Major Garrett grills Gibbs: Why are people getting unsolicited e-mails from David Axelrod about health care? Update: See White House privacy policy

He claims to have evidence that some entity — either the White House itself or The One’s army of cultists at Organizing for America — has now sunk to the point of spamming people about the glories of socialized medicine. I suspect Ace is right in thinking that this is the origin of the spam and that Garrett has his facts slightly wrong: It’s not Axelrod who’s spamming people, it’s Obama cultists acting at Axelrod’s behest by copy/pasting his post and sending it to friends. If Fox wants this charge to stick, they have to show us exactly what Garrett was forwarded (minus the “to” and “from” lines, natch). Frankly, given The One’s ubiquity on television and in print, the White House might as well go the rest of the way and start pushing e-mails at us too. The more talking points I hear, the more they blend together as noise and the easier it is to tune them out.

Now, if Garrett can somehow put the spam story together with this story, then we’re cooking with gas. Click the image to watch.

Update: A reader just forwarded me an e-mail her brother got Monday night. It is indeed the Axelrod post at the White House site that I linked to; it has a White House heading and a White House “from” e-mail address. It doesn’t appear to have been forwarded to her brother from any third party. He claims he doesn’t remember signing up for any WH e-mails. For what it’s worth.

Update: A second reader just e-mailed to say that he got the Axelrod e-mail too — and it’s not the first one he’s gotten:

I received this email this morning. This is the second email I received from this address. I started receiving these after I sent an email to the flag@whitehouse.gov address……

Is that what’s happening here? Conservatives are spamming the White House snitch line, only to find themselves signed up for White House e-mails? I thought Gibbsy told us they’re not collecting names or other identifying information from that account. Has anyone else who spammed the snitch line gotten any Axelrod e-mails?

Update: A third reader e-mails to say he’s spammed the snitch line half a dozen times and hasn’t gotten anything from Axelrod. Curiouser and curiouser.

Update: Another reader e-mails to say he thinks he has the answer:

After seeing this post on your web site, I can add some information on who’s getting the emails. Some time back, I went to the whitehouse.gov site and sent a congratulatory note by using the “contact us” link. One of the required fields on that form is an email address. I didn’t want to use my regular email address, so I used an old email address that I never use anymore. When I read this post, I became curious and checked that email address. Sure enough, there were seven emails there from whitehouse.gov, starting on July 14 and going up through the current David Axelrod “Something worth forwarding” email today.

I have sent an email to the “flag” address using my regular email address, but have not received any whitehouse.gov emails in return to that address.

So for me, it defintely seems to be dependent on my contact to whitehouse.gov, even though no notice is given that you will be placed on an email list at that site.

Why aren’t they notifying people?

Update: Tipster RLW finds the answer hiding in plain sight on the White House’s privacy page.

Collection and disclosure of information: To ensure we are able to communicate effectively with visitors to our web site, we collect some information that can be directly associated with a specific person. We call this “Personal Information,” and it includes, by way of illustration, names, addresses, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses.

We collect Personal Information from eligible individuals who affirmatively request to receive e-mail or other services from us. We collect this Personal Information in order to provide these eligible individuals with timely information via e-mail regarding events, resources and issues.

It is our general policy not to make Personal Information available to anyone other than our employees, staff, and agents.

Er, which “agents”?

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