Ellie Light: Obama Astroturfer?
posted at 6:01 pm on January 23, 2010 by Patterico
Someone appears to be doing a little Astroturfing for Obama.
In recent days, a letter defending Obama has appeared in dozens of newspapers throughout the country — all signed by an “Ellie Light.” In the letters, which all use identical language, Ms. Light explains that Obama never promised to fix all our problems quickly or painlessly. She declares:
Today, the president is being attacked as if he’d promised that our problems would wash off in the morning. He never did. It’s time for Americans to realize that governing is hard work, and that a president can’t just wave a magic wand and fix everything.
Editors all over the country found Light’s message strangely compelling. It was reprinted at The Politico; the Philadelphia Daily News; the San Francisco Examiner; the Washington Times; and a USA Today blog. In addition, the letter has appeared at literally dozens of small-town papers across the country, with names like the Los Banos Enterprise, the North Adams Transcript, and the Danbury News-Times.
Ms. Light always claims to be a local in these letters. Her real estate holdings are apparently prodigious, as she has claimed residences in Philadelphia, PA; Daly City, California; Mansfield, Ohio; Waynesboro, Virginia; Algoma, Wisconsin; Bangor, Maine; and dozens of other places. Who said Obama supporters were all downtrodden?
The story was originally broken by the Cleveland Plain Dealer, which published a thread of e-mail correspondence between the reporter and “Ellie Light.” But the original Plain Dealer story identified only the tip of the iceberg.
With the help of my commenters, I have been keeping a running total at my blog of the places where Light’s letter has appeared. At last count, her letter has appeared in at least 47 newspapers in at least 23 different states.
So far, that is. That number is growing all the time. It even appeared in a newspaper in Bangkok, Thailand!
As you can see at my blog, the states where her letters appear correspond quite well with the states that Obama won.
Who is behind this? Are all these letters truly the work of a single woman? Or is there an organization behind “Ellie Light”? (David Axelrod, call your office!) There’s no hard proof as of yet.
Here’s what we do know. Glenn Greenwald (yes, I know, but keep reading) flagged the fact that Obama’s pal (and head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs) Cass Sunstein recently wrote a paper suggesting something sounding a lot like Astroturfing:
Sunstein advocates that the Government’s stealth infiltration should be accomplished by sending covert agents into “chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups.” He also proposes that the Government make secret payments to so-called “independent” credible voices to bolster the Government’s messaging (on the ground that those who don’t believe government sources will be more inclined to listen to those who appear independent while secretly acting on behalf of the Government).
That sure sounds a lot like what’s happening here, doesn’t it?
Who is Ellie Light?
I would like to know.
How about you?
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Comment pages: « Previous 1 2 3 4 5 Next »
I think “Ellie” was saying that she wasn’t the same Ellie Light who was a reporter for the Bergen Record.
Coincidentally, Ellie signed some of her letters as Ellie Jeanne Light.
Buy Danish on January 24, 2010 at 12:21 AM
The cadence….?
The word choice….?
It all sounds so familiar…
…I’ve got it!…Ellie Light is TOTUS!
eeyore on January 24, 2010 at 12:23 AM
Nellie Bights, so be careful!
OT: Does anyone else find David Axelrod “strangely compelling”?
DrStock on January 24, 2010 at 12:08 AM
DrStock:As in smoking gun!!
canopfor on January 24, 2010 at 12:28 AM
canopfor on January 24, 2010 at 12:28 AM
You’re Canadian, eh? Not sure about the smoking gun. Time to hit the hay.
DrStock on January 24, 2010 at 12:35 AM
Sunstein = Goebbels.
alwaysright43 on January 24, 2010 at 12:39 AM
canopfor on January 24, 2010 at 12:28 AM
===========================================
You’re Canadian, eh? Not sure about the smoking gun. Time to hit the hay.
DrStock on January 24, 2010 at 12:35 AM
DrStock: Yes I am,from Sualt Ste.Marie,Ontario!!:)
Good night DrStock,and sweet dreams!:)
Oh,smoking gun reference,that AxleRod is
involved in some way,
in,Ellie Light Gate!!:)
canopfor on January 24, 2010 at 12:45 AM
Ugh,thats Sault,not Sualt!
canopfor on January 24, 2010 at 12:46 AM
Maybe it’s code in Spanish for “El Lie Lite”.
