Bush-backing letters to editor eerily similar Saturday, January 25, 2003 When it comes to the economy, President Bush is demonstrating genuine leadership. But don't take my word for it. Read what New Englander Randy Turner has to say: "When it comes to the economy," Turner says in a letter to the editor of the Providence Journal-Bulletin, "President Bush is demonstrating genuine leadership." Beverly Deforest of San Bernadino, Calif., agrees. "When it comes to the economy," she writes to the Riverside Press-Enterprise, "President Bush is demonstrating genuine leadership." The consensus doesn't end there. Deforest and Turner agree, to the very word, that, "Contrary to the class warfare rhetoric attacking the plan, the proposal helps everyone who pays taxes, and especially the middle class." Strong words, those. But no stronger than those of Donna J. Fox of Port St. Lucie, Fla. Or Nile Gomez of Secaucus, N.J. Or Misty Haynie of Villa Rica, Ga. In letters to the editors of their hometown papers they all agreed. Identically. To date, I have found 20 cases of this letter in newspapers from Honolulu to Atlanta. In Salt Lake City, the Deseret News published it twice in the same week. This pithy letter has fooled The Boston Globe, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the International Herald-Tribune, and a raft of smaller papers. Never have so many claimed credit for the same 134 words. In Muncie, Ind., John Pinckney signed off on them in the pages of the Star Press. Sherry Collins of Tucson, Ariz., was pleased to apply her name beneath them for the readers of the Tucson Citizen. "Derick Mfoafo," whose name turns up nowhere in a search of Lynchburg, Va., says the same things as Collins and Pinckney for the readers of the Lynchburg Ledger. The letter originates on a Web site called www.gopteamleader.com, reachable through a variety of Web sites, notably www.GeorgeWBush.com, all run by the Republican National Committee. Such letters are referred to in the business as "Astroturf," because their grass roots are wholly synthetic. At gopteamleader.com, the system is extraordinarily smooth. After signing on, a new member can visit the "Action Center" from which a letter to the editor can be sent. Plug in a ZIP code and the site immediately lists the regional newspapers to which a letter can be e-mailed. Click off on a given newspaper and the action center even tips off the aspiring correspondent just how much information the paper requires to get a letter past the editor. Then comes the page that says "select one of the following letters." On this day the choice was a pre-clicked box with the header "President Bush is delivering the right proposal at the right time," and another: Compose your own letter. The default box bangs out the letter that hundreds have now zapped into the computers of newspapers around the nation. As ever, the Republicans demonstrated why they are able to get their message out. The letter is short, to the point, and includes facts and figures. "This year alone, 92 million taxpayers will receive an immediate tax cut averaging $1,083 -- and 46 million married couples will get back an average of $1,714," it reads. That's the kind of detail that captures an editor's attention. Deborah Fillman, though, didn't act quickly enough. Fillman, an unemployed computer worker and registered independent, came across the letter while looking into the Bush economic plan and sent it along to The Boston Globe. "I thought 'OK, I could write this but they seem to have done a pretty good job already,'" she said. And they had. That's why Stephanie Johnson of Milton, Mass., had already gotten the letter into the pages of the Sunday Globe before Fillman's letter arrived, along with four others. The one name that does not appear on the watch list is that of the actual author. I contacted the RNC where spokesman Kevin Sheridan expressed surprise at my curiosity. "From our perspective," Sheridan said, "it's great news that people are responding to the president's economic message and are going to the trouble of writing a letter to the editor." I know, but that's what he said. I asked to interview the author. "We're not inclined to do that," Sheridan said. Possibly he'll e-mail. But it's a fitting irony for the age of computer-generated consensus that the one person who doesn't want his name on the most successful letter-to-the-editor of the year is its author. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dennis Roddy can be reached at droddy@post-gazette.com
Is it really artificial, though, if the people who send these letters believe in what they say? Do they have to write their own letters for the opinions therein to be legitimate? Sure, it would sure be better if the people would write their own letters, but some people want to express their opinion in the easiest way possible, so they take a pre-written letter they happen to agree with, and send it off (or they find an article that supports their view and post it to some message boards. ). Unless the Party is sending these letters themselves in some sort of David Manning-deal, I don't know that it's any less legitimate than if the people had written the letters themselves (I wouldn't classify people who write letters to the editor or to politicians or whoever as necessarily representative of any larger group anyway). You and I might take the time to write our own letter (though I don't think either one of our letters would, in any way, resemble this one), but other people won't... even if they believe in the substance of the letter. And, as I'm sure you know, this particular brand of lobbying is nothing new and certainly not specific to George W. Bush or even the Republican Party.
