Unsigned editorials use exact same words in various newspapers today

[Oilwellian]

What do this newspaper editorial, this one, this one, and this one all have in common?

All of them are unsigned editorials, which makes it look like they're original opinion pieces for each paper. (The Colorado Gazette even says it's "our view.")

And they all happen to say exactly the same thing, beginning with this paragraph:

One of the smartest things President Bush did to reduce recovery costs in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita was to suspend Davis-Bacon Act rules in the hardest hit states. But Congress is frantically trying to overrule the president, which would add billions of dollars to the already staggering recovery costs.
Amazing that newspapers from California, Colorado, Indiana and North Carolina could be channeling, simultaneously and in complete harmony, the Bush administration line for cutting wages for workers rebuilding the Gulf coast.

http://southernstudies.org/facingsouth/2005/10/esp-wonder-newspapers-channel-bush.asp

On edit: I should have credited Atrios for this find.

[papau]

1. LOL - but there is no GOP control of "Corporate Media"! :-)

:-)

[indepat]

7. The corruption of the Corporate Media is nearly complete IMHO

[blm]

11. Yah ...it's all Clinton's fault... uh... Gore's fault...uh...Kerry's fault

Damn liberal media.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. It's called astroturfing.

It wouldn't be difficult to out this newspapers.

[Canuckistanian]

5. EDITORIAL astroturf

Now that's new. And highly disturbing. Are all those editors collaborating with someone??

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

8. In that cause, we should adapt the term to be:

ASStroturf

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. Well, if you found something, go with it. Send it up to Rawstory.

[Newsjock]

3. All owned by Freedom

They're all part of the same chain, so it's not really that big a deal. It's quite common for some newspaper chains to send editorials out for all their papers to run.

Some other chains make a big deal about not doing this, though.

[sybylla]

14. Yeah, the Gannett rags in Wisonsin will do that as well

What shows as an editorial in one paper will appear in several on the same day or within days.

I suspect it is sometimes the "corporate" opinion and sometimes it is that a local editor actually comes up with a good opinion and it is taken on by the other papers.

[Ksec]

15. No theyre not.

[kliljedahl]

4. Don't you believe in coincidence?

Nice catch, BTW.

[RagingInMiami]

6. That's the same company that owns the Orange County Register

They're very Liberterian/conservative. I've worked for newspapers for almost a decade until I got sick of the mass ownership, but until now, I had never seen an editorial shared by papers of the same company.

And newspaper companies continue to ask themselves why the steady decline in circulation.

[MarsThe Cat]

10. Until the media is freed from the corporatists- this will never end.

this is the amerika the 'founding fathers' feared.

[Ian David]

12. One million Republicans with 1 million typewriters for 1 millon years? n/t

[PATRICK]

13. A decent paper

bans this stuff but the problem is no one is doing the necessary and simple research one might expect of PAID journalists as opposed to bloggers. Newsrooms have access to each other's paper and could easily cross reference and share info to limit this plague, but as usual in America there are so many other busy things to do that seem inexplicable to the average citizen who trust them to do a competent job.

And as for researching the origins of this pernicious paper spam? Forget it. The budget is consumed in something or other, not in news analysis or gathering. Then they put in outside columns and fillers with similar lack of checking and responsibility.

Editors routinely identify activists or people with vested interests in voicing their opinions but anything more seems to overwhelm them and not meet the burden of simple curiosity.

[uncle ray]

16. not that i'm defending the local fish-wrapper

but in fairness, the gazette's "our view" is dated two days earlier than the others. i don't know if that helps clear them, or if the conspiracy starts right here.