[NewJerseyJoe]

WHAT A STRANGE COINCIDENCE! Two different letters to the editor, both published in New Jersey's Bergen Record on the same day (10/3/04), have exactly the same wording, praising John Kerry's "performance" in the debate.

The Record is New Jersey's 2nd-largest newspaper and is iredeemably liberal -- even worse than our famous Star-Ledger. If anyone feels like freeping them, here's the contact info:

Address: The Record, 150 River St., Hackensack, NJ 07601
Email: LettersToTheEditor@northjersey.com
Phone: (201) 678-3925 ext. 2
Fax: (201) 646-4749

[NewJerseyJoe]

A follow-up -- look what I Googled at http://www.democrats.org/media/letters/debate.html:

    "In the first presidential debate, I was hoping to hear two things.
    "First, I wanted to hear John Kerry lay out his plans for Iraq and for winning the war on terror. I wasn't disappointed. Kerry staked out a strong plan to bring peace to Iraq and to refocus our efforts to fight terrorists around the world.
    "Second, I wanted to hear President Bush tell the truth about Iraq, but he refused. While his own intelligence services, military advisers, Republican colleagues, and even his Secretary of State have said that Iraq is in chaos, Bush still presents a version of Iraq seen through rose-colored glasses.
    "This debate made it clear: John Kerry is a leader we can trust to tell us the truth when it comes to our nation's security. George Bush has had his chance; I'm ready for a new direction."

[jigsaw]

Kate Swan

Norman Kailo

I'm curious if these two people even exist or if the paper faked it.

[Honcho Bongs]

Here's more:

Boston Globe 10/2/04: "He staked out a strong plan to bring peace to Iraq and to refocus our efforts to fight terrorists around the world" - Mindy Mazur, Milton

The Daily Review (San Francisco?) 10/2/04: "Kerry staked out a strong plan to bring peace to Iraq and to refocus our efforts to fight terrorists around the world" - Doris Wolf, Castro Valley

Laughably lame liberals...

[Arizona Carolyn]

The sheep all mailing form letters per the email they received from the DNC... how original.

[andyk]

LOL

[Carling]

My brother tried to take on the Seattle PI regarding a guest editorial they printed from some tech CEO who was a flaming lib. My brother had a well-reasoned, factual rebuttal, and the Op/ed editor emailed him back and said they would not publish a rebuttal like his without further explanation.

He promptly cancelled his subscription.

[lowbridge]

To Our Readers (and Writers) (WA Post editorial about Democrat email spin)

Democrats don't fool anyone in post-debate e-mail punditry (Chicago Tribune Editorial)

[NewJerseyJoe]

Here's the letter I just fired off to The Record:

In your Sunday (10/3) Opinion section, two letters to the editor -- both "coincidentally" praising John Kerry -- contained exactly the same wording. A quick Internet search revealed that this is a talking-points memo from the democrats.org web site.
    How desperate New Jersey Democrats (and The Record) must be, in order to pass off political talking points as bona fide letters to the editor. Dan Rather would be proud!

[lowbridge]

"This debate made it clear: Kerry is a leader we can trust to tell us the truth when it comes to our nation's security. Bush has had his chance."

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"WE RECEIVED THE following letter from a woman in Yonkers, N.Y.: "Dear editor: This debate made it clear: John Kerry is a leader we can trust to tell us the truth when it comes to our nation's security. George Bush has had his chance; I'm ready for a new direction."

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1234088/posts

[F16Fighter]

NICE snags...

Between the MSM and RATS, there's 24/7 non-stop collusion to steal the election.

And oh yeah: THE BERGEN RECORD IS A FRAUD.

[John Robertson]

EXCELLENT catch, Joe. Now you must follow through and get it to Drudge, O'Reilly, etc. It is another perfect example of the MSM being in the bag for the Dems...and being used by them. There is even the chance that, once certain MSM outlets realize how they're being used, they'll take a closer look at things.

[Heff]

Here's mine:

---

Dear Editor,

How is it that two different letters to the Editor have the same exact DNC / Kerry Talking point???

“Kerry staked out a strong plan to bring peace to Iraq and to refocus our efforts to fight terrorists around the world”

Kate Swan and Norman Kailo wrote the same exact thing in their respective letters. Wasn’t there another letter that you could have used?? Even if you are doing it for nefarious reasons, which I believe you are, if you are going to shill for John Kerry, at least try not to insult me with the same Kerry talking point, in two different letters on the same day.

Even more ironic, this same quote is appearing in other newspapers around the country. It looks like you’ve been “spun”.

So, my friends and I have decided to not buy your biased paper anymore and we are going one step further; we are going to ask your advertisers to stop advertising with the Record until you clean up your act.

Remember, the Blogger Brigade is going to be unrelenting on those media outlets that engage in anything less than honest reporting.

While Letters to the Editor are to express the viewpoint of the readers, you should have some balance in the “Letters” section and you should be looking to weed out those letters which can be clearly identified as being written by political operatives.

Grow up Bergen Record.

Regards,

[NYCVirago]

To their credit, several newspapers, like the Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, and New York Daily News, have not only recognized these phony letters, but told their readers about them. This paper is pretty clueless to run two letters with the same talking point on the same day. You should send this to Opinion Journal's Best of the Web -- I think they'd run it.

[duckworth]

Hey JJ,

I live in Central Jersey. Our daily irritant is the Bridgewater Courier News. EVERY DAY here is an anti-Bush letter in there. And it always sounds like a form letter. It's so insulting. Don't the editors realize how stupid they seem? Ah they don't care. If Kerry gets in, there'll be gay marriage. And then the Courier News editors will feel good about themselves. For about a week.

[RogueIsland]

The Record is New Jersey's 2nd-largest newspaper and is iredeemably liberal

That used to be my local paper before I cut through the concertina wire and made it out of that state for good. I see some things never change.

[lowbridge]

bump

[T. P. Pole]

When I see a strangely worded letter in the paper, I scan the funny phrase in Google. "bring peace to Iraq and to refocus our efforts" gets 18 hits this morning, most the them newspapers. Then I like to Google the authors, to see if they really exist or to see what other letters they have written.

[Dont Mention the War]

The Bergen Record has just been outed by James Taranto at the WSJ:

http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110005712