Yesterday, it was my birthday. The story of Margriet Oostveen, the Dutch writer who volunteered for both US Presidential campaigns to gather insight and material for her column broke, and what keen prezzie! She claims she was taught how to write “letters to the editor” that would be signed by real McCain supporters in battleground states. The story was originally published in a Dutch paper, but she also had it picked up in English on Salon.com. It’s possible to read it on the AP/Yahoo version (I’m kind of down on AP and their policies and stupid re-design right now so I’m not linking).
This backgrounder is also behind Salon’s “paywall,” but if you wait for the Flash-using splash screen to clear, the “Enter Salon” link will be in the upper right hand corner (it’s a day pass after watching the ad). Once there, you should be able to read the original article as well. I’m quoting the longish Editor’s Note introduction here in full. As no fake letters seem to have actually been published, they’re providing redacted emails, sample letters, writing guidelines, talking points, and the letters that they asked her to provide to support her claim.
It would be difficult to find the letters if the operatives in swing states were careful to “insert” them in papers that don’t put their letters columns up on the Web, searchable by Democracy’s Best Friends (ie., Google and other search engines). It’ll take dedicated local readers going through their piles of newspapers from the first week or two after the Palin nomination was announced and actually clipping them out and scanning them to find a few little smoking epistolary guns.
Of course, the real reason none of these letters have shown up in the local press could be as simple as:
- She made all this shit up.
- Local editors are savvy enough to sense when somebody is making this shit up.
- McCain’s ground game is so screwed up that the letters went nowhere.
How ghost-writing letters to the editor for McCain works | Salon News
Sept. 24, 2008 | Editor’s note: On Sept. 13, journalist Margriet Oostveen published a column in the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad detailing how she had ghost-written letters to the editor on behalf of, and at the behest of, John McCain’s presidential campaign. The Dutch version of her column is here; Salon’s English translation is here. Among the letters Oostveen says she wrote is one in which she pretended to be the mother of a soldier serving in Iraq.
Salon requested documentary proof from Oostveen. Below, on Page 1, is a redacted e-mail from a McCain staffer to Oostveen about letter writing, as well as the sample letter that was attached to it. The sample was meant to be an example of a “good letter to the editor that concentrates on our support for Gov. Palin.” On Page 2 are three more letters that Oostveen says a different McCain campaign worker gave her as examples of the style of letters she should write. On Page 3 is a set of guidelines for writing letters that Oostveen says was given to her by Phil Tuchman, who is mentioned in her column. On Page 4 and 5 are two pages of talking points that Oostveen says she was given by the campaign. On Page 6 are three examples of letters Oostveen says she wrote and gave to the campaign so they could be sent to McCain supporters in battleground states, including the Iraq letter. According to Oostveen, a McCain staffer told her that supporters would be invited to pick and sign letters. After that the letters would be mailed to local newspapers.
Salon has no evidence that any of the letters Oostveen wrote were ever published, in their original or adapted form, as letters to the editor in newspapers.
Gail Gitcho, a spokeswoman for the McCain campaign, said that Oostveen did not properly identify herself to campaign workers in Arlington. “She did not represent herself as a journalist to the people who work in the mid-Atlantic office.” Oostveen, who also wrote a column about an earlier stint phone-banking for the McCain campaign, says she twice explained to different workers in the Arlington campaign office that she might be using her experiences as a volunteer in her columns for the NRC Handelsblad.
Oh, wah wah wah! She’s an investigative journalist. DEAL.
If you feel like it, read on and see what you think. But I’d be happier if someone finds a wee li’l clippie or two… or better yet three or four, in different newspapers, in different states.
Signed with different names. Yeah.