Snitch Box Goes Offline

Updating an earlier post, I find this to be good news (Politico):

Following a furor over how the data would be used, the White House has shut down an electronic tip box — flag@whitehouse.gov — that was set up to receive information on “fishy” claims about President Barack Obama’s health plan.

E-mails to that address now bounce back with the message: “The email address you just sent a message to is no longer in service. We are now accepting your feedback about health insurance reform via: http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck.”

Clearly, this little venture backfired publicly, and the administration rightly took a good deal of flak from the issue. I know several people who "self-reported" their dissent to the proposed pathway towards nationalization of health care. While I chose not to (seemed a bit juvenile to me), I certainly sympathize with the sentiment.

So, while I applaud the administration from taking a step back on its citizen agitation scheme, I nevertheless remain bothered that the effort was made in the first place. Just because they pulled the snitch box doesn't "make it all better."