Lots of organizations have been doing this lately. "Best of the Web Today" caught a few of these form letters circulating against war with Iraq a while back. It's simply starting to go with the territory of printing letters to the editor. I personally don't like it, but it'll become like nuclear bombs -- the "if one side has em', so should we" mentality.

It shouldn't be too hard for letters page editors to weed them out. Every letter that gets printed is already being reviewed by someone. Doing a bit of Googling ought to be part of the procedure for them. If no one ever printed astroturf, it would lose its utility.

It shouldn't be too hard for letters page editors to weed them out. Every letter that gets printed is already being reviewed by someone. Doing a bit of Googling ought to be part of the procedure for them. If no one ever printed astroturf, it would lose its utility.

"The current GOP Team Leader-inspired turfing has been known for over a month, thanks to the likes of Atrios and Failure Is Impossible, but better late than never, I guess."

Better late than never, indeed. cough.

Try "been known for almost a year," to, well, anyone reading Amygdala then.

It's really frustrating when you rant on a Big Story , say, and no one notices until ten months later, and then attributes the story to other people who paid no attention when you posted and e-mailed on it, say, in March, 2002.

It makes one feel that all the reading and research and blogging is so worthwhile.

Sigh. Oh, well, at least people finally noticed the story.

Googling for letters is now, indeed, part of many newspapers' procedures, by the way, as various publications have written about.