Shy Guy on January 24, 2010 at 12:57 AM
The Ellie Light Mystery Solved!
“Ellie Light” = L.A. Light = Big Hollywood Star = George Lucas posing as a female letter-writing Ewok.
Penning gushing defenses of his favorite Jar Jar Binks lookalike.
Obama, meanwhile, is polishing his own little lightsaber.
And wondering Who His Daddy is.
profitsbeard on January 24, 2010 at 1:15 AM
Wow read about this three days ago. Asleep at the wheel?
And not even a cathartic post to the NYT article on Charles ‘No’ Johnson?
daesleeper on January 24, 2010 at 1:31 AM
Ellie Light = Samantha Power
full stop / end.
negentropy on January 24, 2010 at 1:56 AM
The letter sounds so much like most of the liberal media in the nation, I don’t know what Ellie Light expects to accomplish. This “don’t expect too much from the guy who promised hope and change” line is an insult to our intelligence. You promise big things, you’re going to be held to your promises. So don’t start poor mouthing now, claiming that it was all too hard to deliver or too much to expect.
The truth is that people don’t see increasing deficits geometrically as the kind of change they voted for, especially when there’s so little to show for it.
flataffect on January 24, 2010 at 2:35 AM
‘whaaat, Benjamin Franklin used to do it, whaddya got something against the Founders, ya Reich-wing Nazis?!’
/Axelrod
rayra on January 24, 2010 at 2:41 AM
Maybe if we bite out lip pensively lie Téa Leoni and type Ellie into a search engine, we’ll crack the world-ending secret in <5mins.
/nope, that was another bad movie
rayra on January 24, 2010 at 2:42 AM
And Axelrod, you worthless marxist scumbag, it’s time YOU and the rest of the Obamunists realize the President can’t wave a magic wand and turn America into a marxist oligarchy overnight.
/can’t even close Gitmo a full year after his almost-first Executive Order, either.
rayra on January 24, 2010 at 2:45 AM
I found this comment:
Ellyn Ruddick-Sunstein?
Ellie Light.
atheling on January 24, 2010 at 3:10 AM
I find it strange to think anyone would get the message by sending a letter to newspapers. Is this informations that important to the rear ends of dogs, cause that’s about the only thing that sees a newspaper these days.
Advocate For Change on January 24, 2010 at 3:35 AM
Hail all, I think we should start a reverse turf campaign.
Ellie Dark wrote:
I am big fat mean nasty war hattin, tax lovin, big goverment wantin Berkly loving liberal socialist Demorat! I loveeee Obama, I see him when making love to my husband. His beautiful slim body combined with Michelle’s toned arms would be my dream man. Unfortunately his recent failures in bringing us Socialist Healthcare has made me wish I voted for McCain and the evil apostate from hell Sarah Palin. I do still love Obama, but I loved hating Bush even more. Can we allow him another term and replace Cheney with Palin so I can truly hate the Presidency again!
Thanks,
Ellie Dark
Africanus on January 24, 2010 at 3:52 AM
I read that Cal Sunstein is on a short list of possible Supreme Court apointees of The Emperor.
This would be disasterous. He is a marxist through and through, just like Van Jones.
Cleveland Steamer on January 24, 2010 at 7:08 AM
Seeing as how newspapers get hundreds of letters everyday, what is interesting to me is how this letter was chosen out of all those by so many papers to publish. It is not only the author of these letters doing the Astroturfing, but the newspapers also with so many of them publishing it.
JeffinSac on January 24, 2010 at 7:11 AM
63 publications isn’t a coincidence. There is definitely something fishy.
deidre on January 24, 2010 at 7:26 AM
I was thinking the same thing. What is the likelihood that a single letter, or similar letters, gets printed in >2-3 newspapers nationwide, let alone nearly 4 dozen? What is the possibility of any letter, out of thousands? What was so compelling about this little missive?
How is it that so many editors arrived at the same conclusion when they stumbled upon this letter? Has this happened before? Are newspapers so wont of letters and receive so few emails that they simply picked this one?
ted c on January 24, 2010 at 7:28 AM
Interesting.
