Caught red-handed, Republican astroturfers insist that this isn’t news–will they get away with it?
“We’re just trying to use technology to get people more involved in the political process,” Chuck DeFeo told PC World (Jan. 22, 2003). DeFeo, who works for the RNC, denies that he’s doing anything wrong. And PCWorld accepts DeFeo’s stonewall stance because “using the Web to mass-mail prewritten letters is nothing new.”
Hold on there! Those Nigerian guys who want my bank account number are “nothing new”–and they are just “using the Web to mass-mail prewritten letters.” Does that make it okay?
The point of the Republican “letter generators” is to trick small-town papers around the country into publishing spin-doctor prose disguised as the work of a fellow who lives next door. The Republican mailings were wrong for the same reasons those Nigerian mailings are wrong.
- The letters are written by pros but claim to be written by amateurs–because if you knew who wrote them and why it would be fatal to what they are trying to do.
- The letters are used to trick people into acting against their own best interests–most newspapers would rather get paid an advertising fee to publish RNC releases instead of giving them free space on letter pages.
- The letters are signed by people who expect to be paid (in points they exchange for merchandise)–but this is not disclosed either.
No wonder the Republicans don’t want to outlaw spam with deceptive headers–it lies at the heart of their own PR campaign!
Did any of those letters-to-the-editors say “Paid for by the Republican National Committee”? Because the GOPLeaders.com website, Mr. Chuck DeFeo, and whoever wrote those smarmy letters probably cost the RNC a bundle. Not to mention the merchandise people get for signing them…
So far, two news stories outside the online British technology journal Inquirer ( PC World, Jan. 22 and UPI, Jan. 24)–both tamely accept the idea that these intentionally-deceptive mailings are not only not wrong, they’re not even newsworthy.
If you find suspicious astroturf in your local paper, let the editors know. Suggest that they bill the Republican Party instead of giving them space for free.
If you want to write your own letter in reponse M. E. Cowen’s excellent blog has astroturf examples and advice. Let’s see if we can break this chain of complacency and deceit.
*****Hurray! Paul Boutin, whose excellent blog was the first place I read about this story, just published a very funny piece in Slate about this issue.