Frugal Café Blog Zone

Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on January 26, 2010

Andrew Breitbart of Big Government, Big Journalism, and Big Hollywood weighs in on political astroturfing — most specifically, the current astroturf letters written by the mysterious “Ellie Light” in support of Barack Obama’s health care agenda — and the lack of reporting on this from the fringe media. He says that there has been a sophisticated attempt to mask the origin of the source of the letters.

Excellent interview.

FOX News: Andrew Breitbart on Question of the Week: “Who is Ellie Light?”

More digging is going on, and this was posted by Dan at Riehl World View, Linking Ellie Light To The White House:

If information I’ve been given is correct, there is circumstantial evidence linking now infamous letter writer Ellie Light to an international public relations firm involved with the White House in helping to promote health care reform.

Left Coast Rebel made me aware of a comment left on his blog by someone claiming to be Ellie Light. The comment was left by someone using the screen name Winston44. In searching out that name, I found a Twitter account under it that has barely been used.

The account has never tweeted and follows 18 individuals, with 9 following it. Given that we usually add people we know when we first open a Twitter account, I looked to see who the first individual was that Winston44 added. That would be Adam Segal.

Adam J. Segal, President, The 2050 Group, LLC + Named to PR Week’s 40 Under 40 for 2009.

His firm is The 2050 Group. It seems to be offline right now, though it was up last night and may be having tech issues. He maintained a personal blog on blogger here – ethnicmarketing. He seemed thrilled when Obama ran a spot in Spanish on Univision, not sure if he was involved with that.

What he is, or was involved with is the National Alliance for Hispanic Health Care. And this press release puts them in the White House, Google shows them to be supportive of Obama, particularly his health care reform agenda – and the release also establishes Segal as the media contact.

The story was originally broken by The Cleveland Plain Dealer. Patterico is adding up the number of times the letter has appeared – still growing, it seems. And the Left Coast Rebel seems to still be on the case, as well. Stay tuned. This scenario, while unable to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, may remind some of the Ethan Winner affair, in which another PR firm linked to David Axelrod looked to be linked to a smear campaign against Sarah Palin during the last presidential campaign.

There’s much more… go to Riehl World View for the rest of the exposé.

From DC Trawler, End of the tunnel for Ellie Light?:

Over the last few weeks, someone calling her- or himself “Ellie Light” has been sending nearly identical pro-Obama letters to newspapers and blogs across the country, and even to countries as far away as Thailand. What’s dishonest about it is that in each letter, “Light” claims to be local to that particular paper’s circulation area. Last Tuesday she lived in Philly. Last Wednesday she lived in San Fran. Mansfield, Ohio; Three Rivers, New Mexico; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; dozens of other places. Either this “Light” person is insanely wealthy and restless, or there’s something fishy going on here.

[...]

…Every time this administration does something dumb, everybody says, “Oh, it’s all part of their brilliant master plan” or “They couldn’t be that clueless, could they?” How’s that working out for you so far, kids?

P.S. Kathleen McKinley says the question isn’t “Who is Ellie Light?” The question is: “Why are these letters being published in all these newspapers?”

Additional reading:
The Cypress Times: ALL THE PRESIDENT’S ASTROTURFERS: THE CURIOUS CASE OF ELLIE LIGHT
Michelle Malkin: The Astroturf Presidency
Gateway Pundit, Found: Ellie Light’s Facebook Page (Updated)
Patterico’s Pontifications: How “David Axelrod Astroturfing” Works, Step by Step and Still More Astroturfing: Gloria Elle and Jan Chen Write the Same Anti-Republican Pro-Obama Letter
HillBuzz: The Cleveland Plain Dailer finds more examples of “Ellie Light” in dozens of newspapers
The Sundries Shack: The Delivery Presents: Special Guest Chuck Devore, Taxes, and Ellie the Astroturfer
Sister Toldjah: Astroturfing campaign underway by Team Obama?
Nobama: Obama-Loving Spammer ‘Ellie Light’ Dupes 42 Newspapers | NewsBusters.org
Verum Serum: Ellie Light Lives in Huntington Beach?
Makes My Brain Itch: Is Ellie Light Rockin’ the Vote?
Romanticpoet’s Weblog: Ellie Light: Obama Astroturfer? Is David Axelrod at the Helm of this? David Plouffe? Don’t Be Conned America.
The Lonely Conservative: Is Joe Klein Ellie Light?
Hot Air: Ellie Light speaks … and speaks … and speaks …. and Ellie Light: Obama Astroturfer?
Frugal Café Blog Zone: Who Is Ellie Light? Michelle Malkin on Hannity About Fake Pro-Obama Letter Published in Dozens of Newspapers: “Obama Administration Is ‘The Astroturf Presidency’” (video)
His Vorpal Sword: Sockpuppets Confused About Astroturf
Cleveland.com: Obama has suspicious number of letter-writing fans named ‘Ellie Light’ and Ellie Light: Dozens more sightings of Obama’s most prolific letter-writing fan
Nice Deb: Ellie Light’s a Dude? and Video: Michelle Malkin Discusses Astroturf On Hannity and Astroturfing Trying to Make a Comeback UPDATED and Is Recent Astroturf Campaign Part of Dept of Justice Propaganda Unit?
Left Coast Rebel: Ellie Light Obama Astroturf UPDATE: Ellie Light’s True Identity Revealed (Exclusive PHOTO!)
Clarice Feldman, American Thinker: DoJ hires bloggers as propagandists and sock puppets
Patterico’s Pontifications: An Explanation for the Trolls?
The Foxhole: Astroturf Letter Writing for Obama, From “Ellie Light”
Stix Blog: Who is Ellie Light?
The Right Side of Life: The Curious Case of “Ellie Light”
Ben Smith, Politico: Ellie Light Speaks

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