This just in from the "Not News" department

Would someone tell me why this is news? And more importantly, why it's being sent me to by the House Majority Whip's office:

House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn last night received “Distinguished Community Health Leadership” award from The National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) for his leadership on issues that impact the more than 18 million people who rely on America’s Health Centers for their health care (see release below). Clyburn responded to the award and commented on the release of $338 million under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for Community Health Centers.

Ooh, he gave a speech. How exciting. Stop the presses!

This is an idiotic way to reach out to the media. I get hundreds of emails a day. Far too many of them garbage like this from people who have added me to their email list without my permission. Then they send me crap. I'm not writing this to whine about my bad emails, I'm trying to make a larger point. Email is a critical part of the day to day work for many of us. The volume of email we are receiving keeps growing. And for many of us, it passed a tipping point, beyond which we are now losing emails from people, not even seeing them as they come in, because of the velocity of traffic hitting our in-box.

And crap like this isn't helping. Actually, crap like this is the problem. I already have a spam filter that catches all of my spam. This crap is what's ruining my in-box.

Who in their right mind would consider it news that James Clyburn got an award, other than his mother? I just can't fathom, for the life of me, why people on the Hill, who are experts in media, send this kind of garbage to people. Collectively, this kind of useless junk email is making email useless for all of us. It needs to stop. And if I have to publish a regular "Not News" post to embarrass someone into learning how to do their job, then so be it. I'm just really tired of getting crap from people who are paid a lot of money to know better.

And finally, let me reiterate something, in an effort to help everyone out there who uses email in their job or personal life. Here is a good rule to follow when trying to determine if you're sending someone "junk":

If you're sending the same email to fewer than five people, it's not junk.

If you're sending the same email to five or more people, it's probably junk.

So, to our readers, keep those tips and comments coming - we love hearing from you. Just don't put us on an email list without asking us first, and please don't send us any emails that you've cc'd to half of Alabama as well. If you're writing to us one-on-one, your email is ALWAYS welcome.