A blast from the past re: Obama emails...
Obama camp adds media to supporters list
Posted 11/1/2008 4:37 PM PDT on 9news.com
The $5 in my pocket is to buy dinner. I won’t send it to Barack Obama. No matter how many times he asks.
To be clear, I won’t send any money to John McCain either or any other candidate for that matter. Doing so would be a violation of my principles as a journalist (and I need it for dinner).
More than a handful of us at 9NEWS have questioned why, in addition to press releases from the campaign (which we welcome), we also receive daily appeals for campaign cash that thank us for our “support” of Obama.
It turns out, when a member of the media reserves space for a camera and live truck at an Obama event, the campaign’s website automatically adds that journalist’s e-mail to fundraising lists. (If you’re asking, is that how it usually works? In my experience covering campaigns, the answer is no.)
A recent e-mail, signed simply “Barack”, informed me that “This campaign is in your hands.”
Geez, I hope not. I went to the grocery store this week and forgot to get almost half the things on my mental list. I can only imagine how badly I would handle a campaign.
“Thank you for everything you’re doing,” the e-mail concluded.
Umm, thanks. I guess.
We repeatedly asked the Obama campaign for an on-the-record explanation and await a response.
In the meantime, we confirmed that Obama’s website uses journalists’ e-mail addresses for fundraising by signing up our newsroom pumpkin named “Coraline” to cover Saturday’s Obama event in Pueblo. (I think someone sent us the pumpkin to promote a store, or a movie, or something else, who knows.)
Coraline the Pumpkin was thanked for her support and asked for cash within 24 hours. (Coraline did not make a donation.)
We checked with the McCain campaign to see if it considers journalists who cover the campaign to be “supporters.”
“We have better things to do than hit journalists up for money,” said McCain spokesman Tom Kise.
For the record, I receive dozens of e-mail press releases from the McCain campaign each week and no fundraising e-mails thanking me for my “support.”
Another e-mail from this past week from Michelle Obama asked me to “take a minute to remember why you joined this movement, then please make a donation of $5 or more today.”
Funny, I don’t recall joining the movement. I think I just signed up to cover a campaign event.
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