Several states have local newspapers which received fewer letters than we would like for our AP pushback to make a nationwide impact.
Jane asked a few days ago that letters be sent to newspapers carrying AP feed, regarding some odious stenography of GOP talking points shamelessly questioning Sen. Barack Obama’s "patriotism." (As if that weren’t the most over-used tactic in Republican history. Yawn.) And boy, did your letters get noticed (via CQ):
Firedoglake’s Jane Hamsher has launched an email campaign directed to local and national newspapers against the Associated Press’ Nedra Pickler, for her recent story documenting conservative attacks questioning Barack Obama’s patriotism. Ultimately, I think Pickler’s story was one worth reporting, but as TPM notes, the first source in her story is Roger Stone, a disgraced former GOP strategist who has been in the news lately for less-than-savory antics. It’s also not the first time liberal bloggers have turned their sights on Pickler.
Hamsher opens by saying:
It was pretty much world-record speed with which the smears against Barack Obama’s patriotism alley-ooped from the right wing attack machine into the pages of legitimate media, neatly laundered into the AP by Nedra Pickler.
Perhaps Ms. Pickler wouldn’t get attention from liberal bloggers if her "reporting" wasn’t an unquestioned laundering of a GOP talking point blast fax.
Why did the letter-writing campaign get noticed? Because — to date — you have sent over 11,800 letters to newspapers all across the country, including well over 1,000 letters each to the NYTimes, the WaPo, USAToday, the LATimes and the WSJ — and even more letters to local newspapers in every single state. All in the last two days. You guys rock!
Successful pushback means we need to cover every base, not just the prominant ones, so we are asking you for a little more help today. If you haven’t yet written letters — especially if you live in OH, PA, FL, NM, CO…pretty much any swing state — please write one to your local newspapers today. It’s very easy to do using our handy contact tool.
And now, you can use this new link to send the letter tool to friends, family, neighbors — whomever you think might also be interested in sending a letter telling local newspapers that using AP feed to launder pre-fabricated GOP talking points is not acceptable and not news. And you are not willing to simply look the other way.
A number of our readers have already contacted us to say their Letters to the Editor are being published this week. Fantastic job! If you’ve already written letters, please check the contact tool to see if perhaps you missed a local paper or two. Every letter counts!
We’ve tried to come up with ways to make this as easy and user-friendly as possible for you to take action. All it requires of you is to act. The time to stand up for better reporting — and accountability when it is done badly — is now. Please write…today!
For some handy tips on Letter to the Editor writing, see this post on Correspondence School. And please share examples of your letters with all of us in the comments. Thanks so much!
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Push
Thanks so much to everyone who has helped with this thus far. We know it’s only going to get worse in terms of attempts to launder GOP talking points wholesale through the press. Pushing back on this now helps to slow that down a bit in the months to come.
No more allowing factless swiftboat repetition without pushback. No way.
I already mailed my papers here in Philadelphia. But hey, why not one more?
Right on! This is such a crucial issue that is often overlooked, and one where we obviously can have significant impact. We are creating a whole new media model now. Onward and Upward!
Christy, some of us Canucks also helped the effort last time, thanks to tw3k’s help in posting U.S. Zip Codes to help us do so.
Perhaps a link to those Zip codes in this thread will help.
Exactly. we’ve been talking a bit about how “someone ought to be doing this”…and we decided we might as well be the somebody. Because we’re willing to do the work to try and get things set up to make it happen.
It really needs doing in the worst way. And well before the general gears up with the wurlitzer in full swing, too…
digg it!
digg the actual petition page too!
Present at the dawn of a new media paradigm, part two. Etc.
Very exciting tool. Very exciting message. Very exciting medium.
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
… *waves to tw3k* …
See my #5 … can you put a link to U.S. Zip codes here ?
And why is it that the D candidates have been too whimpy to fight back on swiftboaters themselves?
This is something worth looking at too: The Chairman to host Lansing-based WGOP
Even tho, i guess, it ended a few hours ago.
