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Will the Astroturf Never Cease?

The following letter, apparently written by a PR hack for the GOP, is appearing in newspapers around the country. This has happened a number of times in the past year, with the party telling people to send specific letters to their newspapers under their own names as if they had written the text themselves.

This fake grassroots letter writing (hence "astroturf") is in clear violation of the editorial policy of almost every newspaper in the country. There is nothing wrong with urging people to write, but to do obviously dishonest things in support of a political position is disgustingly wrong.

Look for the following text in your newspaper:

Creating jobs and fostering economic growth needs to be our number one national priority. President Bush recognizes this and has delivered a jobs and growth plan that will create 1.4 million new jobs in the next two years. Some in Congress want to reduce or cut President Bush's plan and in so doing, reduce the number of jobs created. That's hundreds of thousands of jobs fewer than the 1 million jobs the stimulus package passed by the House of Representatives would create.

12 Senate Democrats understood the important impact tax relief has on growing our economy when President Bush's tax relief was passed into law. Why are Senate Democrats ignoring their previous support for tax relief and its economic impact? They should vote with President Bush and give the economy the boost it needs. It's the right thing to do to grow the economy.

If you see this, send an email to the paper telling them they've been tricked into publishing political propaganda under the guise of one of their readers.

Posted by Mark Wednesday, May 07, 2003 12:32:00 PM | permalink |