Breaking the Obama astroturfing story

Phil Boehmke, AT:

Sabrina Eaton at The Cleveland Plain Dealer broke the Ellie Light story on Friday, revealing that more than a dozen different newspapers featured strikingly similar letters to the editor in support of President Obama.. Each of the pro-Obama letters was written by an area resident named Ellie Light. Having noticed this anomaly Ms. Eaton started digging and in the course of her investigation she tracked down the person known as Ellie Light. Ms… Eaton and Ellie exchanged a number of emails and eventually Ellie confessed.

So the reason why I expanded my submission was because I found that editors were eager to present a point of view on the topic that wasn’t so overheated and angry. Indeed, I think the viewpoint that my letter expressed was less important to the editors than the even and non-emotional tone.

No explanation was offered for the subterfuge in using multiple false addresses in shot-gunning her Obamaganda across the country.

In the days since the article first appeared, the news has spread at light speed across the Internet. Bloggers and tweeters have uncovered 64 letters to the editor (so far) from Ellie Light. From Philadelphia to San Francisco and all across the fruited plain Ellie’s letters have been uncovered.

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