Exactly, Teddy — no sense in sitting back and waiting for someone else to do the thing that we can do all by ourselves. When we know we’ll actually do the work, anyway…we are the change we wish to see.
I so wish that I had the answer to that question. SIGH
((( TSF )))
That is a great line … one of my fav “self motivation” ones …
“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for”
* waves * :)
Like these DC zipcodes?
A couple of personal rules for Letter to the Editor writing:
1. Always include at least one quote from the article to demonstrate you’ve read it.
2. Never impute a motive to the author of the article — subjectivity is at odds with the “objective” style they favor
I believe they have responded. But they have also been going around the country campaigning for votes. People are hurting. You won’t win many votes by talking about how much Nedra Pickler sucks. Responding forcefully is good, but then they’ve got to let it go and focus on real issues. Especially Obama since he is brand new to almost everyone.
Must have had some effect(the smear). The hypotheticals have McCain within a few points versus the his double digit trailing last week.
Yes, well it helps to have media who actually report on those issues and the solutions that our candidates are proposing for the myriad problems people are facing — rather than mindlessly repeating the GOP blast fax blather. Hence, the pushback.
We talk a LOT about how people are hurting here. But our readership, active though it may be, is nowhere near the entirety of the US. But the AP wire feed? That reaches newspapers in every state, pretty much every corner of the US. And if it’s perpetuating inaccurate GOP talking point blather against Democrats? And that’s all folks in little towns across this country are reading with their morning coffee and cheerios?
You do the math on how helpful that is for Democrats everywhere…
Very exciting that 11,800 letters were written. That’s just amazing. We’re hearing from people who have been contacted and told that their letters are being printed, so if that happens to you let us know, it would be great to print ‘em here, too.
I was defending the candidates, not the AP. The candidates can’t get swallowed up in this, otherwise voters will just shrug their shoulders and stop paying attention. Candidates need to talk about the economy, health care and the Iraq war.
I used the tool yesterday to send several letters about this issue, because it is a very important one. We are “working the refs” to try to embarrass the media into not behaving like this anymore. But my criticism is aimed at the media, not the candidates.
Oh, yes, I would like to see all the letters that got printed, and where they were printed too!
It’s not that it “reaches” newspapers everywhere. For all to many papers it’s the ONLY news in the paper other than purely local news. The Savannah Morning News is a perfect example. Click on any of the stories available and you’ll find it’s by an AP writer, straight off their wire. It’s all we get, unless they’re covering city hall or the latest tempest in a teapot over potholes or some such.
WASHINGTON — Georgia Congressman John Lewis told WSB-TV Channel 2’s Monica Pearson Wednesday that he is switching his support from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama.
Pearson met with Congressman John Lewis Wednesday afternoon in Washington. She was the only Atlanta TV reporter Lewis spoke to about his switch. You can see her exclusive interview with the Congressman on WSB-TV Channel 2 Action News @ 5 and 6.
Talk had been swirling that Lewis might switch his endorsement from Clinton to Obama. Lewis is a superdelegate who will cast his ballot at the Democratic National Convention.
Lewis told Pearson he was switching his support because his district voted for Obama and he believes Americans are looking for a great change. He also said he had not spoken to Clinton or Obama about his decision.
This was in reply to Christy @19…
Perfect place to remind everyone that last night in the “debate” when he was asked whether there’s anything he would have done differently, Obama cited not speaking out against unanimous consent that allowed the Schiavo travesty to move forward.
He learned from that experience, he will do things differently…he wants us to learn, too.
Use those contact tools, or contact your media directly. LTEs, call-ins or emails to talk radio righties [we have the guy who had giggles and smacks with Chee-knee over waterboarding…fortunately being creamed now by Ed Schultz’s local/regional talk show].
Persist, persevere, push back!
w00t! And the digg from the other day reached 1799
petro-googled us postal service zip codes, got a few hits, here’s one
http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/welcome.jsp
http://thepage.time.com/video-…..n-on-iraq/
In my opinion Russert’s question concerning Farrakhan was a another rancid aspect of the press challenging Obama’s patriotism.