This is a rabbit trail that needs to be followed.
ted c on January 24, 2010 at 7:29 AM
Who’s up for a reverse nuclearastroturf campaign on this?
I submit that this letter could be summarily deconstructed, turned on its head, all points summarily refuted with sharp facts and then the text posted here on hotair and summarily copy/paste submitted to these same 47+ publications by no less than 20? 30? hardcore hotheads and we’ll see what kind of fly pub props we get?
two can play the freedom of speech game.
ted c on January 24, 2010 at 7:34 AM
Just when you think they can’t be more sneaky and underhanded……… I am constantly, or is that consistently, amazed.
ultracon on January 24, 2010 at 7:57 AM
The only thing missing from “Ellie’s” campaign is a nice Shepard Fairey poster of the lightworker, and an NEA conference call led by Yosi Sergant and Buffi Wicks.
Buy Danish on January 24, 2010 at 8:12 AM
Holy crap, I can’t believe how well-linked and highly commented this thread is. We’re talking about some person writing letters, right? This is a major story?
Rather than suggest Ellie Light is really David Axelrod, there’s a more obvious explanation – Ellie Light is an Obama sycophant with an out-sized belief in the influence of letters to the editor. Considering anyone can e-mail letters to the editor now, it wouldn’t be difficult for a person to send several e-mails knowing editors don’t have time to verify addresses. Anyone could have done this, so it’s silly to say it’s David Axelrod.
Why not go all out? Maybe Ellie Light is actually Michelle Obama. That’s not a sillier suggestion than saying it’s David Axelrod. Frankly, I don’t think Axelrod would think letters to the editor are a fruitful way of getting a message out. No one reads those things.
Enrique on January 24, 2010 at 8:20 AM
I’d love to know who it is too. If it’s some low level nobody doing it, it’s funny the amount of real hard nose journalist type papers that fell for it. If it’s someone high level… well that’d just be Christmas come early.
Dash on January 24, 2010 at 8:24 AM
Let me make this perfectly clear. I did not know (fill in the blank) was writing those letters.
kingsjester on January 24, 2010 at 8:25 AM
Ms. Light have so many residences I mean from Daly City, California to Bangor, Maine just to name a couple. I”m curious though, if at one of these residences if she is neighbors with Elmer J. Fudd. On account Mr. Fudd owned a Mansion and Yacht… Mybe Ms. Ellie owns a mansion and a yacht too.
USMCDevilDog on January 24, 2010 at 8:42 AM
Let’s not ignore the fact that there are 47 editors who chose, either independently, or not independently, to publish each of these letters. Instead of asking first “Who is Ellie Light?” ask the more specific question of each of these 47 muldoons that published them, “What or whom compelled you to publish this letter instead of the thousands others that you receive and how can you explain that this same, or similar, letter was published in nearly 4 dozen other newspapers nationwide?”
Get the editors that chose this letter to explain.
ted c on January 24, 2010 at 8:47 AM
I can see Rahm and Axelrod screaming their lungs out at some snot-nosed recent Ivy grad: “YOU STUPID &*&$! You were supposed to make up different *&%#ing names on each of the *(^!ing letters!!
morganfrost on January 24, 2010 at 8:48 AM
The name Ellie Light sounds like a villain right out of the pages of a Stephen King or Dean Koontz story.
If someone form the B.O. Administration indeed cooked this name up, they apparently didn’t do their homework on what the reaction would be to using a name like this.
For now, Ellie Light sounds like an agent of The Darkside, most likely with her One True Lord and Master being the evil and insidious Darth Soros.
pilamaye on January 24, 2010 at 8:58 AM
My webcrawler search shows this term is the most searched on the internet in the last 24 hours.
And a lot of newspapers are retracting the posting on their online versions, knowing they are being duped.
So when we want to flood the newspapers with articles against any candidate, we know how to go about it. This will only work if the paper agrees with your opinion. We know.
A cross section of blogs and reputable online news sites can generate the truth about what is truly happening in our world.
We cannot be duped for long.
Cybergeezer on January 24, 2010 at 8:58 AM
Ellie Dry is less filling.
Coronagold on January 24, 2010 at 9:02 AM
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1084585
Fellow bitter, ill-informed clingers: the above link takes you to a 30pg pdf written by the anointed Mr. Sunstein and delves into information, conspiracy theory and “counterspeech” as well as “cognitive infiltration” into extremist groups.