It may not be new, but that doesn't make it right. It's blatantly deceptive to sign your name to someone else's words without notifying the newspaper you've done so. If you want to sign your name to someone else's ideas, use a petition. At least that's honest.
Plagarism!!! Newspapers would not knowingly publish the letter as a genuine article if they knew the source.
The opinion that they seem to be interested in expressing strikes me as something along the lines of, "Hi, I'm a ****ing sheep and I'd like to validate the opinion of all the people who believe I'm incapable of rational, logical, or independent thought. I'd like to thank the republican party for facilitating my journey on the short bus." Smile, it's free.
Agreed, HOWEVER, it isn't like DEMS don't do EXACTLY the same thing. This is not new and it is not original, but it still works. It's clever marketing even if it is deceptive and, quite honestly, it just shows how ridiculous the "letters to the editor" section of the paper can be. In fact, a study was done on that section of the paper about five years ago and they found that something like 75 percent of the letters written and published came from a relative handful of sources (less than 5 percent of the total circulation of the publication). It is a bad way to get the "pulse of the people" because only a very few actually take the time to write them and even fewer actually get published.
And when this tactic is used by the Democratic Party? Or by Special Interest Groups (from both the left and right wing) Or by people on this board who post articles and say "This article says it better than I can"? They all sheep, too, without the capability of independent thought, etc? Why is this, like so many things, only bad if done by Republicans? (Or by folks who wanted to protest the release of a killer who was up for parole? The group that provided information on where to send letters also provided a sample letter. I don't doubt that some people simply sent that letter to express their feelings on having the killer set free after serving only a very small fraction of his time. But I guess they were just sheep, too.) Yes, people, if they believe these things, should at least take the time to write a letter that expresses their feelings in their own words, but I wouldn't look at this practice and call the folks who do it "sheep". Nor would I only attack the practice when done by the RNC. But maybe that's just me.
This administration is the worst thing that's happened to this country since Reagan got elected in 1980. Either party sending carbon copy letters to newspaper/magazine editors trying to inflate support for whatever bull**** agenda they're trying to push is ****ing wack. We need new leadership in this country. Preferrably convicted felons with GEDs, that way at least it will be out in the open that that our political parties are full of moronic jackass criminals who have their own best interest, not America's, in mind.
Well I guess an arms race and military buildup that sent the national deficit even farther through the roof than it already was in order to facilitate bankrupting the soviet union was a good plan.
How about when Bill Clinton got up to give a speech he didn't personally write? (Yes, I know, all presidents do it.) What's the difference between having a staff of people who can say it better than you can, or finding the wording somewhere on the internet? It's the ideas that are important. How many canned letters did we send during the "Save Our Rockets" campaign? Are we just a bunch of sheep, or were we just trying to maximize the chances of our letters actually being read and considered? I'll tell you what seems sheep-like to me: the people who have lately been doing all the sheep talk. If you can think for yourself, please, find your own figure of speech, rather than just parroting (see, here's one) what other people say.
The hilarious thing about the republican gopteamleader software, is that you can use it to email demo slanted words... the text is in a big textarea... so you can modify it and then use their email/fax/whatever methodology.
Achebe has apparently found the one weakness of the Republicans. Got a question: Are you really that easily amused?
Traj, the weaknesses of the republicans, is that like you, they use a sacred philosophy as a vehicle for their inhumane policies. Also, the southern/religious conservative branch know nothing, like you, of the science they so readily dismiss (but its cute when you go to the doctor... or gas up at the fillin' station, or turn on the boob tube, or fear our reactors or bombs... *whee magic*... moron). There are plenty of weaknesses of the republicans, there are plenty of weaknesses of the democrats. I just found it amusing that the software is easily manipulated (as are all of these astroturf setups.... those by the democrats, those by the republicans). Commandering gopteamleader pays off b/c they have built in a nice dispatch to a ton of newspapers. That was my point. Dork.
Oh, brother. You can do better than that. I've been liberal for a long time and I never ONCE thought communism was a good idea. I don't know a single liberal that thinks it is a good idea or did in the 80's. I guess all conservatives must be fascists. Ugh!
what?? what about that newsletter you run out of your house called "the little pravda?" what about that castro poster on your wall and those pictures of you smoking cigars with him?? what about that bumper sticker on your car that says "workers unite" with a red flag???
