Posted on 04/18/2010 5:51:37 AM PDT by Palmetto Patriot
When the health care reform bill was signed into law last month by President Barack Obama, Bev McClellan of Hampton was happy and inspired enough to do something she hadn't done in years — write a letter to the editor.
"It was a long time coming," McClellan said about health care reform. "I am a self-employed, self-insured person and I believe reform will put me in a much better position."
Outside of typical election year letter-writing, no other domestic issue in recent memory has prompted more readers to write letters to the editor in opposition or support of health care reform. And as a recent spate of letters about reform has revealed, the line between authenticity and recycled political boilerplate has become more blurred.
McClellan said she was planning to write anyway but was prompted to immediate action by an e-mail request she received from Organizing for America, the grassroots political arm of the Obama administration that works through the Democratic National Committee.
The e-mail asked McClellan — and hundreds of thousands of others across the country — to send in a letter of support for her Congressional representatives and provided a list of positive talking points about how reform will help their communities.
-snip-
In the Internet age, sending a letter to the editor has never been easier with many political or advocacy groups offering a quick process to compose and send a letter in minutes. McClellan went to the OFA Web site and in a few easy steps her letter was on its way directly to the Portsmouth Herald — as writers in every part of the country did to their local newspapers with the OFA providing the direct link.
(Excerpt) Read more at seacoastonline.com ...
Lots of “I’d like to thank...” letters in support of health care legislation around here.
Which is why no one takes Letters to the Editors seriously. They only publish what comes from the Democrats AstroTurf PR machine. The 5000 letter is opposition get screened out so the Progressives can put in the 5 letters that back up their editorial position.
Much less newspapers themselves.
In order to do that, I would have to buy a newspaper, but I haven’t got a bird to put it to any use.
Its like thanking a rapist for the good time he had.
I have noticed a distinct increase in letters dealing favorably with Obama’s programs in my local paper here in Hunterdon county NJ. They are often countered by well written and sometimes angry views of the other side.
The paper is a liberal weekly and part of a chain of similar papers, so they print an even number of both sides even though the county is the most Republican and conservative in New Jersey.
The response should be to raspberry the press for false representation.
Fake letters to the editor are common. The job of the editor is to sell papers, not to be accurate.
Before Obama many democrats hid behind a faux patriotism, a wazoo Constitutional veneer.. No More, they be EXPOSED.. They be unMASKED of the sedition and espionage performed by the Trojan Horse of the entire Democrat Party.. The democrats have also exposed the odor of many Republicans also.. moles in the dirty places in the Republican Party.. called RINOs but turn-coats just the same..
Before Obama they slid on pathways of slime like republican sluggs even snails sliming all they touched.. BIG government republicans, secretly holding the same political desires as the other "progressives".. the enemies of Americas soverignty..
Still, I think it's worth the effort to push back. Any leftist attack that is left out there without response becomes the truth in the minds of the uninformed.
I have found that at least online responses to these letters are posted unscreened.
I wonder if the smarmy TV ads thanking our congress critter for health care came from the same place.
Anybody else get them?
I just don't want any Conservatives to be discouraged when they see the Letters running 100-1 against their views.
That is because the editors who screen these are high bigoted political partisans. They only publish what they want to hear.
I pay 75 cents every week and scan the letters to the editor looking for the good ones. It's nice to see letters from that one guy in Annandale... (I am forgetting his name... Dan Popa?) that hits the nail on the head with paragraph he writes.
For a while the letters to the editor was a back and forth argument between Chris Lido and the anti-hunters.
This week, Old Ink was more entertaining.
Here is the link to the Organizing For America Health Care Action Center letter writing campaign, including “Talking Points” (scroll down), and direct links to regional, local and national newspapers:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/speakout/write?js=false&zip=02134
They require that you list personal information that will no doubt wind up on their data base, and you can expect propaganda to be heading your way quite soon.
Clever little rats.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.