What The Hell....???

Identical, Bush-backing Editorials Appear Nationwide

Link Here For This Article


What do this newspaper editorial

http://www.appeal-democrat.com/articles/2005/10/21/colu...

, this one

http://www.jdnews.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/Globa...
, this one

http://www.kinston.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/Glob...
, and this one

http://www.gazette.com/display.php?id=1311384&secid=13

all have in common?

All of them are unsigned editorials, which makes it look like they're original opinion pieces for each paper. (The Colorado Gazette even says it's "our view.")

And they all happen to say exactly the same thing, beginning with this paragraph:

One of the smartest things President Bush did to reduce recovery costs in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita was to suspend Davis-Bacon Act rules in the hardest hit states. But Congress is frantically trying to overrule the president, which would add billions of dollars to the already staggering recovery costs.

Amazing that newspapers from California, Colorado, and North Carolina could be channeling, simultaneously and in complete harmony, the Bush administration line for cutting wages for workers rebuilding the Gulf Coast.

UPDATE: As one commenter points out, all the papers involved are owned by Freedom Communications, Inc. (although, oddly enough, they all list different owners on their websites, with variations on the "Freedom" theme). It's still a no-no for papers to run these as if they're house editorials -- and therefore somehow the result of a spontaneous convergence of editorial opinion across the country, as opposed to just being a reprint.

UPDATE II: This paper in Indiana also ran it, and they're not owned by Freedom Com (they're Knight Ridder). And they attribute it to "The Lima News, Ohio." Confusion (?) reigns.

http://southernstudies.org/facingsouth/2005/10/esp-wond...