Comments and The Ugliness That Ensues

I’ve always been subjected to hate mail when working with Sportsman Channel. Its standard that we’ll receive a few hateful emails every now and then. And then when Facebook became hot, we found some on there as well.

Usually I think nothing of it. Some people are against hunting and there’s nothing I could ever say in an email that will appease them. But lately, the haters are getting me a little down.

It started with the Olympics when shooter Corey Cogdell, who obviously shoots a shotgun very well, mentioned she also enjoys hunting. So the haters came out in full force and on twitter told her to “shoot yourself” amongst other hateful, nasty, things. Read an article here: http://www.examiner.com/article/liberals-to-olympic-shooter-corey-cogdell-shoot-yourself

Its one thing for a television network to get hate tweets, but quite another for a young lady who just received a medal.

As usual, the outdoor industry backed her up. We sent her positive tweets and messages. But I’m sure those nasty words still got into her heart and stayed there – it hurts and it doesn’t go away very fast.

Then, our network showed a very controversial episode of wolf hunting. It was good timing for the show with the amount of publicity wolves are receiving in the news. And the flood of hate emails opened once again. I even received phone calls.

I was going to share some of the comments just so you can get an idea. But I don’t really want to spread the negativity on my blog. Just think the worst thing someone would email someone they don’t know – and then add to it.

Visit any website with an article on hunting (especially wolf hunting) and read the comments. The “haters” are out in full force and what they’ll stoop to print online is amazing. Here’s an interview with a known wolf activist in my local paper, and 47 comments after it. http://comments.startribune.com/comments.php?d=content_comments&asset_id=166620736&section=/sports/outdoors&comments=true

Note the comments about them wishing hunters would die – or get the same treatment as the animals they are hunting (i.e. death by rifle?) And what really is interesting are the amount of “facts” people throw out as truths in their comments. Like they pick up their little fact during a Google search, so it must be true.

I asked a friend if there was another PR profession that has to deal with the literal amount of crap I handle. We couldn’t think of anything except for in the political field. No wonder PR was listed as number 7 in the “Top Stressful Jobs” – between “Event Coordinator” and “Corporate Executive.”

The exact things that make social media so great are also what I hate about it. The ambiguity. The quick response time. The ease of spreading a virus and riling people up can be used for good…or bad. I think its the ambiguity that gets to me. People creating fake accounts only to attack your verbally. They don’t use real names and they most certainly don’t have a real photo for their avatar. Some of the emails I received at the network used emails like janepublic@hotmail.com. An obvious fake email. So you are emailing and not allowing a response? How do you even know if the person who the email was intended for even received it? Or does it just make you happy to send it off – just to get a little steam off?

I’m curious how other companies handle hate mail. Does Coke-Cola get hate mail? How about 3M? Do they monitor their Facebook page and social media accounts for negative remarks? Do they keep them or toss them? I would love to see someone speak on this at a social media conference – or even a conference in our own industry: How to Handle the Haters.

How do you handle it? I would love to hear other perspectives. Thanks for reading.