“Row 2, Seat 4”
Blog: Fox News White House View
August 16, 2009
More on WH Statement on e-mails
The e-mail statement (see post below) was scrubbed for at least a full day by senior White House officials. White House internet experts reviewed procedures for an unspecified period of time and a White House official said no statement would have been released if the White House had determined the unsolicited e-mails simply arrived via easily traceable forwarding third-party referrals outside the White House website. The statement acknowledges e-mail addresses landed on the White House distribution list without the recipient’s permission and that steps – as yet undefined – will be taken to remedy this problem.
Fox on Friday filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the list of e-mail recipients who received Thursday’s health care talking points memo from senior adviser David Axelrod. That request is pending.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs approved the statement for release about 7:30 p.m. EDT. Work began on the statement no later than mid-day Saturday.
White House officials say they don’t want the e-mail controversy to deepen. “How does that help us,” one official asked. “We don’t want to send e-mails to people who don’t want them. We want to send e-mails to people who do want them and there are lots of them. But there is no benefit to us at all in sending e-mails that people don’t want.”
In addition to the statement, Fox asked Nick Shapiro, White House Spokesman for New Media, these questions…
Entire blog post at Fox News White House Blog
