Is This The President’s Fake Letter to the Editor

Publius Forum ^ | 01/24/09 | Warner Todd Huston

[Mobile Vulgus]

The Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper happened upon a curious letter to the editor in support of President Obama that seems to have suddenly popped up in nearly 40 newspapers across the country all at once. Every letter claims to be written by an "Elle Light" and all claim to be from a resident local to the newspaper's audience -- different hometowns used in each case. All are identical whether they've been printed in the Washington Times or the Los Banos Enterprise, a small newspaper in California.

The letter jumps to the support of President Obama saying in part that President Obama never promised that "our problems would wash off in the morning."...

Read the rest at Publiusforum.com...

[JimWayne]

Go to http://my.barackobama.com/page/speakout and check out the call to write letters about Sonia Sotomayor.

After entering a zip code, you can click on the link that says that the form does not work for you to save yourself from having to type your personal details. That will bring up the form in a single page format.

Check the talking points. Then check http://www.ironwoodinfo.com/community/opinion.htm and http://blogs.chron.com/txpotomac/2009/05/our_readers_speak_out_on_sotom.html
You have two identical letters there and they match with the version at barackobama.com.

[tubebender]

proxie server perhaps?

[pillut48]

Google has 2550 hits with the paragraph portion "But today, the president is being attacked as if he were a salesman who promised us that our problems would wash off in the morning. He never made such a promise. It's time for Americans to realize that governing is hard work and that a president can't just wave a magic wand and fix everything."

http://tinyurl.com/ybhvej4

Patterico's Pontifications"is listing all of the places "Ellie" is from--

"Ellie" responded on thetreeofliberty.com and fitsnews.com with this:
Today, 10:13 AM
Ellie Light Ellie Light is offline
Citizen


Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 1


"My name is Ellie Light, and I am an individual amazed at the lack of support offered for President Obama, especially by people of his own party, by people who worked very hard to elect him. By design, this email will land in the in-boxes of Obama’s opponents, and I’ve got to hand you one thing. You guys know a thing or two about loyalty. When President Bush became unpopular for his decisions, you guys stood by him. When Trent Lott and Delay told the pro-lifers and school-prayer folks to put a cork in it, because “now is not the time,” you did as you were told. And no sarcasm intended, because it was good for the GOP to show some loyalty. We Dems appear to have zero. Take the Guantanamo decision. Obama promised he’d close it. What about the prisoners? Do we ship ‘em back to their country of origin? Do we force them on a particular US state? Anyone with a brain would realize that there are many steps between stating the intention of closing it, and sending the prisoners on thier way. But count on us Dems to start calling “Liar, Liar.” Oh, and of course, we Democrats are the same people who complain about the growing power of the Executive Branch, pointing out that ever since Nixon, the President’s war-making power, and over-reaching Executive privilege have increased. But yet, we Democrats complain the loudest that the President lacks what it takes do the things he promised, at least not fast enough. You know. Do them right now. Before my coffee gets cold and I have to change the TV station. Speaking of TV, that “put the cameras in the health care debate” attack was another self-defeating move. As if it were the President’s decision alone to muscle past Congress and force the cameras into their faces. The President can promise to do something, but what with the world collapsing around us and all, it might take a little time to work through each promise. But I think it makes us Democrats feel independent and enlightened to deliver up stinging critiques of Obama’s every action. It shows the world that we are not blind followers. As if it were a point of embarrassment to stand by a President in a tough moment. Sheesh. Trash Obama so you can burnish your credentials as a Peace Activist. Trash Obama so you can sound like a Genuine Liberal. What Priorities. Heaven forbid that a person set aside their timetable and allow a new President to get his bearings. So I’m not surprised with you guys, the folks who stay up late finding something sinister in everything Obama says and does. You’re just carrying out your beliefs. It’s like church. I’m mostly just shocked with my own kind, because, unless we Democrats learn a bit about loyalty, about a unified front, you Tea Partiers will all enjoy front row seats to kiss the feet of Queen Sarah on the White House lawn in January 2013."

[pillut48]

Sorry, forgot the tinyURL link link!

Google search

[camerongood210]

I find it disturbing that one of the websites she was using was named “The Tree of Liberty”.

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” - Thomas Jefferson

[Mobile Vulgus]

I agree, it’s a proxy server trying to mask a Washington D.C. i.p. probably!

[curth]

Is anyone planning to write a response to these letters along with exposing the fraud to their local newspapers that carried it?

[camerongood210]

tubebender and myself are working on something like that. Before I create a new thread, does anyone have a complete list of the newspapers that printed EL’s piece?

[SouthTexas]

a dictate from the parent to the papers

Whitehouse maybe?

