Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Still More Astroturfing: Gloria Elle and Jan Chen Write the Same Anti-Republican, Pro-Obama Letter
Patterico.com ^ | 1/24/10 | Patterico.com

Posted on 01/24/2010 2:45:52 PM PST by Painesright

Now that people are paying attention, the Astroturfers are coming out of the woodwork:

Jan Chen of Seattle writes to the Northwest Asian Weekly (a small Asian paper serving the Seattle area):

As one listens to the Republican anger over health care reform, one can imagine an anti-government protester cheerfully paying premiums on insurance policies that drop you after you make a claim, or happily sauntering out of an emergency room that denied them treatment because of a coverage problem. One can imagine a town hall sign-waver enthusiastically forking over most of their pay to bill collectors after suffering a catastrophic injury, thinking, “Wow, the free market system is great.”

Meanwhile, Gloria Elle writes to the Baltimore Chronicle — on the same page as Mark Spivey and Ellie Light:

As one listens to the Republican anger over health care reform, one can imagine an anti-government protester cheerfully paying premiums on insurance policies that cancel you for making a claim, or happily sauntering out of an emergency room that denied them treatment because of a coverage problem. One can imagine a town-hall sign-waver enthusiastically forking over most of their pay to bill collectors after suffering a catastrophic injury, thinking, “Wow, the free market system is great.”

Jan Chen and Gloria Elle certainly have a similar writing style, don’t they?

To the word. Thanks to liberrocky on Twitter for the find.

Freepers discovered another one: Janet Leigh. (Cute.) This one is explained here. [UPDATE: To make it clear and explicit, the link shows that the very same pro-Obama letter was written by Janet Leigh to NewburgGraphic.com, and by Earnest Gardner to the Memphis Flyer. She also finds Janet Leigh next to Mark Spivey in the Santa Barbara Independent.]

The story is exploding. There is Astroturf everywhere...

(Excerpt) Read more at patterico.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: astroturf; ellielight; gloriaelle; janchen; markspivery; markspivey
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-53 next last
To: Painesright

there was a period back there when facebook users were all posting duplicate messages about healthcare — I think urged on by NPR. It was easy to spot since they all posted identical messages. Pretty stupid.


21 posted on 01/24/2010 3:28:44 PM PST by altura
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: freekitty

Stupid?? It’s sophomoric - worthy of the deep thinkers that populate the opposition. Morons.


22 posted on 01/24/2010 3:29:59 PM PST by tgusa (Gun control: deep breath, sight alignment, squeeze the trigger ....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Painesright

Mainstream Media Newspapers are really digging a deep hole for themselves and Obama on this one.

From my own experience of sending letters to the editor, the newspaper calls to determine that I am who I say I am.

For some reason it appears the newspapers are not making these calls to these fictious writers of letters to the editor.

Could the reason for the newspapers failure to follow their own rules is their love for the ObaMao?????


23 posted on 01/24/2010 3:30:49 PM PST by Presbyterian Reporter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cripplecreek

Yes, yes they are (this stupid). It doesn’t sound like this little stunt was all that difficult to discover (Lexus-Nexus, anyone?) A search engine search on a string of words from the text would work also; this is how I catch the occasional plagiarized paper.


24 posted on 01/24/2010 3:33:46 PM PST by ConservativePsychProf ("I have set before you life and death. Choose life, that you and your descendants may live.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: sportutegrl

If I remember correctly, Janet Leigh also starred in the film Psycho. So that would be appropriate for these letter writers, I supposed.


25 posted on 01/24/2010 3:35:15 PM PST by GraceCoolidge
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: N. Theknow

I wonder if there are any “gifted” freepers out there with the tech savvy to screen future letters for duplicates posted in other papers. I would love for these manipulators to realize that even if the MSM is complicit/lazy, there are others who are wise to their ways and have no hesitation in spotlighting their tactics.

We may not have the MSM, but we have this site and Drudge has a huge following.


