Declan McCullagh's Politech confirms yesterday's story that someone is faking a letter writing campaign in support of President Bush. An earlier Politech post calls the strategy "astroturfing" or "trying to artificially create the appearance of a grassroots movement
supporting their policies."
Update: Gary Stock's Unblinking has documented at least three letters to the editor supporting Bush that have been sent to multiple newspapers under different names.
Another Update: A reader writes that "the GOP Team Leader letter writing campaign is not a faked campaign that makes it appear that Bush has lots of support. This campaign is legitimate, Team Leaders are emailed about important issues and encouraged to write letters. The website is brilliantly designed to allow one to easily send letters to their local papers and a suggested letter is prepared. One is perfectly free to modify the letter as they see fit. I have done this several times and find it to be very useful. I think the outcry from liberals over this is due to a jealousy that they did not think of this first. This campaign is perfectly legitimate and in my mind ingenious. The GOP grassroots effort is extremely well organized and probably helped significantly in the 2002 elections and will help Bush get reelected in 2004. This is smart, grassroots politics."
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