[tubebender]

LOL... Four days ago I didn’t know how to even spell Proxy and now I are one...

[Mobile Vulgus]

LOL

[curth]

I can’t find an actual list of the 60 or papers running this fraud, but this site is all over the story.

http://patterico.com/2010/01/24/still-more-astroturfing-gloria-elle-and-jan-chen-write-the-same-anti-republican-pro-obama-letter/

[camerongood210]

This is the list of papers and owners I’ve compiled. We’re thinking some of the higher up’s at Media News Group and Gannett instructed their papers to run the piece.

Gannett:
1. The Daily News Leader (VA)
2. USA Today
3. Sheboygan Press (WI)
4. Stevens Point Journal (WI)
5. The Californian (CA)
6. Oshkosh Northwestern (WI0
7. The Spectrum (UT)
8. Chillicothe Gazette (OH)

Media News Group:
9. Ruidoso News
10. The Daily Breeze (CA)
11. North Adams Transcript (MA)
12. Greenwich Time (CT)
13. The Berkshire Eagle (MA)
14. Bennington Banner (VT)
15. Willits Daily News (CA)

The McClatchy Co.:
16. The Sun News (SC)
17. Los Banos Enterprise (CA)

Dow Jones & Co.:
18. The Portsmouth Herald (NH)
19. Exeter News Letter

News World Communications, Inc.:
20. Washington Times

Journal Register Co.
21. The Plain Dealer (NJ)

Anschutz Co.:
22. San Francisco Examiner

Unknown:
23. Gilroy Dispatch (CA)
24. Morgan Hill Times (CA)
25. Good Times (CA)
26. TheUnion.com (CA)
27. Stamfordadvocate.com (CT)
28. Bangor Daily News (ME)
29. Baltimore Chronicle (MD)
30. Danbury News-Times (CT)
31. Ctpost.com (CT)
32. Gainsville Times (FL)
33. Seacostonline (NH)
34. Hudson Hub Times (OH)
35. CDAPress.com (ID)
36. The Bangkok Post

[SouthTexas]

Good job!

[tubebender]

Most excellent FRiend! Media News Group owns 33 papers in Calif alone so check them for links to the fake but false letter to the editor fellow FReepers and ping your contacts...

[curth]

This is a pretty good listing here (different link than the previous one I posted)

http://patterico.com/2010/01/23/ellie-light-obama-astroturfer-or-very-very-very-energetic-but-independent-letter-writer/

[GOPJ]

Calling it “astroturf” makes it look like something other than total deception of the newspaper industry. Dems make up cute phrases for their graft, cheating and lies. We need to use OUR words. NOT theirs.

[Grampa Dave]

Willitsnews, Willits, Ca

http://www.willitsnews.com/opinion/ci_14230456

LETTER: No magic wand
The Willits News
Posted: 01/20/2010 11:04:15 AM PST

A year ago, if we had read in the paper that employers were hiring again, that health care legislation was proceeding without a bump, that Afghanistan suddenly became a nice place to take your kids, we would’ve known we were being lied to. Back then, we recognized that the problems Obama inherited as president wouldn’t go away overnight.
During his campaign, Obama clearly said an economy that took eight years to break couldn’t be fixed in a year, that Afghanistan was a graveyard of empires and would not be an easy venture for us.

Candidate Obama didn’t feed us happy-talk, which is why we elected him. He never said America could solve our healthcare, economic and security problems without raising the deficit. Instead, he talked of hard choices, of government taking painful and contentious first steps towards fixing problems that can’t be left for another day.

Right after Obama’s election, we seemed to grasp this. We understood companies would be happy to squeeze more work out of frightened employees and would be slow to hire more. We understood the banks that had extorted us out of billions of dollars were lying when they said they would share their recovery. We understood a national consensus on health care would not come easily.

Candidate Obama never claimed his proposed solutions would work flawlessly right out of the box, and we respected him for that.

But today the president is being attacked as if he were a salesman who promised

us our problems would wash off in the morning. He never made such a promise. It’s time for Americans to realize governing is hard work and a president just can’t wave a magic wand and fix everything.
Ellie Light

Willits

[camerongood210]

Thanks for the list but this is the one I used to compile my earlier breakdown of ownership. I think it’s pretty clear that both Gannett (owner of USA Today) and Media News Group have a suspicious amount of papers in that list. I understand each of the organizations have a vast amount of holdings but considering their political leanings it wouldn’t surprise me if they saw themselves as some sort of private sector propaganda wing. I sent tubebender a document earlier in the evening detailing certain media organizations which would profit from an Obama presidency. Gannett was among them.

[editor-surveyor]

Ellie is a little light on reality!