Comments on My Teen Mania Experience: Teen Mania's Communications Consultant Caught in L...

Question: is it part of orientation to hand out &q...

2012-01-31T21:42:32.829-06:00

Question: is it part of orientation to hand out "pat responses" to new interns? I'm wondering if they're given several "options" of how to deal with any kind of criticism.

What I've heard from basically EVERY SINGLE TM supporter is:

a) Of course there are problems, just like any organization BUT..... (fill in the blank)
b) Our leaders are only human, after all BUT (fill in the blank)
c) Sure, there were some not-so-great things that happened when I was there, but (fill in the blank)
d) throw in some reference to putting on your "big girl panties".

Seriously. It's kinda creepy how everybody seems to say the same thing.

Also, if the service was terrible or the food was ...

2012-01-16T11:15:43.217-06:00

Also, if the service was terrible or the food was bad, then the restaurant deserves to get a bad review, doesn't it? And the bad review is thus completely accurate (even if it's "biased"), and should serve as a warning to future customers and an incentive for the restaurant to improve.

As Anon points out, a restaurant that responded to negative reviews by saying "Only a handful of disgruntled customers have ever complained about finding rat droppings in their hamburgers" would shortly go out of business, and no loss to the world.

Of course, maybe this is a moot point as Yelp has no shortage of positive reviews for services that are actually good.

Let's just say for a second that the restaraun...

2012-01-15T20:11:40.971-06:00

Let's just say for a second that the restaraunt comparison is legit...would you go to a restaraunt that had reports of roaches in the food? Even if only say, 1 in 10 or even 1 in 50 people had that experience?

Tim, I told Cindy (see comments on my blog) that I...

2012-01-15T19:46:50.705-06:00

Tim, I told Cindy (see comments on my blog) that I would be willing to talk with them about my concerns. I never heard back from Cindy until I reached out to Mr. Luce on Twitter. I also emailed Cindy and Mr. Luce about my concerns and expressed ways they could write on blogs ethically, more professionally, and even more strategically.

Also, I sought wise counsel from people who are wise and not at all involved in Teen Mania or RA to ask them if they thought my situation warranted posting on a blog I have expressed concerns about.

How is this blog post reaching?

Tim, you don't love me or anyone here. You hav...

2012-01-14T22:29:43.538-06:00

Tim, you don't love me or anyone here. You have displayed that with your comments and your blog that CONSISTENTLY minimizes our pain and enables our abusers.

You are not welcome here.

Seems like you are really reaching just to have a ...

2012-01-14T21:41:25.554-06:00

Seems like you are really reaching just to have a reason to say something negative. That doesn't fit into the framework of seeking reconciliation, which above all else, Jesus calls us to. Check out 2 Cor 5.18.

I love you guys, and am praying for the RA bloggers.

Tim

The comment Cindy made about a bad experience at a...

2012-01-14T21:24:52.699-06:00

The comment Cindy made about a bad experience at a restaurant reminds me of the anon 9:20 post on my story http://www.recoveringalumni.com/2011/08/gabrielles-story.html
about a bad experience at disney land.
Seems that it might be a popular to compare teen mania to a restaurant or vacation.

Wow, for someone that has only been working for TM...

2012-01-14T14:55:30.889-06:00

Wow, for someone that has only been working for TMM for a less than a month, you are not off to too great a job there Cindy.

I have to apologize. She's not an intern, she ...

2012-01-13T23:36:56.420-06:00

I have to apologize. She's not an intern, she gave me the IMPRESSION she was an intern in the course of tweeting.

LizBR: Agreed. In fact my current day job involves...

2012-01-13T23:02:21.679-06:00

LizBR: Agreed. In fact my current day job involves SEO and social networking presence for a publisher, so I'm naturally OK with that.

However, a company editing their own Wikipedia page directly violates Wikipedia's terms of service (see WP:Conflict of Interest), not to mention being very obviously deceptive. A quick trip on Google will reveal news stories of several companies and individuals who got massive PR black eyes (at very least) for doing just that.

LizBR is correct. Hiring SEO, social media, and i...

2012-01-13T22:58:20.723-06:00

LizBR is correct. Hiring SEO, social media, and inbound marketing employees is completely acceptable...and necessary today!

Editing your company's (or a company that has hired you to edit) Wikipedia is not ethical and it violates Wikipedia's policy.

I told Cindy this is was the way to respond to my blog: If you wanted more info[rmation about what I meant in my blog post], the appropriate, professional, and ethical way to handle it would have been to write, "Teen Mania hired me to help them with their promotion of different ministries...I'd like to know more about your concerns." That is a completely different tone.

(Let's try that comment again and see if I can...

2012-01-13T22:54:47.637-06:00

(Let's try that comment again and see if I can do it without breaking the HTML. Sorry!)

Further red-handedness. Teen Mania has repeatedly edited their own Wikipedia page (see the history on their page where their IP address continually appears) to censor any controversial content, such as deleting any references to the unflattering news reports on ESOAL. Here's the incriminating user page on their IP.

