-Caveat Lector-

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=7320

Political parties blanket email newspaper editors

And newspaper editors publish the astroturf spam

By Mike Magee: tiistai 21 tammikuu 2003, 08:17

IT SEEMS WE'VE OPENED something of a can of worms with our story
yesterday, which suggested the US Republican Party blanket emailed
different newspaper editors with the same letter praising George Bush.
Dozens of editors of newspapers published the letter. On the face of it,
the letters were signed by different individuals.

See Google hunts down 'President Bush is demonstrating genuine leadership'

The whole letter reads as follows:

"When it comes to the economy, President Bush is demonstrating genuine
leadership. The economic growth package he recently proposed takes us in
the right direction by accelerating the successful tax cuts of 2001,
providing marriage penalty relief, and providing incentives for
individuals and small businesses to save and invest.

"Contrary to the class warfare rhetoric attacking the President's plan,
the proposal helps everyone who pays taxes, and especially the middle
class. 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.

"That's not pocket change for a family struggling through uncertain
economic times. Combined with the President's new initiatives to help the
unemployed, this plan gets people back to work and helps every sector of
our economy."

Now we learn the practice has already some history, although the US news
media -. perhaps out of embarrassment .- does not yet seem to have picked
it up.

At this web site, there is a fight against "killer astroturf" which
relates to the 2002 Republican campaign.

That site says the letters are part of an orchestrated campaign and are
word for word identical.

Worse -. a whole heap of newspapers took the letter as genuine and
published it.

Newspapers alleged to have fallen for the spamsters include the Boston
Globe, USA Today, the Dallas Morning News, the Albany Pilot, the Green Bay
Press Gazette and several dozen others.

Yesterday it was suggested that our own august Financial Times had
published the latest example of the "astroturf".

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