Monday, January 25, 2010

An Isolated Extremist, I'm Sure

I have never had a letter to the editor published in a newspaper. I've written few, I'll admit, but still you have to be impressed with the success of Ellie Light:

A well-traveled letter writer who has used dozens of different addresses to publish a pro-Obama letter-to-the-editor in at least 40 newspapers around the country in recent weeks denies allegations that she's secretly a White House official or is part of an organized propaganda campaign.

Astroturfing? That's the scandal? I don't think so. An organized campaign wouldn't be so sloppy as to have but one writer send in all those letters. (A thought: has anyone searched the text of the letter rather than the author?)

The scandal is that so many newspapers received this letter of praise and defense for the president and immediately put it in print. Why would so many newspaper editors be so receptive to such a letter?

It's funny, really, when you think about it. You have editors sympathetic to the president and his policies ready to snap at a letter promoting the president, and it turns out that there's really only one letter writer out there capable of tossing together the words. Is the president's base of support really that weak?