Editor & Publisher on AstroTurfing
Editor & Publisher follows up on how newspapers are fighting back against astroturfing.
The “AstroTurf” phenomenon has rocked letters-to-the-editor pages from Medford, Ore., to Manchester, Conn., claiming victims large (USA Today) and small (too many to mention), but now newspapers are fighting back. Last Tuesday, for example, after reading a suspicious missive, Jim Peipert, senior editorial writer at the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram, called a reader and for the first time ever asked him, “Did you send in a form letter?”
