By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum and Kim Hart, The Washington Post, November 22, 2007.
The WP investigation of emails generated by the National Broadcasters Association with regard to the proposed merger of two satellite radio companies suggests that many were not really reflective of the views of their purported senders. More generally:
Are the hundreds of millions of narrow-interest e-mails that deluge official Washington each year a useful measure of public sentiment? Are they even being sent by real people?....Comment: e-Government programs will need good technology to summarize comments from the public and to separate the thoughtful individual comments from forms generated via mass campaigns.
The torrent, made possible by Web lobbying techniques, is subverting the process it was meant to influence, some experts said.....
A poll of 350 congressional staffers conducted by the Congressional Management Institute in 2005 indicated that half of them did not believe that form-letter messages were sent with the knowledge or approval of constituents.
Yet the volume of e-mail has skyrocketed. House and Senate offices last year received 318 million electronic messages, up from 200 million e-mails and postal letters in 2004.....
Federal agencies have also experienced a gigantic increase in computer-generated e-mail. This year, the Fish and Wildlife Service received more than 300,000 form-letter e-mails from members of the Natural Resources Defense Council urging that polar bears be placed on the endangered species list, according to the eRulemaking Research Group, which tracks e-mails dealing with regulations.
Still, I think democracy benefits from the ability of people to communicate more easily with their legislators and government program administrators. JAD
Supply of eGovernment Services
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