Posted on 01/23/2010 8:23:43 AM PST by mills044
Ellie Light sure gets around.
In recent weeks, Light has published virtually identical “Letters to the Editor” in support of President Barack Obama in more than a dozen newspapers.Every letter claimed a different residence for Light that happened to be in the newspaper’s circulation area.
“It’s time for Americans to realize that governing is hard work, and that a president can’t just wave a magic wand and fix everything,” said a letter from alleged Philadelphian Ellie Light, that was published in the Jan. 19 edition of The Philadelphia Daily News.
A letter from Light in the Jan. 20 edition of the San Francisco Examiner concluded with an identical sentence, but with an address for Light all the way across the country in Daly City, California.
Variations of Light’s letter ran in Ohio’s Mansfield News Journal on Jan. 13, with Light claiming an address in Mansfield; in New Mexico’s Ruidoso News on Jan. 12, claiming an address in Three Rivers; in South Carolina’s The Sun News on Jan. 18, claiming an address in Myrtle Beach; and in the Daily News Leader of Staunton, Virginia on Jan. 15, claiming an address in Waynesboro. Her publications list includes other papers in Ohio, West Virginia, Maine, Michigan, Iowa, Pennsylvania and California, all claiming separate addresses.
Light – who e-mailed an identical missive to this reporter on Jan. 16 without listing a hometown – would not answer e-mailed questions about the address discrepancies in newspapers that ran her letter, or her identity, although she did say she wasn’t a former co-worker of this reporter’s who had a similar name.
“I do not write as a representative of any organization,” she said in an e-mail. “The letter I wrote was motivated by surprise and wonderment at the absence of any media support for our President, who won a record-breaking election by a landslide less than 18 months ago, and now, seems to be abandoned by all, supposedly for the infantile reason that he couldn’t make all of Bush’s errors disappear in one day.”
University of Missouri journalism professor Tom Rosenstiel, co-author of a textbook on journalistic values titled “The Elements of Journalism,” reacted with surprise and wonderment upon learning of Light’s widespread publication under multiple addresses.
philly.comHe said newspapers might be able to avoid similar situations in the future by requesting street addresses and home telephone numbers from would-be correspondents, and verifying that those addresses and phone numbers exist.
"Just because it is inconvenient for us in the news business to find out who people are doesn’t mean it isn’t important anymore,” Rosenstiel said. “It is not OK for people to have multiple identities. This is something that people in the news business and in the business of printing “letters to the editor” need to be aware of.”
The Plain Dealer asks letter writers for a phone number for verification purposes.
Ellie Light rhymes with “not so bright”.
That question intrigued me as well. Either the person(s) responsible are so arrogant as to believe no one would have noticed, which is typical of the present administration, or "Ellie Light" is some kind of code to cooperating newspapers to print this letter!
I’m going with my first instinct.
“Ellie Light” = “Elite”
The DNC has a format that allows letter writers to input a zip code and the letter automatically gets sent to periodicals and newspapers within a 50 mile radius:
http://my.democrats.org/page/content/partybuilderLTE/
All Axelrod had to do was write one letter and input different zip codes.
Unfortunately, I’ve fallen upon hard times. I lost my job. And despite the stimulus, I also lost my house and had to move into a low-rent district. It’s not all bad though, because my healthcare coverage on Medicaid is amazing. I’m also eating better than I ever have before now that I have food stamps. That 13oz box of sugary cereal that costs $6 in the supermarket? No problem — I buy a dozen of them now every week! I’m also looking forward to a hefty tax rebate this year, which is amazing since I didn’t have any taxes withheld last year. You think I’m kidding? LOL, the jokes on you!
Don’t worry about me because I’m doing great. I’m looking forward to receiving one of those nice-paying government jobs that have recently become so plentiful. And if I don’t land one this time around, I’m sure to be first in line when my man Obama socializes another private industry. I’m really still deciding whether I want a government job in the automotive industry, the healthcare industry, the banking industry, or if I want to wait for one on Wall Street. My man Obama is gonna get me some of that... wait and see.
/
Agreed. I can believe that many newspapers are lax in verifying letter writers. But to believe that "Ellie Light" got "her" letter published in so many dozens of papers in a period of 2 weeks--in their entirety, intact--is just silly.
The first appearance of this letter appears to be Jan 7, when Politico Editor Ben Smith ran it with a preface (emphasis mine): "I get a lot of unsolicited e-mail and should probably publish more of it; this defense of Obama, sent in by someone named Ellie Light, seemed to crystallize a point his supporters have been trying to make for a while:"
Strange choice of words by an editor. But it's the exact sort of weasel-wording a dishonest editor would use to conceal his knowledge of who did write it.
I heard her middle name is Diane.
She signed the letters “Ellie D. Light”! ;-P
I doubt that this is a Democrat party operation. I believe party operatives have the sense to mix up the names a little better. No, I suspect that this “Ellie Light” is a rogue operator without a real job.
Hey, the Obummer has a lot of different identities, too, and the SSAN numbers to go with them.
Results 1 - 10 of about 1,390
Other thread has interesting and plausible speculation that Ellie Light is Cass Sunstein’s wife...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2435673/posts?page=43
It certainly ties right in with Sunstein’s Beneficial
cognitive diversity plan.
Ms. Light lives in one of those phantom zip codes,
I surmise.
more astroturf from Axelrod.
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