Computers, the Internet, email and a host of other wonderful advances have brought to the whacky world of media a phenomenon known in the biz as "cut and paste journalism."
Dark side media hacks, otherwise known as public relations specialists, delight in the increasing willingness of those who disseminate information for consumption by the reading public, to simply take what they are offered and print it wholesale.
It's a lazy newsroom's way of getting the job done without having to actually do the job.
Every newsroom is guilty to some extent. I like to think ours less so than some.
There is a disturbing new trend afoot, however, that is making this crusty old newspaperwoman just a tad more cynical, if that's possible.
Not too long ago our newspaper received an influx of letters (in our world, three is a influx) on the issue of Prime Minister Stephen Harper negotiating comprehensive economic trade agreements with the European Union and China.
Since the letters were filed for different editions of the paper, it took me awhile to twig onto the fact two of the letters were almost identical. One had been published before I got wise.
I've been in this game for 20 some years and I had never before come across such a phenomenon.
Ah, the power of the Internet.
Punching in a key phrase led me to a website for Some Of Us and directly to a page that gives prospective letter writers instructions on how to submit a letter. The website provided the text in a convenient format to be cut and pasted at will, although it was prefaced with "It's best if you write the letter in your own words." These two "activists" obviously couldn't resist the convenience of "cut and paste."
The Google search also showed where the identical phrase had been printed in several letters to the editor across the country. It's comforting to know I'm not the only one who has been had.
So here's were the cynicism and scepticism starts to ramp. This week I received a faxed letter on the same issue. Ah, a fax, I thought. This has to be legit.
Nope. I just had to be sure, so I chose the first line of the letter and punched it into the Google search window. Direct hit again. This time what comes up is a Green Party of Canada website and once again the letter had been cut and pasted directly from the site.
I'm not so clueless as to believe my paper has not been the target of previous letter writing campaigns. The outcry opposing the development of a nuclear power plant along the North Saskatchewan River is one example. In previous cases I am certain the letter writers were expressing their own views, in their own words, warts and all.
So, now in addition to being diligent in our quest to ensure cut and paste journalism doesn't dilute the information printed on our pages and uploaded to our website, we must also keep a sharp eye out of a new threat - cut and paste activism.
Our editorial staff and the newspapers readers are interested in your words - incensed, crazy, poorly written, misspelled, whatever - not those being fed to you by the Green Party or some other organization.
Your words have power, their words are just so much propaganda.
