Rightwing Astroturfing

From this morning's SCMP:

Only time will tell

The new film, Death of a President, panders to an underclass which contemporary liberalism shelters but should abhor: the revanchist political left, with its marked intolerance towards opposing viewpoints and its too easy acceptance of the unworthy side of politics ("Bush assassination drama set to spark controversy in Britain, US", September 3) The film's portrayal of US President George W. Bush being assassinated amid a sea of hateful protesters is offensive and corrosive to democracy. Leftist elements of the self-centred 1960s generation seem to resist the simple truth that mutual respect and compromise are de rigueur in any healthy democratic nation.

They would also reject out of hand comparison with the detractors of Abraham Lincoln, who began his presidential term being pelted in his railway car but ended it as a murdered icon.

Yet President Bush's resolve in confronting terrorism may well come to be seen by history in a similar light and his domestic opponents judged accordingly.

As they await history's verdicts the left shouldn't leave it to time and the Grim Reaper to rescue them from intolerance and vulgarity.

RON GOODDEN, Atlanta

The usual right wing stuff and nonsense about everyone picking on the poor beleagured conservatives who are just trying to do their jobs in the face of constant persecution. Notice the projection:

...the revanchist political left, with its marked intolerance towards opposing viewpoints and its too easy acceptance of the unworthy side of politics...

when it's the Republicans who hold closed door rallies, require loyalty oaths and are being arrested and tried for corruption left (hah!), right and centre (hah again!).

And also note the implied comparison with Abraham Lincoln:

They would also reject out of hand comparison with the detractors of Abraham Lincoln, who began his presidential term being pelted in his railway car but ended it as a murdered icon.

When I see a letter from a westerner who doesn't live in Hong Kong in a Hong Kong newspaper, I always wonder why they're writing it. When the subject matter of the letter has nothing to do with Hong Kong and everything to do with US internal affairs I wonder why it even gets published.

A Google Search for "Ron Goodden" turns up almost nothing but letters to editors pushing various GOP talking points:

• The outing of Valerie Plame was a ruse by the Democratic party;
• Public schools are bad and should have their funding reduced even further;
• the French are evil because they don't abjectly support us;
• the Muslims want to kill us all;
• the Muslims want to kill us all again;

And so on (and on, and on).

So, is this astroturfing? Is this person paid to send out all these letters pushing a single point of view? Or is he just a right-wing idiot with too much time on his hands?

The post on Making Light: Further instances of astroturf in blogs shows that there are organisations which pay for this sort of propaganda. See also AntiAstroturfing.

UPDATE: TNH has linked to me here: Astroturf and disinformation: some guy named Ron Goodden.

And Chris at Ordinary Gweilo spotted the letter as well.