| The Case of the Pointless Petition | |
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Important Update: In response to a June 2005 vote by a Congressional subcommittee to eliminate federal funding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the political action group MoveOn.org has launched a new email campaign titled "This Time It's for Real: Save NPR and PBS." Though the Moveon.org message urges concerned parties to add their names to a petition hosted on the group's Web site, it is not an "email petition" like the one described below. Read more...
I have a cautionary tale to share with you today.
Once upon a time — the year was 1995, to be exact — two well-meaning but naive young students at the University of Northern Colorado decided to express their concern over cuts in federal funding for the arts and public broadcasting by starting an email petition.
In their earnest Internet opus they cited facts and figures concerning the costs of keeping the Public Broadcasting System and National Public Radio in business, raised the specter of Republican threats to cut funding for these programs and begged recipients to "sign" the document by appending their names before forwarding it off to everyone they know.
The concept had a few fatal flaws:
First, no one in any position of authority takes email petitions seriously. Electronic "signatures" are meaningless, no matter how many hundreds of thousands may be collected.
Second, the University of Northern Colorado was displeased to find its email system deluged with responses to what was essentially a chain letter, and shut the students' email address down.
And finally, there was one small technical problem the students hadn't foreseen: there was no way to stop or recall the petition once its purpose had been served.
All this had become painfully clear within two weeks of its launch, but by then it was too late to turn back — the beast had taken on a life of its own.
Fast-forward to 1998, three years later. By now, the petition has seen the inside of a million or more modems. It has been rewritten by forwarders in numerous inventive ways, most notoriously by the addition of the blurb, "Save Sesame Street!" (Who could turn down a plea to save Sesame Street?) Though perhaps marginally relevant at the outset, at least in terms of alerting a vast number of people to right-wing threats against federal funding for the arts, by 1998 it has long since stopped serving any useful purpose. And despite repeated pleas from the authors and their university for a halt to the re-mailings, the petition remains in wide, constant circulation to this day, all across the Internet, all around the world.
Why, I happen to have a copy of it right here:
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Subject: NEA Petition This is a petition on behalf of PBS, NPR, NEA. Please keep this petition rolling. Do not reply to me. Please sign at the bottom and forward to others to sign. If you prefer not to sign please send to the e-mail address indicated below. Since this is being forwarded to several people at once to add their names to the petition, It won't matter if many people receive the same list as the names are being managed. Remember, this is for anyone who thinks NPR/PBS is a worthwhile expenditure of $1.12/year of their taxes, a petition follows. If you sign, please forward on to others (not back to me). If not, please don't kill it -send it to the e-mail address listed here: wein2688@blue.univnorthco.edu. PBS, NPR (National Public Radio), and the arts are facing major cutbacks in funding. In spite of the efforts of each station to reduce spending costs and funding currently going to these programs is too large a portion of funding for something which is seen as not worthwhile. Currently, taxes from the general public for PBS equal $1.12 per person per year, and the National Endowment for the Arts equals $0.64 a year. A January 1995 CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll indicated that 76% of Americans wish to keep funding for PBS, this percentage of people polled is surpassed only by national defense and law enforcement as the programs that are the most valuable for federal funding. Each year, the Senate and House Appropriations committees each have 13 subcommittees with jurisdiction over many programs and agencies. Each subcommittee passes its own appropriation bill. The goal each year is to have each bill signed by the beginning of the fiscal year, which is October 1. The only way that our representatives can be aware of the base of support for PBS and funding for these types of programs is by making our voices heard. Please add your name to this list and forward it to friends if you believe in what we stand for. This list will be forwarded to the President of the United States, the Vice President of the United States, and Representative Newt Gingrich, who is the instigator of the action to cut funding to these worthwhile programs. *If you happen to be the 600th, 650th, 700th, etc. signer of this petition, please forward a copy to: wein2688@blue.univnorthco.edu. If that address is inoperative, please send it to: kubi7975@blue.univnorthco.edu. This way we can keep track of the lists and organize them. Forward this to everyone you know, and help us to keep these programs alive. Thank you. NOTE: To "sign" simply SELECT or COPY the entirety of this letter and then PASTE/COPY it into a new outgoing message. Type in your name in the next spot which will serve as your signature. Send it to as many people as you can. Don't simply forward this message. I support continued funding for NPR, PBS and NEA. Don't cut their budgets: Signed, [List of names deleted] |
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