Mitt Romney's Vice Presidential App Is Worth Skipping

I say we stand strong, and stand together, and stop signing up for breaking news alerts from campaigns until they truly are breaking.
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Mitt Romney's Vice President pick: there's an app for THAT?!

Unfortunately, yes. And we can blame President Obama. In 2008 Obama announced his VP pick by text message. This year, Romney is announcing his on a mobile app, which debuted today. ABC News has the campaign's explanation of how it will work from Zac Moffatt, Romney's Director of Digital:

The first official way to learn the name of the Republican Vice Presidential candidate is by using our new 'Mitt's VP' app. Users of the app will be the first to get the news on the biggest political decision of the year through an instantaneous alert on the one device most people carry around the clock -- their phone.

Let's call a spade a spade here: what Obama did in 2008 and now what Romney is doing in 2012 is designed to get you sign up for their e-mail list, text message blasts and -- the campaigns hope -- become a part of their fundraising network. If you think this is some altruistic way to get you the data first, before the media, you're wrong.

HuffPost's Ethan Klapper today pointed out how both campaigns will be collecting your personal information if you opt in.

Moffatt stresses that this is the official method of distribution of Romney's VP pick. But let's be honest here: NPR's Andy Carvin is right -- that does not mean the pick isn't going be first reported by the press, like it was in 2008.

I say we stand strong, and stand together, and stop signing up for breaking news alerts from campaigns until they truly are breaking. And in the meantime, we may have to settle for a -- gasp! -- campaign tweet, news report, or press conference.

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