[CLUE-Talk] The military takes a cue from Microsoft

[Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier]

On Sat, 2003-10-11 at 23:06, Jed S. Baer wrote:
> On 11 Oct 2003 09:03:59 -0600
> "Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier" <jzb at dissociatedpress.net> wrote:
> 
> > I'm sure that just about everyone on this list has heard of
> > "astroturfing" -- sending out fake letters or having real people send
> > form letters with exactly the same message, usually instigated by a PR
> > firm, in an attempt to create the illusion of popular, grass-roots
> > support. (Hence, astroturf.)
> ...
> > Now, the military is doing it too:
> > http://www.dissociatedpress.org/article.pl?sid=03/10/11/1458202&mode=thread
> ...
> > When you hear about things like this, it really brings into question
> > whether you can trust anything coming from the Bush administration. 
> 
> Or, maybe not.
> 
>   http://www.instapundit.com/archives/011955.php

>From what I've read in the story linked from Instapundit, no one has
come forward to admit writing the letter, but one of the soldiers says
it was distributed by his platoon sergeant. No one admits actually
mailing the letters, and there's still one person who says that they
didn't sign it. (The article is horribly written, it does take several
passes to try to puzzle it out...)

Something smells foul here. Here's this from the story as well:

"Sgt. Shawn Grueser of Poca, W.Va., said he spoke to a military public
affairs officer whose name he couldn't remember about his
accomplishments in Iraq for what he thought was a news release to be
sent to his hometown paper in Charleston, W.Va...Although Grueser said
he agrees with the letter's sentiments, he was uncomfortable that a
letter with his signature did not contain his own words or spell out his
own accomplishments."

http://www.tulareadvanceregister.com/news/stories/20031011/localnews/436770.html

Still sounds to me like something cooked up by Army PR. I'd like to know
who collected and mailed these letters out. If one of the soldiers in
the unit wrote this and gathered signatures, they should come forward.

Zonker
-- 
Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier
jzb at dissociatedpress.net
http://www.dissociatedpress.net
http://www.corante.com/openmind