Get out of blogging free

Get out of blogging free

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.

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.

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.

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.”