Note especially the most recent moderator comment:

"You have been blocked again, for longer. For seven years you have been carrying on a concerted campaign to bias Wikipedia in favour of Teen Mania Ministries, and suppress any information unfavourable to the organisation. It is amazing that you have lasted so long with only a couple of short blocks. Also, please do not attempt to evade the block by editing from a different IP address, as you did the last time this IP address was blocked."

For seven years! This, obviously, is yet another massive conflict of interest and against Wikipedia's own terms of service. (I'm sure Mandy can provide some examples of the other times when corporations have been caught doing this and been highly embarrassed in the media.)

The wise words of How Cults Work are relevant as usual: "Legitimate groups have nothing to fear from their members reading critical information about them."

@Eric: This is nitpicky in regards to TM paying pe...

2012-01-13T22:45:59.532-06:00

@Eric: This is nitpicky in regards to TM paying people to post things on blogs, but I think we need to be careful to differentiate between TM employing people to manage social networking and web presence (totally okay and ethical business practice) and Teen Mania employees/consultants misrepresenting themselves like what has happened here (unethical).

I think there has been plenty of evidence that TM has hired SEO and social networking employees, but that in itself isn't unethical.

Teen Mania is totally justified in hiring people to manage their social and media presence. However, as Mandy so well explains in her post, this is a misuse of that strategy. I just don't want people to confuse legitimate SEO strategies and social media management with what appears to be happening here.

2012-01-13T22:42:12.363-06:00

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2012-01-13T22:40:51.335-06:00

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I think her sister is only looking

2012-01-13T20:57:50.426-06:00

I think her sister is only looking

No, she's not an intern. There was some confus...

2012-01-13T19:55:41.305-06:00

No, she's not an intern. There was some confusion about that because of her tweets...but she is an adult who works as their communication consultant. It does appear that her sister is a current intern.

Soooo... Cindy is an intern?!?! W. T. F.?!

2012-01-13T19:34:42.025-06:00

Soooo... Cindy is an intern?!?!
W.
T.
F.?!

Carl, good point. Since any psychologist worth hi...

2012-01-13T17:36:10.491-06:00

Carl, good point. Since any psychologist worth his/her salt would know it's a breach of ethics, makes you wonder if that person wasn't a psychologist, and maybe not even a parent! Maybe some staffer wanting to sound credible & beef up the "testimonials" page?

This is my Twitter conversation with Cindy, starri...

2012-01-13T16:10:09.993-06:00

This is my Twitter conversation with Cindy, starring an appearance by the awesome Mandy, who clarified something I hadn't thought to. I'll post more as it occurs.

Me: oh, are you an intern?

Cindy: Going through gauntlet week and meeting great people. What about you?
Me: Alumni
Cindy: Cool :)
Me: So when do you graduate? Are you an August sitting through January Gauntlet or a January going through your first Gauntlet?
Me: I don't seem to have gotten a response to my tweet, did it get lost?
Cindy: Aren't you an RA blogger? Why didn't you identify yourself? How many interns are you contacting the same way?
Me: I'm quite open about my affiliation with the RA community and I was honest about the fact that I'm Alumni.
Also, I don't contact interns. I contacted *you*.
I'm still waiting for you to clarify what you said, btw. Not planning on forgetting that any time soon.
Mandy: RA is not an organization. It is just a bunch of individuals. She is not an employee.
Me: Thanks for clarifying that. I am also not the main organizer, and I never misrepresented myself.

Anon, you just named TWO people who do that!!

2012-01-13T14:34:09.151-06:00

Anon, you just named TWO people who do that!!

Cindy's comment reminded me of Heath Stoner an...

2012-01-13T12:02:37.445-06:00

Cindy's comment reminded me of Heath Stoner and Dave Hasz.
they way she asked all those questions that dont make sense.
who does that?

I can hardly say that I'm surprised by this. ...

2012-01-12T23:37:14.050-06:00

I can hardly say that I'm surprised by this. It isn't really the first time I've seen Teen Mania violate ethical standards to make their own point. I recall a letter on the now defunct Response website. It was from a professional psychologist. He talked about how his son had been an intern and the HA had a positive effect on his son's life.

One of the first thing I learned about psychology ethics is that you cannot have more than one relationship with a client. The psychologist cannot offer a professional opinion on the impact of the HA on his son's life because he cannot offer a professional opinion on his son, period. He mentions casually knowing other former interns, but unless they are his clients, he cannot offer an opinion on their lives either.

In reality, the letter was just a parent proud of their child's accomplishments and satisfied with the role the HA had in those accomplishments. However, by stating himself as a professional psychologist, the letter attempted to mask his position as a professional opinion, which he cannot actually offer.

One could argue that Teen Mania didn't know that the letter was unethical, however the psychologist should have. I know, it's gone now, but it always rubbed me the wrong way.

Hey Eric, that commenter on the other blog is TMM&...

2012-01-12T22:16:04.835-06:00

Hey Eric, that commenter on the other blog is TMM's Social Media Manager. Not good.

I find it disturbing that these so-called "Ch...

2012-01-12T21:17:03.897-06:00

I find it disturbing that these so-called "Christians" seem to adhere to a lower standard of ethics than one would expect from any responsible adult, regardless of whether or not they are religious. If, as Jesus says, "By their fruits you shall know them," I don't see how Teen Mania can claim to have any sort of divine endorsement.