A few weeks ago I noted the President’s support for an Organizing for America letter-writing campaign for health reform. This involved a web form and a few talking points which at least 72 papers around the country were fooled into reprinting as letters to the editor. Now I’ve I received notice of a follow up campaign by OFA, this time promoted by Vice President Biden. He writes in part:
Believe me, senators and their staff read the letters page — because they know just how influential it can be. Your letter could make a tremendous difference….
It’s just the first step, but one letter from a constituent is worth a hundred paid advertisements. So please make sure your friends and neighbors understand the benefits this law will bring to ordinary Americans — take three minutes and write a paragraph or two now:
http://my.barackobama.com/SenateThank
Thanks,
Vice President Joe Biden
While this campaign may be new, the talking points that appear in the sidebar of the OFA website are not. They appear in this March 24 e-mail sent out by the President:
The next day OFA put out a message indicating that showing support for reform was their top priority. That is presumably what led to this current letter-writing campaign.
So far, the following newspapers have published some or all of the White House talking points as letters to the editor:
- Ukiah Daily Journal
- Times News
- Times Gazette
- Foster’s Daily Democrat
- Morning Journal News
- Americus Times Recorder
- Merced Sun Star
- Baltimore Sun (and another one here)
- San Gabriel Valley Tribune
- News Times (and another one here)
My favorite though is this one at the Daily Chronicle…
- Headline: No More Tea Party Talking Points
It’s impossible to disguise this kind of campaign for long. I spoke with an editor at the Baltimore Sun who received 59 OFA generated letters practically overnight! That’s on top of the dozens more that poured in later. Since he can’t devote the time it would take to separate the genuine letters from the talking points, the Sun is simply forced to ignore them all.
While I’m pleased that the campaign is backfiring at the Sun, I suspect some of the smaller, local papers will be fooled into publishing White House talking points once again. Personally, I don’t believe the editors at these papers want to be part of the White House message machine. If only there was some way to warn them.
Hmmm…
A few days ago, I used OFA’s website to mail the following letter to 118 local papers around the country:
Subject: The White House is Using Your Letters Page for Free Advertising
Message: I received an e-mail from Vice President Biden today asking me to use this web page to generate letters to the editor: http://my.barackobama.com/SenateThank4
The form is sponsored by Organizing for America, a political arm of the Obama White House. Along with the form there are suggested talking points:
- Passing health reform is a historic victory for all Americans – for families, seniors, young people…
[Etc., etc., etc.]
The e-mail from the Vice President said in part “letter from a constituent is worth a hundred paid advertisements.” Just thought you should know that the White House is trying to use your letters page as free advertising.
John Sexton
I think that’s called being hoist on your own petard, but I prefer to call it fun with Astroturf.
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