Every day the Christian right claims it’s members fight the Adult Entertainment Industry and promote their other causes by writing thousands of letters aimed at influencing newspapers and the general public.
One Website, “War on Pornography,” even offers a scam that promises each letter writer will have the impact of “480 voices” for their battle against lawful erotic entertainment.
But, an Adult Freedom Foundation (AFF) investigation is disclosing that more than 95 percent of those form letters never see the light of day and influence no one.
“The Christian right wants people and politicians to believe they are a major force in influencing public opinion against the Adult Entertainment Industry. But that’s just an apparent outright lie,” explained Paul Cambria, AFF general counsel.
“This is just one more piece in a pattern of deception that includes bogus claims of ‘porn addiction,’ phony stories of erotic materials triggering sex crimes and ongoing attempts to prevent the Adult Entertainment Industry from participating in government and public forums on these issues.”
The Christian right and other special interest groups cut and paste email letters that are called “astroturf” or just plain “turf” in newspaper editorial page jargon. And, AFF is learning the National Conference of Editorial Writers (NCEW) is working hard every day to prevent “turf” from being published in American newspapers.
“Sometimes as many as four or five times a day we will issue alerts telling our nearly 600 members that a new turf letter is out there,” explained Kay Semion, president of the NCEW.
When newspapers spot the “turf” they dump the letters because they are looking for original content from authentic hometown writers, not cut and paste letters that are part of a well orchestrated campaign against Adult Entertainment and other right wing targets.
Some newspapers are even labeling “turf” letters as “plagiarism” because the words are lifted from the Christian right and other Web sites and then sent to editorial pages as original writings.
And, of course some Christian groups are now challenging that assertion with, you guessed it, a letter writing campaign.
“TAKE ACTION” urges family.org “Family News in Focus”:
“Set your hometown paper’s editorial page editor straight on what really constitutes plagiarism by copying this commentary in its entirety…and emailing it to him or her.”
CitizenLink’s “Focus on the Family” group recently recognized that editors were aware of their system of using “letter-writing wizards” and sent out a notice to its readers. The notice described how editors are “wrong to use a word like ‘plagiarism’ to describe writers of letters to the editor who accept the assistance of groups like Focus on the Family.”
Citizen Link says its “letter-writing wizards” offer its readers “pre-composed paragraphs that can be assembled into a cogent letter to the editor on a topic of national interest.”
“A growing number of editorial page editors at American newspapers have hauled out their rhetorical paint-by-numbers kits to accuse readers like you of ‘plagiarism’ for looking to groups like ours for help in organizing your thoughts into persuasive, publishable arguments,” the CitizenLink newsletter states.
It goes on to justify the process, saying, “plagiarism implies taking someone else's words and ideas without their knowledge or consent. If you copy a letter from your neighbor that appeared in the paper, sign your name to it and present it as your own, you've plagiarized. If you deliver a speech written for you, write a story an editor rewrites or look to a professional communicator to help you put into words what's already in your heart, you've ensured the best presentation of your values in the marketplace of ideas.”
According to AFF, some newspapers, like the Bradenton, Fla. Herald confront the writers directly:
This letter was transmitted via e-mail to The Herald,
signed with your name. However, the same or nearly
identical letter has appeared in our email basket several times under
different names.
The Herald will not publish any letter that we can determine is
not the work of the person who signs it. Newspapers all over
the country exchange notes daily on these phony, planted
campaigns. The chances of being detected and banned are
increasingly more likely.
I urge you, if you plan to write The Herald in the future, to set
your thoughts in your own words.
Sincerely, David Klement
Editorial Page editor
So, with nearly all “turf” letters never seeing print, why do the Christian right and other special interest groups continue their letter writing operations?
“They (the groups) feel it’s effective because they measure the number of letters sent out, not the number of letters published,” the NCEW’s Semion said.
“These (turf) letters do not create good relations with newspapers. Turf hurts their causes more than it help,” she noted.
