MoveOn's Big Oops!
Heehee... a lesson in how fact-checking is always a good idea, regardless of the medium:
Liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org last Friday sent out a mass e-mail to D.C. voters castigating Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) for her vote against fully funding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.Now, apart from being ridiculously tacky on the part of MoveOn (which has, otherwise, done some really great things), this email illustrates another point. Email is a quick and easy thing to do, which is great for rapid response... but the same standards you might use for direct mail, campaign ads, and other traditional political media still apply.
There were only two problems, as Norton immediately pointed out via fax. First, as a former National Public Radio (NPR) commentator, she fully supports NPR and the Public Broadcasting System. Second, because she represents the District of Columbia, she has no vote on the House floor.
My favorite part:
Little more than an hour later, MoveOn obliged with a new e-mail that blamed the earlier snafu on a “database error.”
4 Comments:
Wow, that's...WOW. I guess there is another MoveOn staffer looking for work today.
With all new forms of power come new responsibilities. I guess MoveOn will learn to engage their brain before they press the send button.
This just proves that email is a get tool to get information out but people are often tempted to send stuff out without checking the facts. I know this is on a different scale but I cannot tell you so many times I get emails filled with typos from top administrators, which would never have occured having written a letter. I know people think of email as a more casual form of communication but I think MoveOn proved it should not be used that way.
Sure...blame the database.
It has feelings too you know. I mean you have to program it to have to have them but...poor database!
It is always good to have technology to blame your problems on. In my case it was my lack of productivity when I was working retail. Funny how the computer tends to crash when you run both the POS program and Netscape. Not that we were allowed to surf the internet.
Always helps to have a patsy waiting.
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