DEM'S CONVENTION COMMITTEE BUGGED BY E-MAIL GLITCH

By: Steve Friess Political Reporters Get 'Spammed' By Flaks



The Democratic National Convention Committee admitted this week that
it accidentally exposed the e-mail addresses of more than 800 political
journalists while issuing a press release over the weekend.



Yet, even as reporters and editors around the nation started receiving
unsolicited promotional e-mail from flaks and political activists who
obtained the list, a spokesman for the convention committee insisted
the list was made up exclusively of e-mail addresses belonging to
journalists.



'So reporters got the e-mail addresses of other reporters,' said Peter
Ragone, spokesman for the committee organizing next month's Democratic
National Convention in Los Angeles where the party is expected to
nominate Vice President Al Gore for president. 'That's all.'



Ragone's response on Tuesday was less contrite than the e-mail sent out
by fellow spokesperson Jennifer Mielenz on Monday in which she apologized
for the error and urged restraint from 'any unwanted e-mails that you
received due to this problem.'



Mielenz wrote that the mistake was caused by a glitch in their e-mail
list, and Ragone said Tuesday that the computer itself dumped the
address list into the 'To:' field instead of the 'bcc:' field. Mass
e-mails can be sent as blind carbon copies to conceal the names of
other recipients.



The first to use the list was Minnesota's Democratic Farm Labor Party
spokeswoman Karen Louise Boothe, who sent a note suggesting stories on
Minnesota's delegates to the convention. Boothe refused to comment.



Other 'spam' received by list members included a party invitation for
Monday night in Alexandria, Va., from Nick Thimmesch of the Washington
D.C.-based PR firm USA Media Communications, who said of the list, 'It
was obviously a mistake, but all's fair in e-mail wars.'



Still, many journalists on the list are so accustomed to unwanted e-mails
that the incident was regarded as a minor irritation.



'It was a minor mix-up that could happen to anyone,' said Politics Editor
Brian Hartman of ABCNews.Com. 'We already put our e-mail addresses online
for the world to see anyway.'







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Steve Friess is a staff writer at the Sun-Sentinel in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.








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