Unintentional Right Wing Humor - Newspapers ask AFA to stop sending them wacky letters

[ck4829]

Spelling errors, letters being addressed to the wrong newspapers, and newspapers saying "Why us?" and "What did we do to deserve this idiocy?".

From the Statesman Journal in Oregon:

"Editorial pages around the country are being besieged by well-meaning but misguided letter writers who are sending a generic letter about Hardee's and Carl's Jr. commercials on TV.

I haven't taken time to watch the commercials, but they must be pretty tasteless (no pun intended). Here's what one colleague in Florida wrote: "Is anyone really surprised? After all, this is the same fast food joint that had Paris Hilton wash a Bentley with her entire body in a black bikini two years and called it a hamburger ad. Frankly, I thought that was worse than this, which at least TRIED to say something about the product, regardless of how tasteless that message (or the burger) is."

But I digress. My point is not the commercials; it's the letter-writing campaign. The generic letter is from the American Family Association web site. It's to be sent to TELEVISION STATIONS; they air commercials, newspapers don't.

One has to wonder about the smarts of these letter writers, if they don't follow the directions on the Web site, if they misspell the Statesman Journal's name and Hardee's name, if they send th letters to towns that don't have a Hardee's or Carl's Jr. -- and if they participate in a generic letter-writing campaign, which usually gets ignored."

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070912/BLOGS02/70912025/1046/OPINION

And from the Herald-Journal in Georgia:

By early Thursday morning, the Herald-Journal had received more than 125 emailed letters about the latest Hardee's commercial, the one that features a teacher writhing and dancing in the classroom as her students rap about how they like flat buns. More letters are surely on their way.

All but one of them used the exact same words. Why? Because they were all sent through the Web site of the American Family Association, which is trying to pull together a campaign against Hardee's. The Web site criticizes the commercials and urges readers to take action against them. It declares: "Enter your zip code and click "GO" to urge your local station(s) to stop or refuse to air these ads in support of local decency standards. We have prepared an email letter for you."

You will not be seeing these letters in the Herald-Journal. You will see the one that looks like it was genuinely written by the man who sent it in. In the newspaper business, these Web site letters are known as "Astroturf" because they represent an artificial grass-roots movement.

Submitting a letter someone else wrote as your own is plagiarism. If you care about an issue, send us your own thoughts. The Herald-Journal is delighted to print the views of its readers. And if readers need help in putting those thoughts on paper, we are more than willing to assist them. But simply slapping your name and address on a Web site and hitting submit is not participating in the discussion on our Opinion pages, it is simply saying: "Me too."

These letters are so weak, they start out with: "Dear local television manager".

This is a newspaper, not a television station.

If you have an opinion, please express it in a letter to the editor. If you're unsure how to write the letter, call, and we will help you. But don't send us a canned opinion from a Web site. It will be rejected.

http://opinionated.goupstate.com/default.asp?item=273893

Rest of the story at:

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/2007/09/afa_does_not_wa.html

[ck4829]

1. Self-Kick because of glitch

[ck4829]

2. There's more - From the La Crosse Tribune

Last week I got about 20 e-mails from people who apparently think the Tribune is a television station.

They were sent to us in protest of sexually suggestive TV ads promoting new Hardee’s hamburgers, although the ads were never aired in Wisconsin.

The letters were all identical, taken from the Web page of a Mississippi-based social conservative organization. Here is what they said:

Dear La Crosse Tribune:

Dear local television manager, I am highly offended by the sexual content in the latest Hardees/Carl’s Jr. television commercials known as “Patty Melt” and “Flat Buns.” In my opinion, they violate local community standards.

Because you are licensed to serve the public interest in our community, I request that you refuse to air these ads. If you are already airing them, I ask you to stop.

As required by law, please place a copy of this email letter in your station’s public file, to be readily available to FCC representatives, specifically during the license renewal period for your station.

(In case you’re wondering, Carl’s Jr. is what they call Hardee’s restaurants on the West Coast.)


I checked with WXOW-TV Channel 19 and WKBT-TV Channel 8. WXOW didn’t receive any letters, but WKBT did. WKBT put the letters in its public file, open to inspection by anyone who asks to see it, as required by federal law.

The American Family Association, a Tupelo, Miss., group that spearheaded the protest over the ads, was started in 1977. It monitors media and leads boycotts of television programs and ads, and also protests against homosexuality, the National Council for the Arts and public television. The group also advocates for prayer in school and the promotion of Christian values.

http://www.lacrossetribune.com/articles/2007/09/17/opinion/editorial/00edit0917.txt

[ck4829]

3. From the East Valley Tribune

The inbox for [e-mail] was stuffed full of AstroTurf late last week, and we’re not talking about plastic grass.

AstroTurf is a euphemism for form letters sent as a method of protest or support for a cause; the only thing that differs among the submissions is the sender’s name and address. Basically, such “letters” are plagiarism, plain and simple. And that is why we don’t publish them.

Last week’s batch was instigated by the American Family Association, which is outraged over a racy new TV ad campaign by Carl’s Jr. Provide a ZIP code on the AFA Web site, and you are taken to a page where you can send the same word-for-word complaint to more than 70 Arizona media outlets — whether your beef applies to them or not.

In researching what the fuss is all about, we came across a blog entry on the subject by Dianne Hardisty, editorial page editor of The Californian in Bakersfield, Calif., who also received dozens of the copycat complaints. Hardisty wrote: “Don’t these folks know that presenting the words of someone else as your own is plagiarism? When it’s a ‘good’ and ‘righteous’ cause, that doesn’t seem to matter. You would think if someone really felt strongly about something they would at least make the effort to write their own letter.”

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/97508