This paper is oh so worthy of some gratuitous HotAir peer review.
At some point later today, if I have time, I would love to deconstruct Mr. Sunstein and I am sure there are some points in this paper that are worthy of further objective analysis.
ted c on January 24, 2010 at 9:08 AM
Really? Methinks you don’t know very much about David Axelrod. And you’re wrong about no one “reading these things”. I’ve had many letters to the editor published in locations with demos as diverse as Portland, ME and my new home town in Georgia. Indeed, I got feedback from people in my ‘community’ every single time, including phone calls from complete strangers who called to thank me.
Of course, Ellie won’t be getting any phone calls or high fives since she doesn’t exist. I bet Samantha Power’s phone is ringing off the hook though.
Buy Danish on January 24, 2010 at 9:14 AM
The System……is working.
ted c on January 24, 2010 at 9:17 AM
Certainly shows a lack of imagination and attention to details.
You’d think that the Obama “brain trust” would have at the very least changed the name for each letter to the editor submitted.
But, no worries, the “adults’ are in charge./
coldwarrior on January 24, 2010 at 9:26 AM
What’s absolutely beautiful about this, is that we really don’t need to know who Ellie Light really is. All we need is for this to become a national story…
In this environment, the suspicion will automatically turn to the White House, and that is all we need.
People love a nice conspiracy…
PatriotRider on January 24, 2010 at 9:34 AM
Orwellian…. supremely Orwellian
ted c on January 24, 2010 at 9:42 AM
Found ?
Contact Info
Office: President of the United States of America
Astroturf for sure.
J_Crater on January 24, 2010 at 9:46 AM
I guess that Doodad Pro was too obvious.
That deduction sounds correct.
onlineanalyst on January 24, 2010 at 9:48 AM
More and more clues out there today.
Looking more and more like “Elliegate” for the administration.
Barack got plumbers, just like Nixon.
b3026 on January 24, 2010 at 9:52 AM
Prob. said before, but what the hell.
Has anyone seen Ellie Light and AnninCA at the same time?
JiangxiDad on January 24, 2010 at 10:01 AM
Actually, this shows the ignorance in the left. People are mad because Obama lied his ass off to get elected, more than they are mad at his performance.
pageram on January 24, 2010 at 10:15 AM
I volunteer to act as her nemisis Nellie Dark.
Disturb the Universe on January 24, 2010 at 10:22 AM
Just putting together the thoughts of others for myself…
mankai on January 24, 2010 at 10:22 AM
You are quite the Sherlock, mankai.
Disturb the Universe on January 24, 2010 at 10:25 AM
It should be a federal crime for the government to advocate for itself.
notagool on January 24, 2010 at 10:25 AM
Ellie Light is also writing letters in the Stamford Advocate (in which she has also appeared with the letter now making the blog rounds)about how to donate to Haiti.
Hers is the top letter.
Dont_Tread_On_Me on January 24, 2010 at 10:31 AM
Right now it looks to me (and obviously this is PURE speculation) that Samantha Power is the author… at the direction of Cass Sunstein… using his daughter’s name (Ellyn Ruddick-SUNstein) to create the pseudonym.
As a “journalist” she would know how to write a coherent letter (a skill most local O-bots are incapable of providing) and she would know how to get to editors and what would appeal to them.
Oh, and Cass is a slick and slimy SOB.
mankai on January 24, 2010 at 10:34 AM
Not very good proof: my spell checker (in Firefox) uses Brit spelling and it’s just easier to go with the flow than fight it.
PersonFromPorlock on January 24, 2010 at 10:34 AM
And Wiki is already getting ready to flush the entry down the memory hole.
cobrakai99 on January 24, 2010 at 10:41 AM
It wasn’t conservatives who believed in the magic wand… it was the O-bots:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P36x8rTb3jI&feature=player_embedded
And I thought TARP and the Stimulus were magic pills too…?
mankai on January 24, 2010 at 10:42 AM
Am I the only one who finds that image a little creepy?
Or is my Glenn Beck creepy-meter on overdrive?
Disturb the Universe on January 24, 2010 at 10:44 AM
This is about to be covered up faster than Grant took Richmond.
kingsjester on January 24, 2010 at 10:44 AM
Actually, they are trying go get the parakeet vote.