26 posted on 01/24/2010 3:37:20 PM PST by BelleAl
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: AmishDude

Yep. More Alinsky rules.


27 posted on 01/24/2010 3:40:21 PM PST by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote; then find me a real conservative to vote for)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: ConservativePsychProf

Here — I just found two more with “surtax on the wealthiest Americans,” almost verbatim identical.

http://www.starbulletin.com/editorials/letters/20100105_Letters_to_the_editor.html

and

http://www.delcotimes.com/articles/2010/01/12/opinion/doc4b4be8d5ca9b1499413922.txt


28 posted on 01/24/2010 3:42:25 PM PST by ConservativePsychProf ("I have set before you life and death. Choose life, that you and your descendants may live.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: Painesright

Wonderful finds!


29 posted on 01/24/2010 3:54:30 PM PST by aimhigh
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BelleAl
I wonder if there are any “gifted” freepers out there with the tech savvy to screen future letters for duplicates posted in other papers.

It doesn't take gifted. I put your sentence into google and it came up with a link to Free republic. If you had said it in other places online it would come up there as well.
30 posted on 01/24/2010 4:06:16 PM PST by cripplecreek (Seniors, the new shovel ready project under socialized medicine.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: ConservativePsychProf

Good find.


31 posted on 01/24/2010 4:09:31 PM PST by Jet Jaguar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: cripplecreek

And if things turn out like they want them to, they will be dead morons. And never realize why.


32 posted on 01/24/2010 4:13:57 PM PST by sport
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: cripplecreek

I have done google searches using a sentence from this letter to the editor. I was just thinking if there was some tracking matrix that could be set up to post similar letters and find patterns that could be highlighted and publicized.


33 posted on 01/24/2010 4:14:47 PM PST by BelleAl
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: Painesright

Freepmail


34 posted on 01/24/2010 4:16:53 PM PST by hoosiermama (ONLY DEAD FISH GO WITH THE FLOW.......I am swimming with Sarahcudah! Sarah has read the tealeaves.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BelleAl

I’m looking for phrases that sound to me like they might come from talking points and searching those.


35 posted on 01/24/2010 4:17:27 PM PST by cripplecreek (Seniors, the new shovel ready project under socialized medicine.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: Painesright

Here’s the type of people Obama hired. Kal Penn is leaving the show “House” to work in the White House (or at least, in the Old Executive Office building next door). Now, what would the talents of a Hollywood Actor be used for? It might not be him, but I’ll bet deep in the bowels of Obama’s administration this is all being worked on. Remember the telephone call months ago to the “artists” asking them to use their talents for propaganda.


36 posted on 01/24/2010 4:25:54 PM PST by radioone (Alinskys rules for radicals: Ridicule is a better tactic than argument.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 43north

Yeah, add a homosexual to make the writers more “diverse” yet still making an ass out of himself


37 posted on 01/24/2010 4:27:13 PM PST by A_Former_Democrat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: aimhigh

Most papers require that letters-to-the-editor be accompanied by a local address and phone number for verification purposes. You can fake the name, but you can’t fake the phone number, if the papers actually follow through and verify the letters. So the papers are in possession of info that would allow them to find out - if they are interested - who these people really are, based on their phone numbers.


38 posted on 01/24/2010 4:29:29 PM PST by Steve_Seattle ("Above all, shake your bum at Burton.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: Painesright

Wonder if this will lead back to the Whitehouse. Not a Watergate scandal, to be sure, but, if the story got any traction, it would make a lot of people even more doubtful of everything 0 says.


39 posted on 01/24/2010 4:32:43 PM PST by JewishRighter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Painesright

Paid misinformation to deceive the voting public? High crimes and misdemeanors? Get enough evidence of this crap and we can force the papers to give up the IP addresses or scans of the “letters” to keep up the search for these enemies of our free nation.


40 posted on 01/24/2010 4:34:50 PM PST by Tunehead54 (Nothing funny here ;-)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-53 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson