Day By Day January 27, 2010 – Weak Draft

The entire FLAP about the bogus pro-Obama letter writer, Ellie Light, may have been resolved.

Ellie Light, the ubiquitous letter writer whose name appeared in newspapers nationwide praising President Barack Obama, appears to really be a male health care worker from California.

A man who identified himself as Winston Steward, 51, of Frazier Park, Calif., says he made up the name “Ellie Light” to protect himself from criticism and possible physical attacks, and used fake addresses across the country to get local newspapers to publish his letters.

“I am Winston Steward and have been sending the letters from Ellie Light,” he told The Plain Dealer in an e-mail late Tuesday, following a phone interview in which he said the same. “I hope this ends any confusion and sets the record straight.”

His e-mail address matched the address of the Ellie Light missives that were sent to newspapers to praise Obama and urged second-guessers to be patient as the president advances the Democratic agenda. The person identified as Ellie Light had been corresponding from that e-mail address to The Plain Dealer since last week, when the newspaper’s Web site, cleveland.com, disclosed that someone using the name Ellie Light was duping newspapers nationwide.

But, the entire idea about a coordinated ASTRO-TURF operation directed through the media is not. And, there are more questions to be answered.

The lesson learned here – trust but verify on and offline. Things may NOT be what they seem.

Duh……..

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