Pizza Hut cancels fundraiser, continues trend toward ineffective communication

Pizza Hut, the pizza mega-chain, canceled a March 28 fundraiser to raise money for the West Memphis Three legal defense fund after receiving several calls and at least one email claiming the chain would be supporting "child murderers" if the fundraiser went on. The fundraiser is a pretty standard operation at most Pizza Huts: members/supporters of a certain group show up on a given date/time with a coupon. They eat, enjoy and when the bill is tallied, 20 percent of their bill goes toward the organization/charity.

This is the latest event in support of the infamous West Memphis Three to be plagued with spam-like comments.

The fundraiser had been scheduled for several weeks when word reached organizers that Pizza Hut was pulling the plug. A recent Digital Journal post quotes an email received by Pizza Hut which reads, in part:

My friends have endured 17 years of people trying to raise money and get new trial for the convicted murderers and now we have a guy who is using Pizza Hut to raise money for this.
Please stop this, as this is assisting the defense to get 3 convicted child murderers out of prison.

The letter is signed only "George W. Jr." Mike Ledford, organizer of the event, said he received over 30 emails and Facebook messages from non-supporters across the country which he described as "hate mail."

Meanwhile, an upcoming University of Memphis event discussing the role of the media in the case (shameless plug - I am going to be one of the panelists at the discussion, I'm so excited!) has had problems on its Facebook page with comments like, "Y'all people are pathetic."

These things really make one point very clear: this topic is as controversial as ever, even 17 years after the murders. And public discussion is in need of some serious revamping. We need to be able to talk about this case, even though there are some very strong emotions involved, in a rational and calm manner. The fact is that this case is going to have some very strong influences on the way the law in Arkansas, and possibly the country, is interpreted and practiced - and without serious discussion, the lessons could be lost.