Posted on 02/03/2010 7:41:09 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The declining (or is it dying?) newspaper industry has suffered another blow to its image as punctilious skeptic. So much for the motto, “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.” It turns out a pile of American newspapers can’t manage to check out the most basic information about people who are flat-out using their pages to push political agendas.
A person with the name of “Ellie Light” has been successfully published with the same letter in at least 68 newspapers defending President Obama – defrauding the editors by using local addresses. Reports have “her” published in two papers overseas.
Who is “Ellie Light”? We know this much: “She” is a fraud.
Is this an official White House or Organizing for America campaign? Is it simply a dirty trick? Is this brass-knuckles (and dishonest) politics from the DNC? Or an unauthorized Obama groupie? Some investigating conservative bloggers have found several candidates for the mysterious “Light” writer that could be connected to Obama.
But they won’t. This story hurts Obama, so they’ll spike it. Count on that.
The media should care. Remember how upset they were at “video news releases” being offered as real news by the Bush administration? And how they fulminated against P.R. firms being paid by the Pentagon to report the good news to the people of Iraq? If this astroturf can be connected to Team Obama, then newspapers should do the connecting.
The “Light” chain letter was loaded with excuses for Obama. “Today, the president is being attacked as if he were a salesman who promised us that our problems would wash off in the morning,” said a version of Light’s letter in the Chillicothe (Ohio) Gazette, claiming a Chillicothe residence. “He never made such a promise. Its time for Americans to realize governing is hard work and that a president can’t just wave a magic wand and fix everything.”
The Cleveland Plain Dealer blew the whistle on the Ellie Light scandal. “She” lied about “her” location more than discredited reporter Jayson Blair of the New York Times, and may have lied more about “her” identity than “Anonymous” Joe Klein, the author of “Primary Colors.” The story was an Internet sensation: in fact, it was the hottest article ever launched on the Plain Dealer website at Cleveland.com.
“Miss Light” demonstrated that liberals apparently care more about results than about troublesome notions like honesty. She complained about being caught by Sabrina Eaton, a Plain Dealer reporter from Washington: “I’m sure such domesticity and small-mindedness would make Sarah Palin quite proud.”
“Light” made no serious attempt to reply about her dishonest addresses when questioned by Eaton. Instead, “she” just made more political proclamations: “The letter I wrote was motivated by surprise and wonderment at the absence of any media support for our President, who won a record-breaking election by a landslide less than 18 months ago, and now, seems to be abandoned by all, supposedly for the infantile reason that he couldn’t make all of Bush’s errors disappear in a day.”
No one should let the errors of these 68 newspapers disappear in a day, either.
Some newspaper editors might make excuses about their sloppiness. In a recession, with newspapers facing layoffs, perhaps they think readers should sympathize if they don’t have a staff person devoted to verifying the addresses of letters to the editor. But how hard is this? It doesn’t take eight hours a day to verify the handful of letters these newspapers publish daily. An intern could do this before lunchtime.
You cannot escape the truth. These newspapers – dozens of them – were caught with their ethical pants down.
Some might argue that “Ellie Light” may not be a member of the local community, but her sentiments could be understood as representative of the Obama-loving segment of the population. Newspapers are best advised not to go there, especially when they are on the verge of collapse. If newspaper editors are going to band together to work on the problem of credibility with their audience, they’re going to have to convince readers that real people in their communities are writing the letters.
Some media analysts suggest that the traditional letters-to-the-editors page is devolving in the age of the Internet, where the commenters are routinely anonymous or use phony names. Are newspapers lowering their standards to the Internet era? If so, it’s bizarre that the Old Media continuously lecture the New Media for their lack of professionalism when they are failing to accomplish even the most basic accuracy and fact-checking.
The “Ellie Light” scandal was also broken in the newly accountable era of the Internet: the Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter started it all with a simple Google search.
An almost perfect rendering of the Straw Man Fallacy.
