Identical, Bush-backing Editorials Appear Nationwide

[Berzerker]

It turned out the letter was actually written by the White House Press Office and then were sent to military commanders in Iraq to pass out to soldiers so they could sign them. the signing was volintary

"sign or get frontline duty"

[Dinner]

Yeah, the military has a habit of getting unwilling volunteers to volunteer.

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Timexwatch, I agree that most of the blame rests on lazy editors who'd rather cut and paste talking points then write their own article or pay someone to write an article. There is, however, the question if tax dollars and government property is being used to produce and disseminate this propaganda. Do you believe it is appropriate for taxpayer money to be used in this way?

In ay event the papers should be named and shamed since getting their reputations hit might cause them to think twice before continuing this practice.

I agree 100%

[Gatekeeper]

Originally posted by DanS
... but the nearly identical editorials is just fine.

No they're not. Any newspaper worth its salt will double- and triple-check copy that comes in from *outside* the publication before even considering running it, and if they do run it, it will be appropriately labeled.

If that's not being done, someone isn't doing his/her job.

Gatekeeper (whose own publication is constantly receiving a flood of crap from interest groups — left, right and God-where-did-they-come-from?! — all the time.

[Drake Tungsten]

Sean Paige, a noted Republican blogger and wingnut

Who the **** is Sean Paige? And what's his blog? Google can't even find it...

[DanS]

Nope, never heard of Sean Paige. Don't know who's noting him.

[DinoDoc]

I think Oerdin was lieing. According to the link he posted, Paige is just the Editorial page editor of a Colorado Springs paper.

[Drake Tungsten]

I doubt he was lying. More likely just a fool who believes everything he reads on the hard-left sites he frequents.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten

Sean Paige, a noted Republican blogger and wingnut

Who the **** is Sean Paige? And what's his blog? Google can't even find it...

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Sean+Paige&btnG=Google+Search

Google seems to find it just fine. He does indeed write right wing articles for a number of papers.

[Alexander's Horse]

no Oerdin is on to something here

One thing I've noticed is when the Cold War was on a free independent media was very highly valued in the West because of all those Ministry of Truth types on the other side. Governments were quite loathe to give the other side cause to say the media was being manipulated. Even Dirty Dick Nixon ultimately shied away from nobbling the Washington Post when his Presidency was on the line.

Since the Cold War ended people don't seem to value an independent objective as much and the Ministry of Truth types all got jobs in media companies and public relations. We see the results in catastrophes like the Iraq war.

You younguns are so used to manipulation you think its normal. That's quite sad really.

[Drake Tungsten]

Google seems to find it just fine.

I don't see a blog there.

[Dinner]

Congradulations Drake. You've managed to ignore 90% of the content and find the one error I've posted so far. He is indeed an editor and a right wing writer who seems to be published in a number of papers but not a blogger per say. The folks at FFZ will no doubt be proud of the way you avoid talking about the issues by finding one meaningless thing to pick on from a page of posts.

[Drake Tungsten]

I apologize for expecting that the little-known person you labeled "a noted Republican blogger" might actually have a ****ing blog. I should have known better, coming from you...

[SpencerH]

Many small (and not so small) newspapers carry identical news reports. I see nothing suspicious about them doing the same for editorials.

[GePap]

Originally posted by SpencerH
Many small (and not so small) newspapers carry identical news reports. I see nothing suspicious about them doing the same for editorials.

Except that in theory News are facts and therefore the same telling of the same facts over and over is not an issue. Editorials in theory are opinions, so the same opinion, exactly worded, over and over, is a sign of groupthink.

BUt I gues that is Doubleplusgood.