Last summer, when the health care debate started heating up, I noticed a significant number of letters to the editor of our local McClatchey paper, that seemed formulaic. You know the type, I have a neighbor or a friend, or a relative from France, or Canada or England, who just loves their health care system. Anyway I was suspicious, but then then a letter appeared that was exactly like another one, except for the last part identifying a friend rather than a relative and I knew that the letters were astro turf. I did a google search on SEIU/Bellingham and lo and behold a post on DU came up, asking for letters and offering help writing the letters. The post gave the address and phone number of the local Bellingham office of the SEIU. I of course reposted the information on the paper’s web site and that pretty much ended the astro-turf. This is just more of the same. The letters were probably meant as examples and were repeated word for word.
Could DU have gotten orders to do the same with Ellie Light in local areas giving local address and phone number as the papers usually request for fact checking?