Posted on 04/25/2005 5:04:15 PM PDT by Rebelbase
NEW YORK Every now and then, letters to the editor at the Contra Costa (Calif.) Times don't get posted to the paper's Web site with the rest of the day's paper, after midnight. When Dan Hatfield, the paper's editorial-page editor, arrived at the office at his usual 5:30 or 6 a.m. on those mornings, he'd find out right away that some letters hadn't made it up, because there would an angry e-mail waiting in his inbox from Kyle Vallone.
Hatfield could never understand why Vallone cared so much.
Times reporter Sarah Krupp solved that riddle in a story published Sunday. After a months-long investigation, Krupp exposed Vallone as the man behind an unusually sophisticated letter-writing campaign.
"We have always found a few little things," Hatfield told E&P about previous instances of dishonest letter-writers. "We had found a number of other people who were not nearly as sophisticated as this one."
Vallone went further than anyone, making up letter writers, securing false phone numbers, and even faking accents on the phone to match his made up names, the Times reported.
After months of reporting, and one earlier confrontation, Krupp got Vallone to admit that he had worked on as many as 200 false letters sent to at least three Northern California newspapers: the Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Tri-Valley Herald.
Krupp started looking into the letters when she was covering a local election and some suspicious letters surfaced in the campaign.
"She started going through mountains of letters looking for the same phone numbers, and she found a few," Hatfield said. Once she tracked down the numbers in question, she managed to contact Vallone, who at first denied any knowledge of the letters.
After Krupp found out more about Vallone and solidified the reporting for a story, Vallone came forward, saying he had started writing false letters when he was working for a Republican political campaign in 1994. During that campaign, staffers would write letters to the editor, which volunteers would sign and send in their names.
The Times and the Chronicle both verify letters to the editor by phoning the writer and sometimes by other means, but Vallone used free voicemail services to create fictitious identities, the Times reported. Vallone could not be reached for comment by E&P.
As Krupp's investigation progressed, the Times developed and implemented new procedures that Hatfield wouldn't discuss publicly. And with the publication of Sunday's article, the Chronicle has also started an investigation into any letters it received.
"We are certainly looking into it to determine if we also were targets of his letters, as the article indicated," John Diaz, the Chronicle's editorial-page editor, told E&P Monday afternoon. "It's obviously an area of great interest and concern to us."
Regardless of the outcome of the inquiry, Diaz said, the episode has called letter-verification procedures into question, and the Chronicle will "take steps to reduce the changes of this happening again."
But both Diaz and Hatfield acknowledge that there is probably no way to completely prevent false letters.
"I think it's probably not possible to build an absolute firewall against somebody who is bound and determined," Diaz said. Even with new measures, Hatfield agreed, "there is no fail-safe that I know of to guarantee that no [falsified] letter ever will get in there."
Both the Times and the Chronicle had caught Vallone for previous deceptions. The Times had caught him writing in the name of a local former mayor, and the Chronicle nailed him for plagiarizing portions of a letter from The Wall Street Journal -- a violation the paper corrected in print.
The papers simply didn't know that the same man was writing under other names. Only after Krupp's meticulous reporting did the facts become clear.
"She's the star of this show," Hatfield said. "This has certainly gotten her noticed here."
Someone got caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
Given the history, he's probably lying about which campaign he was working for when he began this little deception.
Somehow, I just knew this was a "bash the republican" story from the first line.
You have to know that there are as many, or more, Dem's who do the same thing. But this is the first story on this subject that I've seen, and surprise, surprise, surprise, the evil doer is a Republican.
If this guy started as a dimocRAT this doesn't even warrant a story.
I think it was in a local paper (Cincinnati,) after the Vice Presidential debate last year I read an editorial talking about the paper receiving several letters claiming that Edwards "destroyed" Cheney. The paper pointed out that the letters were received 4 hours before the debate began!
It's one of the oldest tricks in the book.
This has to be BS, implying that this guy is a Republican. Here is why:
1. As a subscriber to the CCT, which is not as obliviously left wing biased as the SF Comical), the Letters section usually runs 5 or 6 to one left over right. (I have had three to four letters published in 6 years. At least twice that many have been rejected.)
2. Why do they not come right out and say which side he supports? Note the wording, it implies he is a Republican supporter but does not come out and say so. They also do not give any hints as to the subject matter of his writings.
3. I have also long noticed a pattern in the letters supporting the Dems, indicating to me they are responding to the talking points of the left (move-on or other similar groups).
If they had only put half the effort into one of the Clinton scandals and its spin miesters.
Making Up Stories 404a
Professor: Mary Mapes
This course introduces the student to techniques of forgery, with an emphasis of degrading military personel, religions outside of Buddhism and Islam, the NRA, and the GOP.
(3 credits).
I disagree. The CCT is actually much more biased than the Chronicle in its news reporting. The Chronicle is probably more biased in its editorials and columnists, but everyone expects left-wing editorial content from the Chronicle.
In the CCT most "news" stories about local school issues are obviously just re-writes of what the local teachers union friend of the reporter thinks. Any "news"the CCT prints about county government is terribly slanted. They deliberately avoid printing facts that would put blame on their friends the 'Rats. Readers have no idea that it was the 'Rats and the 'Rats alone that have bankrupted the County with absurd pension giveaways to public employee unions. Public pensions and other retirement benefits will become a glowing financial mushroom cloud in just a few years. The CCT will explain that "mistakes were made," and leave it at that, rather than blame the 'Rats.
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I did not see that the article was an excerpt and assumed it was complete.
Snail Mail Freeping?
Given the history, he's probably lying about which campaign he was working for when he began this little deception.
No i believe that He is a Republican. writing letters to Editor is an effective way to debate the issues and get the truth out, but the Contra Costa Times is a biased liberal Rag and it is a Joke to expect a fair and ballanced letters to Editor page. Ditto the San Jose Mercury News, SF Chronicle..etc. Conservatives get letters set aside and Liberal's letters get published.
I am not supprised that this person tried different names and tactics to get His letters published. while dishonest...it is no more dishonest than the Scumbag Left Papers who fill the Letters pages with one sided swill from Leftist idiots every day.
He is only getting down into the gutter with the Rats and fighting the same style.
I have no problem with this Guy. More power to him.
The Times found eight letters submitted by Vallone during the campaign, seven of which blasted Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and one that praised Jones
7 letters against Boxer? this guy deserves a Congressional medal of Honor!!!
Oh, that is too much! Whenever I look in the letters to the editor section, I see that the letters have been selected to represent a variety of leftist opinions, with maybe one kooky conservative letter thrown in to both show "balance" and to demonstrate just how kooky those right wing fanatics are. Now, on what basis would I believe what I read in the newspaper??? Not the letters, and not the factually challenged articles, either!
Nothing wrong with this. Unfortunately, creeps like Vallone ruin things for honest people.
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