Betsy Devine: Funny ha-ha and/or funny peculiar

I’ve been following the latest news story on astroturf as it moved up and down blogdex. Who blogged the Boston Globe’s astroturf piece and how did they blog it?

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Monday, Feb. 3
4:16 p.m. Skimble posts extensive quotes from the Globe article, with this approving comment:

“Mowing the astroturf Having written about this a number of times before (Roboletter III), we’re pleased to see that the Boston Globe is taking responsible steps toward eliminating fake letters to the editor.

9:13 p.m. My own blog says:

Bravo for the Boston Globe! ….They plan to check out the authorship of questionable letters, so that genuine opinions of Globe readers don’t get buried by unacknowledged spin-speak and press releases.

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Tuesday, Feb. 4
1:19 a.m. A Portugese media blog appears, citing Jim Romenesko’s Media News as its source. I can’t read Portugese, but Romanesko (who isn’t listed by Blogdex on this story) headed his piece with “Boston Globe has new policy to sniff out canned letters”

6:10 a.m. Buzzflash.com simply links to the piece with “Boston Globe Explains the Origin of Republican Spam Letters-to-the-Editor 2/3”.

6:25 a.m. Billdennis.net comments on the Globe piece but without linking to it. He asserts that both parties use astroturfing and finishes up with ” Really people, this is much ado about nothing.”

7:16 a.m. Alternet introduces the Globe piece as follows:

GOP Fakes Letters to the Editor
Using a tactic known as “astroturf” — or fake grassroots lobbying — GOP honchos are planting letters to the editor in scores of newspapers around the country. The tactic is drawing flak from outraged editorial staff.

7:42 a.m. Ombudsgod heads the story with “Astoturfing for prizes!” He later updated his entry with input from The Angry Cyclist, who sees Chinlund’s piece as anti-Republican, saying “Does anyone else think this would have never hit the Globe’s radar screen if this was done by the DemocRATS?”
11:04 a.m. MediaMinded also objects to the way the astroturf stories focused on Republican:

SPEAKING OF LETTERS: The Boston Globe has worked out a system to sniff out “astroturf,” canned e-mails or letters to the editor that are generated by computer.
If you’ve been following this story, you know the background. A GOP Web site managed to get dozens, maybe even hundreds, of letters with identical wording published in newspapers across the country. A lot of lefty commentators were on this story early, and their pressure to end this practice should be commended.
However, I’m sure there are left-leaning political organizations that might have had similar “astroturf” plans in place, and now they’re going to have to come up with a new — and more expensive — strategy.

3:54 p.m. jpbutler.com links using the text “Boston Globe’s Ombudsman weighs in on the GOP astroturfing.” This site covered the astroturf story as early as January 18.
5:37 p.m.Paul Boutin’s blog, where I first read about this story myself on January 17, briefly links to the Globe piece, whose appearance his blog predicted on January 31.

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Wednesday, Feb. 5
4:37 a.m. Objectionable Content is cited by Blogdex as linking with the phrase “worked out a system”–but I can’t find that link or that phrase.
5:26 a.m. snarkymalarkey.com heads the story ”astroturf” (as in, fake grass roots) and blames the Republicans:

Four times since mid-October the Globe has unwittingly published letters that were written not by the local folks who signed them, but by the Republican National Committee. The same letters, all praising President Bush, also appeared verbatim (or nearly so) in papers across the country, each signed by a person in that paper’s area. Leave it to the lowly RNC to come up with something as despicable as falsifying local citizen support.

8:57 a.m. jarretthousenorth.com was blogging this story as early as Jan. 17. To summarize, the blogger dispraises astroturf and endorses the Globe’s response.

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