Demonstrating genuine leadership all over again
I seem to be blogging this story in the sense coined by Slate’s Jack Shafer, but it just keeps going: One of Salon’s Letters to the Editor forum members found the Times Herald-Record of Middletown, NY just printed the “demonstrating genuine leadership” form letter for a second time in two weeks today, despite national newspaper and radio coverage of the dustup over it (Declan McCullagh discussed it on NPR, and the Boston Globe’s ombudsman criticized the practice after the paper ran four such letters).
Not to sound nitpicky, but I noticed Newsweek misquoted the letter’s key intro phrase as “displaying genuine leadership” last week. I don’t exactly scour the press for errors, but the original is such a memorable, galloping phrase, and a reason it’s been printed so many places.
Betsy Devine has been a helpful source, so I direct people still tracking the Republican astroturf issue to her blog while I work on other stories. Stay tuned for Astroturf from the Democrats, as soon as their server is up.