White House Blames E-Mail Controversy on 'Sinister Conspiracy Theories'

[bijou]

The White House is blaming the controversy over its Web site and mass e-mails on viral rumors, "fear-mongering" and "sinister conspiracy theories" even as it acknowledges problems with its online practices.

After confirming to FOX News over the weekend that third-party groups could be responsible for official White House e-mails that have been sent to people who never signed up for them, President Obama's new media director took to the official White House blog to "clear up" the confusion.

In a posting Monday night, Macon Phillips again pointed the finger at "outside groups of all political stripes" but downplayed the backlash over the unwanted e-mails.

"An ironic development is that the launch of an online program meant to provide facts about health insurance reform has itself become the target of fear-mongering and online rumors that are the tactics of choice for the defenders of the status quo," he wrote. "Despite reports by some bloggers and others in the media that have invoked a variety of sinister conspiracy theories, more people signed up for updates last week than during the entire month of July."  ...

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[WMD Owl]

Try again....  First it was a "rumor" now its an "oops"   

The White House is blaming unnamed political groups for the unsolicited e-mails it had wrongly insisted no one was receiving from its online operation.

"We're certainly not interested in anyone receiving e-mails from the White House who don't want them," White House online director Macon Phillips said in a blog posting Monday night.

Phillips said groups outside the White House—he offered no specifics—had signed up their members to receive regular White House updates about President Barack Obama's projects, priorities and speeches. Adding names from a commercial or political list to the White House list was not the practice there, he said.

After the White House had consistently denied that anyone who hadn't sought the e-mails had received them, Phillips acknowledged that people may have been added to the e-mail lists without their knowledge.

"We regret any inconvenience caused by receiving an unexpected message," he wrote in the blog.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9A5ADQ00&show_article=1