Impersonal Correspondence: I’m not sure how John Stodder’s blog remained below my radar for so long, but a post of his on the subject of Astroturf letter-writing campaigns came to my attention via InOpinion.

Stodder, for those of you who don’t pay attention to the PR trade press and live outside of L.A., is the former Fleishman-Hillard executive who stood trial alongside former Los Angeles general manager Doug Dowie for fraud and conspiracy in connection with the overbilling several FH clients, including the Department of Water & Power.

Stodder provides much of his backstory here (I can find no mention of his conviction on 12 counts) but it’s not the focus of the blog, which is an eclectic mix of personal journal, California reportage, and PR industry commentary.

In his post, Stodder admits to having used the Astroturf approach himself: “It was not so long ago that my staff and I would draft ‘sample’ letters to the editor, and distribute them, on a small scale, to average Dick and Janes to send to their local newspapers as if the letters were their own. We justified it thusly: The words might be ours, but the decision to sign and send was voluntary on the sender’s part. The sender also is free to change our words as much as they want. Our drafts are merely suggestions.”

He goes on to make some excellent arguments against the use of such Astroturf, both ethical and pragmatic: “Nobody would mind if Elisa Baggenstos [see my previous post on this subject] asked a professional communicator to put what is in her heart into publishable form. The problem comes when hundreds of other people use the same professional communicator’s exact phrases, but sign their own names to them. It’s a form of trickery and deceit on the part of the respective campaigns, who are trying to create an illusion of grassroots support by fooling newspaper editors into believing these letters are a spontaneous response to an issue of concern among the paper’s readers….

The practice seems to be growing but I predict its swift demise, because it is so easily detected and foiled. Newspaper editors should be able to sniff out a suspected Astroturf letter, and can confirm their suspicions with a Google search… If the newspaper editors won’t do the detective work, I’m sure the adversaries to the campaigns using Astroturf letters will…. Astroturf letters to the editor are a tactic that, once exposed, cannot be defended without damaging your cause.”