If the big shareholders are financial institutions (mutual funds, for example) and the emailer is a shareholder, shouldn't be a problem. If the emailer his no relationship, or the big shareholder is an individual, it's kind of gray. I decided not to use the rathergate.com email facility because of just this concern.

A better approach would be to target the independent directors of Viacom (that is, the directors who are not part of management - all part of the post-Enron reforms). They publish an special email address on the Viacom website, and they have a duty to pay attention to these kinds of issues - especially with the ratings falling off.

The email address is:
nonmanagementdirectors@viacom.com