It was another of those “too good to check” things. Like the fake story claiming that Bush had the lowest IQ among recent Presidents that every newspaper gleefully grabbed and ran with several years ago.
The strange thing about the Ellie Light thing is that another one of my friends, a liberal, is swearing up and down that the MSM has become conservative because they are not killing every anti-Obama story out there. To him, it’s simply not enough that they support the President by slanting news his way when they can — they must actively promote his policies at every chance and they must never give his detractors any ink at all.
Then they would be “balanced”.
Is there any “firm” idea who is the author of the letters?
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Yeah right? Defrauding the editors! That's the ticket! An Obamaite sent out 68 letters to 68 newspapers that included local residency addresses and got published in the 68 newspapers? And I want to buy the GS bridge!!!!! Maybe, just maybe, the 68 editors might have been involved with the writing of these letters of opinion by Ms Light??????
More likely the author sent them to hundreds of papers...?
That said. . .the more sinister collusion here; it appears to me, anyway; is that while many letters are written; few in fact are chosen - for publication. Ellie surpassed the odds; and big time.
I want to know 'how' it is; her/his. . .letters were chosen. . .across our Country; across the board/so to speak. What are the frickin odds here (not good) unless of course, there was some up front 'local' cooperation.
There is a big story bigger than 'Light' . . .Ellie Light; her/HIMself/sigh. . .
Poignant PING!!!
That is the story. That so many papers actually published this drivel. Someone should do an oKeefe type expo and write two similar letters, one pro and one anti Obama, and send them to all the major papers and see which one gets printed.
You are saying what I've been thinking. Ellie Light got picked up by 68 newspapers because "she" was saying what the editors wanted to say but didn't dare..
How many total letters were sent? How were the addresses chosen? Is this the first time?
The letter writer is an "out of work" artist waiting for a determination on a workers comp case in California, married to a nurse living in Texas. They have two homes. wow! This could be a whole series on one of the networks.
Someone, a Journalist, (if there are any left)need to do a "rest of the story" on this one.
I wrote my liberal paper every day for about a year and they called every day to make sure that I was the one who wrote it (years ago) and NEVER printed one of my letters.
Tho the lady who would call every day finally said, please keep writing they are great letters.
go figure.
Thanks for the Ping Wasp man. I forwarded the column to our local paper editor. He never replied to the first 3 so I don’t expect any on this one. His parent company is Media News Group and 6 or 7 of their papers published this real but fake letter but not this one...
I think Ellie Light was a codename passed on to someone at each paper, indicating that the email was an official pronouncement in the name of The One. As such, it was expected to be promptly published. They just forgot to change the phony name while they [insert local town here] made up a location.
It's not that so many liberal newspaper owners and editors are stupid (which is accepted), but rather they are waiting on every word from The One, or his agent, so it can be proclaimed as the genuine voice of the Little Person. As such, they are trained to recognize when this official proclamation is sent.
They stopped being "just whores" long ago. Now they're self-pimping, too.
Democrats will fall for anything because they are just STUPID. It makes one wonder how much inbreeding really takes place within that group.
But more, it is the fact that these letters were published in so many outlets and I think; another name used as well, in few instances; and these also published. Find the success rate here, almost astounding! Do think there could well be, a 'more here than meets the eye' scenario. As Obama, Inc. thinks nothing about controlling the stories published by it's 'chosen' Media; am wondering if these letters - and the name of author - received a 'heads up' before they even arrived at 'Editor's' desk.
Again, the odds of 'Joe-the-Dem' citizen having so many 'hits' in so many markets; makes me very sceptical as to what was really happening behind the Media screen; given Obama/Rahmbo prcoclivities for 'overreach'; along with their shameless cultivation of Party 'apparatchiks'.
Going to the public well and using influence to favor Obama by way of a fraudulent voice; I think is an affront and a major public assault. A 'poisoning' if you will, of this - and just one more - well./sigh. . .
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