Media Came Down Hard on Pro-Iraq War 'Ellie Light'-like Tactic in

January 27th, 2010 6:02 PM
Managing Editor's Note: The following was originally published at Greyhawk's Mudville Gazette blog on January 25, 2010. Wow - growing evidence that multiple identical letters appearing in multiple different newspapers under multiple names implies some sort of astroturf campaign. I'm shocked, shocked I tell you, at this development. The story of "Ellie Light" was exposed in the Cleveland Plain-…

Dude Writes Like a Lady: Pro-Obama Letter Spammer Ellie Light Is Actua

January 27th, 2010 10:31 AM
As Austin Powers would say, "it's a man, baby!"A male health care worker from California outed himself to the Cleveland Plain Dealer yesterday as "Ellie Light," the pro-Obama letter writer who duped nearly 70 newspapers into publishing his letters.The Plain Dealer's Stephen Koff has the story:A man who identified himself as Winston Steward, 51, of Frazier Park, Calif., says he made up the name "…

Editor: Ellie Light's Letter Was Good So We Didn't Verify Her Identity

January 26th, 2010 3:25 PM
The Sheboygan Press, which published Ellie Light's infamous letter on January 17, admitted Tuesday that its opinion editor failed to follow company protocol of confirming Light's identity. Joe Gulig, the paper's resident watchdog, claimed to have started the process by asking for information, but never followed through to see if the phone number was real. The paper admitted that the fiasco "…

MRC-TV: Bozell on Newspapers' Sloppy Handling of 'Ellie Light' Letters

January 26th, 2010 11:03 AM
Three days ago, NewsBusters contributor Candance Moore wrote about pro-Obama letter-to-the-editor spammer "Ellie Light" who had duped some 40+ papers (the number stands at 68 now), into publishing nearly identical letters that praised the president. In each case, the writer claimed to hail from cities or towns served by the local newspaper's print circulation.Today, Fox News Channel's "America's…

Democrats Turn Letters to Editor into Talking Points Repository, Media

January 25th, 2010 2:09 PM
If Ellie Light is indeed a Democratic operative, she is only the proverbial tip of the party's astroturfing iceberg. Patterico's investigative work, which was also at the forefront of the blogosphere's efforts to expose Light, have revealed an even greater effort at manufacturing the appearance of public support for Democratic policies.Organizing for America and the Democratic Party each have…

Obama-Loving Spammer 'Ellie Light' Dupes 42 Newspapers

January 23rd, 2010 11:02 PM
In January, an anonymous person supposedly named "Ellie Light" launched a massive PR campaign on behalf of President Barack Obama.The goal appears to have been to infiltrate as many newspapers as possible to spread pro-Obama propaganda -- as if the press needed the help. Light's plan was simple enough: write a compelling letter to the editor, pretend to be a concerned reader in the region, and…