Astroturf letter: Update

[Robb]

Many may remember the small-town astroturf letter we uncovered back on the 26th (see a thread here about it).

I thought I'd share my letter to the editor that was printed today (actually it's a poor splice-job of two letters I sent over two weeks), as well as my editor's response -- the latter mostly as an object lesson in the no-apology apology. :)

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Letter's intent was to dupe rural readers

Editor:

WhileÊIÊcommendÊtheÊspiritÊofÊsupportingÊUSÊforcesÊabroadÊinÊthisÊdangerous time,ÊtheÊletterÊyouÊprintedÊfromÊ"KimÊHester",ÊfromÊ"Dhahran,ÊSaudi
Arabia"ÊseemedÊoddlyÊfamiliarÊtoÊme.

AsÊitÊturnsÊout,ÊthisÊisÊbecauseÊanÊidenticalÊletterÊwasÊsentÊto,Êand
printedÊby,ÊseveralÊsmallÊnewspapersÊacrossÊtheÊcountryÊthisÊweek.ÊÊA
partialÊlistÊincludesÊtheÊNortheastÊGeorgianÊ(Cornelia,ÊGA),ÊtheÊMineral
WellsÊIndexÊ(MineralÊWells,ÊTX),ÊtheÊSonoranÊNewsÊ(CaveÊCreek,ÊAZ),Êthe
WeirsÊTimesÊ(LakeÊWinnipesaukee,ÊNH),ÊtheÊBoxÊElderÊNewsÊJournalÊ(Brigham
City,ÊUT),ÊandÊtheÊUintahÊBasinÊStandardÊ(Roosevelt,ÊUT).

The letter to the editor you printed was an example of what has come to be known as "astroturf", e.g. a manufactured version of grassroots efforts. Since that time the letter has re-surfaced in dozens of small newspapers across the country.

ItÊappearsÊtheÊlessonsÊfromÊOctoberÊ(whenÊtheÊGannettÊNewsÊServiceÊfound
identicalÊlettersÊsignedÊbyÊdifferentÊsoldiersÊinÊIraqÊinÊdozensÊof
newspapers)ÊwereÊnotÊlearnedÊbyÊwhateverÊmilitaryÊpublicÊaffairsÊofficer
organizedÊthisÊnewÊpropagandaÊcampaign;ÊÊorÊatÊaÊminimum,ÊtheÊlesson
appearsÊtoÊbeÊthatÊsmall-townÊfolksÊareÊeasierÊtoÊfool.

IÊbegÊtoÊdiffer.

As the newspaper of record for our area, I'm certainly looking forward to learning what measures you will be putting in place to prevent this sort of thing from happening again.

ProudlyÊsmall-town,ÊandÊsincerelyÊyours,

Robb

Editor's note: We, like Mr. Robb, have confidence that our "small-town" readers have adequate intelligence to digest a wide range of printed opinion. Thus, our opinion pages seek to contain a wide variety of unfiltered content on today's relevant issues. Generally, we do give priority to local writers, and do seek to verify the identity of writers. We did not do that with the letter in question.

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[ThoughtCriminal]

1. Ê?

I get the feeling that after the humiliation of the last few rounds of Astroturf being exposed with simple Google searches, there is going to be a trend for the GOP fronts to target small local papers, which generally do not publish letters online.

[Robb]

2. I think that's exactly what this was.

My paper, for example, where I saw the thing first is not online. I think that was the idea.

[Robb]

3. kick

...because it's not a candidate thread. :evilgrin: