Monday, January 25, 2010

Mail | Shedding light on busy Obama letter writer

In a new comment, Anonymous@12:32 a.m. writes about a mini-scandal rippling through journalism circles:

Why do so many Gannett publications (at least 13, including USA Today) have exactly the same letter posted in their opinion sections (different days and all over the country) from someone named "Ellie Light," who lives in different cities? Do Gannett publications only verify the writers if they do not praise President Obama? A Google search of the name Ellie Light would be informative. The Cleveland Plain Dealer first caught on to Ms. Light's letters being published in many newspapers. There are at least 47 papers with crappy editors who failed to check to see if she is a real person. I'll bet if the letters had been critical of President Obama, they would have checked. No wonder American newspapers are in their death throes.

Did your paper get caught doing this? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

6 comments:

  1. Here's a good link:
    http://patterico.com/2010/01/23/ellie-lights-obama-letters/

    ReplyDelete
  2. What if, instead, these "Ellie" letters were posted by Obama OPPONENTS, hoping to smear the White House by making it appear this is a campaign organized by Democrats? That could explain why the author used the same name over and over -- a tactic all but guaranteed to get caught?

    ReplyDelete
  3. It doesn't matter one bit to me if it was an organized campaign. Someone in the news didn't do a job, and that's how all this stuff got printed. This is a perfect example of "good enough is good enough."

    ReplyDelete
  4. All four central Wisconsin papers were complicit/duped

    ReplyDelete
  5. So THIS is ContentOne, huh?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wonder if anyone has tried to find/contact Ellie?

    ReplyDelete

Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.