him.

Apparently, if you've got a story or idea you send it to Sharren in the newsroom (this I verified). She throws it on her pile and maybe eventually reads it and decides if they're interested. If they are they call you. By going through Glenn I felt I had a much better chance of getting heard. Because of this I reluctantly decided to keep going through him. Besides, he told me that he already had an initial appointment set up for me that Tuesday and that I should start writing down how I wanted to present myself. These are some of the reasons that I didn't put my foot down harder or try to bypass him.

>: He even said that he had 18 then later 25 people lined up ready to
>: picket with me. I even saw the list of potential picketers.

>Too bad you didn't get a copy; could have gotten it crosschecked
>on a.r.s. against past "Freedom" magazines.

I tried to get the list but he said he was going to have it all typed up so that I could keep it all organized with all my other files (invoices, story, notes, etc.). He told me that he would have the typed up version ready for me in a couple of days. I saw the paper that he had scribbled all his notes on, names, addresses, phone numbers, a whole wealth of contacts. All the way from picketers to picket sign makers. I was to get it all. From that paper it REALLY looked like he had done a lot of footwork for me already. This all added credibility to his story.

>: Up to this point it all looked and sounded SO legitimate,
>: like I was really going to have a chance to get my story out to a wider
>: audience. The guy sounded so believable, you just had to be there to
>: hear for yourself.
>
>Hubbard was believable, too. There are no con-men that are NOT
>believable. It sounds like you learned something.

YEAH! NEVER TRUST ANYONE UNTIL THEY PROVE THEMSELVES FIRST.

Everytime I feel like I'm on the verge of losing something important I have a tendency to forget this golden rule. I didn't want to blow this chance so I apparently took leave of my common sense for a bit. I was very frustrated that I couldn't picket and now here looked like a good chance to keep the pressure on in another way. I went for it! I sure hope someone can learn from my mistake, especially me. That's why I'm posting it.

>: It was at this point (after Id made a financial commitment) that
>: things started getting really weird. Without going into details Ill
>: just say that things got too weird, even for me. I finally decided to
>: cut my loses and call the whole thing off at the last minute. Was it
>: the right decision? I guess Ill never know now.
>
>I think you made the right decision.

I sure hope I did. By the way, I still believe I have 35 professionally made picket signs out there somewhere. The guy who made them called me and said they were ready to pick up. I wonder where they'll end up now.

Who knows, maybe Glenn would have eventually come through for me. All I know for sure is that I was unwilling to go out on a limb any further with this. It was beginning to look too much like the road I ended up on in Scientology. Someone I didn't know, keeping me groping in the dark trying to grab something they promised me THAT I REALLY WANTED.

>Perry Scott
>Co$ Escapee