Prefer a handshake

Prefer a handshake

http://www.washtimes.com/national/inbeltway.htm
May 19th, 2004

"The nation's lawmakers are increasingly using e-mail to communicate with constituents, but these same elected officials don't trust the authenticity of e-mails sent to them.

"What we heard was that [special] interest groups can generate tons of e-mails from anywhere, and the legislators don't even know if they're from authentic people," says Lilliard Richardson, associate professor at University of Missouri at Columbia's Truman School of Public Affairs.

"So, they don't know anything about these people, yet their e-mail boxes are filling up. Rather than 'grass roots,' the legislators call this abuse 'AstroTurfing.' "

Mr. Richardson says nearly 80 percent of respondents in his survey expressed concern about fake e-mail. Even photographs can't be trusted, as several news organizations learned of late after publishing doctored photos surrounding the Iraqi war.

Most legislators surveyed, he adds, expressed concern that relying upon e-mail communication could result in biased representation, as many constituents do not have access to e-mail. They also were concerned about the confidentiality of e-mail, and whether the sender was actually a constituent. For this reason, many prefer more traditional means of interfacing with their constituents.

"Legislators still place a higher value on phone calls or letters and especially personal visits," Mr. Richardson says."

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Though, once can argue that this is a legitimate concern, I rather think that it is, because now, these self-styled potentates and princes, find out, rather quickly, just exactly what the unwashed masses really think of them and their congressional crimes, and it is easier to make excuses in just this fashion.

--WP