Uh-oh: it looks like politicians aren't the only ones subject to the wrath of mass emailers. Apparently the head of CNN News Group, Jim Walton, fell victim to an avalanche of messages sent by supporters of pro-life Catholic organization, Fidelis. They, like tons of other conservatives it seems, were up in arms over a NARAL Pro-Choice America ad that implied Supreme Court nominee John Roberts supported violent anti-abortion extremists. NARAL pulled the ad (which I think most would find pretty ridiculous, no matter what side they're on) right around the same time if not before Fidelis got in on the action through their CNNBias.org site (you can watch the ad there). The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has the story, re-published (legally?) on MediaChannel.org so as to avoid that pesky registration.

Rush Limbaugh also helped fuel a lot of furor through an over-the-top parody he played on his show quite a bit last week. It's actually pretty humorous, but I'm sure you have to pay to hear it online so he can squeeze out his 'extreme profits'...(hey, can't blame him).

Although he’s not the first head honcho to be the target of an advocacy campaign, and he won’t be the last, I find it interesting that Walton himself was in the Fidelis crosshairs. More and more, advocacy efforts, whether email, fax or phone campaigns, are going after individuals – their specific work addresses or numbers – rather than some general info@ address or main number.

I'm also not sure how much this guy gets involved in ad decisions, but I suppose if his email box is clogged, he makes sure he is involved.

Honestly, while I’m sure this can really annoy a congressional staffer, or CEO, for that matter, I’m not so sure it always garners the intended response. Just consider what CNN spokesperson Laurie Goldberg said in the story: "We welcome individual feedback…. When a message is clearly mass produced, that counts as one e-mail."

Ha – I’d love to hear somebody on Capitol Hill be that blunt – never! But don’t think they ain’t thinkin’ it.

I got similar responses when interviewing senate staffers for a Personal Democracy Forum piece regarding the effects of John Bolton-related campaigns. Not only did the anti-Bolton campaigns obviously have little effect, they were forgotten once the Sandra Day shenanigans started (or was it the get Karl Rove fired campaigns? – not sure which came first); press secretaries of targeted senators I spoke with didn’t seem to think they’d have a major impact either way. They did, however, say that individualized messages from constituents were taken much more seriously than the form letter campaigns.

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