Lessons from "Ellie Light"

Just the other week, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio) discovered an interesting pattern with letters to the editor. Numerous newspapers from around the country were posting letters with nearly identical language all signed by "Ellie Light." The only real difference was that the author claimed a local address (in West Virgina, Ohio, Maine, California, etc.) each time. The letters were in support of Obama and asked America to be patient while he tries to solve tough issues. Here is The Plain Dealer's original story. After a week of rumors, theories, and some excellent investigation work done by Sabrina Eaton at The Plain Dealer it was discovered that Ellie Light was actually a man named Winston Steward from California. Here is the updated story.

There are still plenty of rumors flying around about Steward. Some think he is actually an operative for the Obama administration trying to plant grassroots support around the country. After all, Steward has gone through several lies to cover his tracks (at one point he claimed his name was Barbara Brooks) so there may yet be more to this story. However, I want to focus on the role technology played in this story and provide a lesson for campaigns.

Some are questioning the newspapers that published the letters for not insuring that the letters to the editors were authentic. Even the paper that broke the story, The Plain Dealer is guilty of this failing. The only reason the reporter at The Plain Dealer investigated Ellie Light's identity was because she happened to have had an old co-worker by the same name and wanted to see if it was the same person. The point I want to focus on is that whether this letter writing campaign is part of a larger conspiracy or not, it was going to be discovered no matter what.

The pattern of Ellie Light's letters was easy to discover. All it took was a quick search on Lexis-Nexis (online database of newspapers) to show the same letter by the same author in different papers across the country. In a matter of a few seconds Ellie Light was busted. Steward came up with all kinds of excuses but at the end of the day credibility was lost and he ended up doing damage to Obama's reputation.

I want to go back to a point I have talked about, especially when it comes to social media: honesty. Letters to the editor are nothing more than a primitive social media tool. Steward chose to send letters to newspapers, but he could have just as easily chose to set up a blog, Twitter, or Facebook account with the name of "Ellie Light." The result would be the same either way. When voters want to engage in a discussion they want to do it openly and honestly. If you are faced with losing your job, struggling with student loans, or just worried about the general welfare of your community and country, the last thing you want is a fictional person telling you what to think. There is a big difference between engaging the community and supporting grass roots organizations, and faking its creation. Technology has opened up opportunities to fake an identity, but it also has created a bunch of tools to catch those schemes. I cannot emphasize this enough: DO NOT TRY IT!

I have no doubt that this type of thing will be tried again. There are probably some cases where the instigator was never uncovered. However, the cost of being caught greatly outweighs any potential benefits. Ellie Light got national attention not because the original letters were well thought out or inspiring, but because the secret plot was discovered. While there is no official connection between Ellie Light and Obama to this date, just think of the real damage that would be done if a connection was confirmed.

The next post will be February 16th.

True Grassroots

The growth in online social networks have created what could be described as true grassroots movements. The recent examples are the Tea Party protests that have been occurring the past couple of months (concentrated on or around Tax Day) across the country. There protests were not coordinated by a political party, organization, or by one single individual. They were started and organized by the local population.

Traditionally to hold events like this across the country, all with significant turn out, you would need an organization and a lot of resources. Communication would be slow and one way (top down). There would be a few individuals as the leaders and spokespersons which all the ideas and direction would come from. However, as the Tea Parties demonstrated, social networking tools enable a network to be created over night by ordinary people. The tools that were used were Facebook, blogs, text-messaging, chat forums, and the like. This has allowed the movement to be truly reflective of what citizens want. No established organization is giving them mission statements or talking points. It is just people expressing their opinions. Although the Tea Parties had common themes and messages, each demonstration was uniquely organized and independently run.

The Republican Party should approach this true grassroots movements with caution but optimism. On the caution side, these types of movements can be directed against a party itself, including the Republican Party. Economic conservatives do not hold a monopoly on true grassroots movements. Their cause and the emergence of technology simply aligned at the right time to make them one of the first major users. Republican leaders need to recognize that this is a movement lead by citizens, not elected officials. The Wall Street Journal reported on a few Tea Party demonstration including the one in Chicago. RNC Chairman Michael Steele asked if he could speak at the event. Organizers politely turned him down saying "With regards to stage time, we respectfully must inform Chairman Steele that RNC officials are welcome to participate in the rally itself, but we prefer to limit stage time to those who are not elected officials, both in Government as well as political parties. This is an opportunity for Americans to speak, and elected officials to listen, not the other way around." A true grassroots movement should be spoken by the people and listened to by elected officials.

But this is where the optimism for the GOP can come in. Republican leaders and elected officials should listen and really listen to the true grassroots movements within their constituency. Michael Steele was asked not to speak, but he was invited to listen. Republican officials should always accept opportunities to listen. With awareness to new technologies this should be easy. Keep an eye on blogs within your community, stay active on sites like Facebook, and always have an eye out for new and creative ways your constituents come up with to use technology to organize. With true grassroots movements, leaders should be able to be more responsive and better address the concerns of their constituencies. By no means am I suggested elected leaders should stick their finger into the wind of grassroots movements to make the decisions. But an elected official is a representative of his/her constituency. The Tea Parties were about excessive government spending and fortunately the Republican Party is listening and looking for solutions while the Democrats did not hear anything.

The next post will be May 12th.

References:

The Wall Street Journal Article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123975867505519363.html