Pelayo on January 24, 2010 at 10:47 AM
Oxfam is an uber-leftie charity that pushes the lie that global warming causes floods and hurricanes and therefore we need to cut our greenhouse emissions and send money to the poor countries we are killing with our CO2 pollution.
Buy Danish on January 24, 2010 at 10:47 AM
It’s officially a news item… the T-shirts have arrived!
http://www.zazzle.com/who_is_ellie_light_tshirt-235273008681358741
True… but I’m just compiling the circumstantial evidence. “Realise” is just one piece of the puzzle. I usually get these things wrong… but I have fun trying!
mankai on January 24, 2010 at 10:48 AM
I agree. This is as much about the news papers as it is about the true nature of Ellie Light.
Geochelone on January 24, 2010 at 10:59 AM
“Ellie Light” as in Electric Light Orchestra, code for coordinated internet astroturfing, or maybe Bill Ayers whose father ran the Commonwealth Edison Co. Ayers would be nothing without his powerful father, and the Ayers family connections made Obama. The connection persists.
Axelrod is a lobbyist for ComEd, but in IL he doesn’t have to register. Rahm Emanuel made $16.2 million in his two-and-a-half-year stint as a banker after he resigned from the Clinton administration. At Wasserstein Perella, he worked on eight deals, including the acquisition by ComEd of Peco Energy and the purchase by GTCR Golder Rauner of the SecurityLink home security unit from SBC Communications.
I also remember during the campaign Senator Obama, Chairman of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations European Subcommittee almost immediately since he joined the Senate — January 2007 — anyway, he went to Iraq for the first time. He was part of a CODEL led by Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) which also included Sen. Christopher Bond (R.-Mo.) and Rep. Harold Ford (D.-Tenn.), but was actually only in Iraq for a mere two days.
There was speculation that Obama met with Tony Rezko, Nadhmi Auchi and fellow Chicagoan Iraqi-American Aiham Alsammarae whose children subsequently, in December 2006, contacted his senatorial office for his assistance in protecting their father who was incarcerated in a Baghdad jail inside the Green Zone? Rezko had made more than 20 trips back and forth between Chicago and the Middle East between October 2004 and October 2006, when he was arrested by federal agents upon his return to the US. Sen. Obama and Alsammarae were quite possibly discussing a yet-pending Iraqi power plant contract that the Senator’s aide, Seamus Ahern, discussed between April and October 2006 with Daniel Frawley, Rezko’s business partner. Rezko paid a $1.5 million bribe to Aiham Alsammarae, Iraq’s former electricity minister, to obtain a $50 million contract for a power plant in Iraq, and the company lobbying for this contract was Com Ed.
Anyway, interesting how much money changes hands between Lightworker and his Chicago friends and ComEd. I’ve heard that Frank Marshall Davis introduced Barack Obama to Thomas Ayers, who then sent him to NYC to hang out with Bill and Bernardine. Davis came from Chicago and worked at the same newspaper as Valerie Jarrett’s ex-father-in-law Vernon. While Valerie’s mother served on the Board of Trustees for The Erikson Group with Thomas Ayers. So, Valerie Jarrett, Frank Marshall Davis and Tom Ayers were all active radicals in the 60s and helped catapult Obama into power. He is most likely Davis’ son. Ellie Light is likely from Chicago.
chunderroad on January 24, 2010 at 11:11 AM
Writing anonymously under a pseudonym is acceptable… so long as readers know it’s supposed to be anonymous… this is super slimy because the writer posed as a “local concerned citizen.”
I wouldn’t be surprised if the papers were in on it.
mankai on January 24, 2010 at 11:12 AM
That sounds likely.
chunderroad on January 24, 2010 at 11:14 AM
Perhaps a stretch… but I found the following at Triangles for Peace which promotes Samantha Power’s works:
mankai on January 24, 2010 at 11:36 AM
excellent work. Jack Cashill did the same thing in deconstructing the 0ne’s “Dreams” autobiography, that’s really a biography since it appears Ayers wrote it.
At best, Ellie Light is merely a concerned Obot dutifully protecting her/his president and turning a wee little lie about where he or she lives.
