Last week Sabrina Eaton, a reporter at the Cleveland Plain Dealer noticed that a letter writer, Ellie Light had similar letters published by numerous publications around the country, often claiming different local residences. In her letters, Light defended US President Obama, in some she stated that “It’s time for Americans to realize that governing is hard work, and that a president can’t just wave a magic wand and fix everything,” These duplicate letters and her lack of responsive when questioned about the different addresses have lead some to believe that she is an actually a fake front for an Obama organized letter writing campaign. While it is more likely that she is just someone who a list of letters to the editor desks and a willingness to shade the truth about her address it does raise the question of how many publications fell for her fake address and whether others did any checking at all.
Maybe she should he stuck to sending letters to national publications, that way she could write what Ben Smith of Politico.com characterized as an articulate defense of Obama without the need for lying about her address in order to try to have it published.