I checked every newspaper, local and long distance. Fry the bastards!
Right now it’s over 12,000 letters sent to 620 newspapers. And 49% were customized.
Just awesome.
Customizing matters.
If an editor gets 20 copies of the same letter, s/he might read them, but they’re not going to get published.
But if an editor gets 20 letters on the same topic, all carefully slamming the paper for bad reporting, it’s fairly likely that at least one of them will get published.
Customizing matters.
It also helps if you can rub their nose in the fact that you’re a subscriber. Hitting their pocketbook makes the dead tree media flinch.
Not so OT: Washington Post 4Q Profit Drops as Newspaper Revenue Declines
I might actually feel sorry McCain when this Election is over … From Kos, McCain V Obama on Iraq
Drat … sorry to be OT, I meant to post that in the previous thread …
I also sent a customized letter to the Star Ledger. I simply erased and wrote my own. Swiftboating is bad enough when the newspapers uncritically allow it to stand, but actively participating is even worse.
((((Jane, Christy, and all Firedogs, old and new))))
I am sooo back !!! and a pushback campaign to boot. let me get my bearings in the ol FDL wheelhouse, read what you’re looking for and get on it.
I wouldn’t even know how to tell y’all how much I’ve missed the tribe.
Marion, I like to send the dead tree kidz copies of the letters/e mails I’ve sent to their advertisers ;p
twolf, my inner gangsta suspects the WaPo editorial board holds a ’short’ position
Jane and Christy, the place looks absolutely fabulous
Mad love and kisses,
cbl
Obama makes McCain sound McDim.
hiya cbl!
AND for us recovering EXTRAverts, there is nothing more satisfying than to pick up the phone and dial through to some of these editors AND advertisers, politely and articulately wasting as much of their time as possible while re-educating. Advertisers are totally caught off guard and immediately call the paper.
And in the Talking Points category, I don’t think it gets any better than a former FDL Alumni, Trex’s, rant on the wearing and placement of the flag particularly WHAT it bumps up against if Larry Craig is wearing it, (and he’s always wearing it).
http://www.iamtrex.com/?p=411
OK, writing, writing, writing…
It would be nice if the AP would cover this…
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/….._0227.html
A Nedra Pickler bio written like Nedra Pickler:
Nedra Pickler was born October 13, 1975 in Flint, MI. She spent her early years at a catfish farm, an experience which scarred her for life. Her younger sister Anna starred in a high school production of the Wizard of Oz as the Wicked Witch. Nedra was so inspired by the performance that she decided to enter into journalism. She joined the AP shortly after her graduation from Michigan State in 1998. She went to Washington in 2000 and became a national correspondent in 2002. Her work so impressed blogger Atrios that in 2003, he declared December 15 Write Like Nedra Pickler Day. In the 2004 election she was the lead reporter covering the Democratic field and did her job on both Howard Dean and John Kerry. Her use of the artful misquote was so well received that she was rewarded with assignment to the White House. There she stayed until September 2006 honing her skills of lobbing softball questions and repeating Republican spin. This should have been a happy time for her but haunted by childhood memories of her childhood catfish trauma she married cameraman Eric Conner of Fox News in 2007. Nevertheless, her responsibilities at AP still called and she took her considerable journalistic talents, especially her capacity to regurgitate Right wing talking points, back to the campaign trail where she has written such insightful articles as why Barack Obama is all style and no substance and why he is not patriot. Dare I say a Pulitizer might be in the offing? Certainly this may finally lay to rest her troubled past with the catfish. All I can say is best wishes, Nedra, and I look forward to your future stories on whether Obama is black or only pretending to be, if he is really Muslim, or if being born in Hawaii disqualifies him from being President.
http://www.claycountydemocrat……/news2.txt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nedra_Pickler
http://atrios.blogspot.com/200…..chive.html
http://www.reason.com/news/show/29093.html
Yes, to those I talk to who say what’s the use. I give one example that has had a result directly attributable to all your hard work, among others
Donna Edwards, and if we don’t participate we get what we have…it even works on
thinkingrepublicans.And message sent times 2
WOOT!!
