Woman quits job at call center over anti-Obama script

[Hubert Flottz]

By Paul J. Nyden
Staff writer

WESTON, W.Va. -- Chaylee Cole, a student at Fairmont State University, lost her part-time job in Weston last Friday after refusing to make telephone calls attacking Barack Obama.

McCain-Palin 2008 and the Republican National Committee were paying for the calls, according to a "work paper" handed to Cole and her co-workers at the Weston offices of 1.2.1 Direct Response, a company based in Philadelphia.

"I was working at the call center," Cole said. "We got a campaign ad talking about how Obama had been part of terrorist attacks on the Capitol, the Pentagon and a judge's home and had ties with Bill Ayers.

"Last Thursday, I told them I did not want to read it," Cole said. "They said, 'Either you read it or you go home.' MORE...

http://www.wvgazette.com/News/200810210727?page=1&build=cache

Chaylee Cole is my hero! Thanks for doing the right thing Chaylee!

[MountainLaurel]

1. Wow . . . this hits close to home

I know a lot of people (friends, family members) who work in the call centers in that neck of the woods. (Other than the FBI fingerprint center, the call centers are the biggest employers in that area.) I wonder how many other people there did not have the courage to stand up or believed the bull they received.

[Hubert Flottz]

2. 'Robo-call' company flooded with e-mails

Other employees were upset, company president says

The president of 1.2.1 Direct Response, the company that made news earlier this week when an employee quit because she was asked to read anti-Barack Obama statements over the phone, said Chaylee Cole wasn't the only employee who was upset.

Cole, a student at Fairmont State University, was sent home from her part-time job at the Weston offices of the Philadelphia-based public relations company on Oct. 16, after she told her supervisors she did not like the ad. Cole said she quit the next day.

"We work for a lot of different clients. We only worked during the last couple of weeks on the political front," said company president Stuart Discount.

Discount said other company employees at his Weston offices also "did not want to participate in the campaign. MORE...

http://www.wvgazette.com/News/200810230681