At worst…..well, who knows.
The truth about this needs to come out.
ted c on January 24, 2010 at 11:38 AM
What’s really creepy is that no one talks that way unless one is taking poetic license because they’re use to doing so as an author or poet. The average person doesn’t talk (or write) that way.
mizflame98 on January 24, 2010 at 11:39 AM
We need to run some statistics and probabilities on this.
47+ papers receive X number of letters/emails daily.
Each of those papers discerns/judges then chooses which of those to publish.
What is the likelihood that 47 supposed free and independent press editors arrived at the same conclusion on the same letter all around the same time?
i need to run some stats
ted c on January 24, 2010 at 12:05 PM
The Samantha Powers/Ellyn Sunstein deductions are pretty good.
The makings of a nice pseudonym are all there, especially when you let your mind wander a little:
Ellie Light
L E Light
L Elite
Liberal Elite
A good caper, but creepy as hell.
selias on January 24, 2010 at 12:08 PM
You guys have it all wrong.
Ellie Light is the same women who was continually fainting at Obama’s campaign rallies.
CalFed on January 24, 2010 at 12:09 PM
The point is, they’re not fooling us. It’s not working. This must be scaring them. They have no other game. They can’t win people over with the greatness of their ideas. They only have lies and subversion. But we’re on to it now, the Alinsky thing. More and more everyday are. And the media’s collusion and playing-dumb are also backfiring.
The desperation will grow.
rrpjr on January 24, 2010 at 12:36 PM
This will be hard to cover up because it has gone viral on the internet. I keep checking this thread because I am dying to know. If it is an individual look for them on TV giving interviews and making money off of it.
ldbgcoleman on January 24, 2010 at 12:41 PM
When I look at the photos of Axelrod et al, all I can think of is – Would I let these people babysit my child? If the answer is NO, than what are they doing advising the President of the United States?
Dr Evil on January 24, 2010 at 12:42 PM
[mankai on January 24, 2010 at 10:34 AM]
I’m inclined to that position, mankai, except maybe for “at the direction of Cass Sunstein. I’m thinking Cass wouldn’t have wanted his daughter’s name brought into it, so I’d lean to it being Powers (Ellie not being her daughter and therefore being insensitive to using it) going solo on it’s use.
I’d also guess, if it is Powers, that Ellie Light might be a nic, fondly used in the Sunstein family, and not something widely used or known, though there might be an indication of its use in subjects involving Sunstein, his books, periodicals, interviews., etc.
Dusty on January 24, 2010 at 12:45 PM
There’s one other thing you’ll need to take into account for your stats to have any meaning, and it’s this: How many newspapers received letters from “Ellie Light” and decided not to publish them?
This is not something easily discovered, unless someone finds the smoking computer on which all these letters were composed/printed/sent.
Otherwise, you fall into the “lies, damned lies, and statistics” trap.
stoutcat on January 24, 2010 at 12:48 PM
OT-
NORM!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Buddy! Is Jenn on here too? Saw a Jenn from AZ and it sounded like her.
I am gearing up to make a comeback, (been working locally), and will return to the old stomping grounds. Kids made 3.75, went to national championship tourney, and I have a kazillion new grey hairs. LOL!
Not OT-
Excellent observation! The fact this is taking place in states that he WON indicates their internal polling data must REEK like 7 day old road kill. LMAO! Someone’s ship is sinking and the rats are trying to keep it afloat.
OT—-Again, sorry!
GO SAINTS!
freeus on January 24, 2010 at 1:02 PM
I doubt Ellie Light is a single person. More likely an astroturfing project by a group of staffers, almost certainly linked to Axelrod or another Dem/WH/campaign organ.
It would take some work to find the addresses of all these papers and identify local communities for “Ellie” to write from. They probably divided up the work among a group of people and (possibly) sent the emails from a few different email addresses.
Missy on January 24, 2010 at 1:07 PM
Ellie Light is not necessarily one person, but the White House would have no problem doing a mass mailing like this.
Meanwhile, it would be fun to compare Ellie’s I.P. address to anything on file for Samantha Power or Cass Sunstein.
Buy Danish on January 24, 2010 at 2:04 PM
Dear Editor:
A letter to the News Leader from Ellie Light dated 15 JAN titled “Obama Never Said He had a Magic Wand” appeared in nearly identical language at over 40 newsites all over the country by an author using the same name.