Welcome Back!
(((hi Teddy and Busted !!!)))
can barely sit in this chair am so excited – am fitzing all over myself !
Hugh, you should send that to both the AP and to Ms Pickler…
YEAH!!!
LOL, I hope you sent that to the AP.
Yea Jane. I am proud to have been one of your letters. It was worth defying doctor’s orders to be here and join you yesterday in this magnificent effort.
You see, I have been diagnosed with serious, terminal, life-routine-threatening
h/t to Significant Other, Mr. BRSH. And now to go back to being compliant with the Dr.’s recommendations.
Is that a beard I see on Sen “not indicted yet” Domenici? Is this some disguise?
Listening to the Senate this afternoon I understand that everything is peachy keen in Iraq.
We won the war except for the losing it part and it is now safe to leave 140,000 US troops there.
Expose Blank Slate Newspapers!
The “business model” for many local papers these days seems to have no place for a real news editor, y’know, like a real journalist who knows something about the tools of professional journalism? That is, someone who knows how to evaluate a story with respect to sourcing, opinionating, etc? I guess they’re thought to be “too expensive.” Management economizing has reduced most papers these days to being blank slates for whatever crosses their desks.
Bob in HI
More good news! I just head that the massive pressure exerted by grass-roots activists (particularly the “Courage Campaign” watchdog group) has compelled the LA County Elections Commissioner to reverse his stand that he would not count Independent voters that failed to correctly.
There was almost 200,000 LA County “Decline To State” voters that lost their voices because of these ballots, voters who correctly and clearly voted for one of t5he Democratic candidates on the ballot. They asked for a Democratic ballot, voted for a Democratic candidate…but failed to mark a bubble at the top of the ballot that indicated they were “DNS”.
Fortunately members of the supervisors and Debra Bowen, the Calif. Sect’y of State, also requested that the Electoral Commissioner change his approach. It’s unlikely that any delegates will change as a result, but a principal is upheld, one that Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush denied voters in Florida. “Every Voter’s Choice will be counted”.
As requested, here’s my letter. I sent it to the Seattle, Olympia and Tacoma papers, and the NYT, WaPo, and WSJ. Not USAToday because I honestly never read it.
AP,
I’ve been a loyal consumer of your news for more than 30 years and
have never written to you before. I’m — still — a supporter of John
Edwards for the Democratic nomination for President, so do not think
for a moment I’m writing you because I’m an Obama partisan; I’m
most assuredly not. I’ve written to MSNBC complaining about Chris
Matthews’ coverage of Hillary Clinton, too.
The tripe that passes for “information” or “sourcing” regarding
Barack Obama’s patriotism that Ms. Pickler strung together and you had the audacity to spread throughout the news cycle — something
only AP with it’s reach and reputation could accomplish — is not only
not news, it’s bunk. If you want to cover the lunatic fringe of the
Republican party’s obsession with character assassination, *that*
would be news and a public service. But don’t think for a moment
the story is anything other than their obsessive love affair with the
politics of destruction; their targets and the details they select to
use in the process are irrelevant to it.
Nora Carrington
Great letter.
To this francophone, customizing is a damning prospect, I’m just not the writer you fine folks are.
Hey Petro!
Wow. My respect for John Lewis pretty much pushes me over any remaining hesitation I had. Going out in a little while to early-voting place (Texas)–guess I know who I’m voting for.
I feel for Hillary, but I really don’t think she can get elected, and I think she probably wouldn’t do what we want if she could. (always remembering, she’d be a HELL of a lot better than any Reepublic)
Oh, good letter, Nora. Mind if I plagiarize for mine to the San Antonio Express-News?
Oh, darn, I just realized this thread is from yesterday. Oh well, not too late for a letter, I’m sure.