Does your news outlet find it compelling that, out of all the emails you receive, that you posted this email from Ellie Light, and did not publish others? Who decided to publish this particular letter and why do you think that it has reappeared so many times across the country? Where did the email come from and did your department contact the author before posting it?
Your letters to the editor requirements indicate a need for a full street address, phone number and full name and that letters will not be considered for publication unless all information is provided.
t is quite odd and improbable that a single letter from a single author gets such wide publication across the United States. It is doubly odd that the author claims residence in the vicinity of each of the news outlets that posted this letter. Either a single author is claiming residency in multiple locations or there are multiple authors using the same pen name and a standard letter. Or, is the repeated publication a mere coincidence and a stroke of luck by a skilled author who, through persuasive writing and a false address, simultaneously convinced nearly 4 dozen editors to post the same letter? Please followup and respond.
Thank you.
http://www.newsleader.com/article/20100115/OPINION03/1150317/Obama-never-said-he-had-a-magic-wand
ted c on January 24, 2010 at 2:15 PM
The Ellie Light fanclub page says there is another astroturfer Mark Spivey
ldbgcoleman on January 24, 2010 at 2:16 PM
and another Janey Leigh
ldbgcoleman on January 24, 2010 at 2:17 PM
If you’re a fb member, join both Ellie Light and Mark Spivey groups.
This does require more popcorn.
ORconservative on January 24, 2010 at 2:19 PM
Sorry Janet Leigh and Mark Spivey saw this on Facebook who is Ellie Light fan page sorry will do a better job of proofreading in the future
ldbgcoleman on January 24, 2010 at 2:20 PM
Patterico on Mark Spivey
F.W.I.W., There’s a Mark Spivey who wrote: Practical Hacking Techniques and Countermeasures.
Buy Danish on January 24, 2010 at 2:30 PM
Riehl World View: Linking Ellie Light to the White House.
All this info is off the wall, “Ellie Light”‘s wall at facebook that is :)
Buy Danish on January 24, 2010 at 2:46 PM
She apparently signed a few letters… ELLIE JEANNE LIGHT.
Not sure how that helps (if at all) yet.
mankai on January 24, 2010 at 2:47 PM
That looks significant
mankai on January 24, 2010 at 2:49 PM
patterico tells that Ellie Light has contacted Ed Morrissey as well via email on an IP bounced through Saudi Arabia.
things that make you go Hmmmmmm……
why?
ted c on January 24, 2010 at 2:57 PM
Baraxelrahm propaganda machine, meet the Internet.
Can you say “busted“?
Who wants to bet that they will double down on net neutrality now?!… can’t have the masses wising up to their games, now can we?
Once they control the Internet, we wont be able to expose these types of frauds so easily.
Chilling, truly chilling to think about.
painesright on January 24, 2010 at 3:16 PM
cognitive infiltration a la Cass Sunstein….
ted c on January 24, 2010 at 3:18 PM
Ellie Light takes me right back to the infamous “Deepthroat” from the Watergate scandal. Yeah, I know deepthroat was trying to destroy the administration while Ellie is trying to prop up this one…A little old fashioned journalism could bring Obama-mao and his legion of inglorious incompetents to their knees…Easy to see that if Ellie Light is a paid by the administration then surely some laws were broken…
Nozzle on January 24, 2010 at 4:02 PM
what an incredible opportunity for an aspiring, young and unconventional journalist to do some special operations news finding….
Breitbart are you tracking this?
ted c on January 24, 2010 at 4:12 PM
I wonder if these newspapers were stimulated…Its been noted here that having this letter printed in numerous papers across the country likely means some insider knowledge on the part of the editors involved. Why, newspapers receive thousands of letters and only a few are ever printed yet Ellie seems to have done quite well getting published. As well, most papers have standards for checking the authenticity of writers. For instance, my local paper calls the writer to verify that they wrote the letter. So, there is likely collusion between the editors and Ellie Light. Again, I wonder if these editors were stimulated wink wink with taxpayer dollars…Hmmmm
Nozzle on January 24, 2010 at 4:37 PM
Comment pages: « Previous 1 2 3 4 5 Next »