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SW: →Other activities: fake letters to the editor
== Other activities ==
=== Faking letters to the editor, on Medicare Advantage ===
The editor of the ''Halifax-Plympton Reporter'', in Marshfield, Massachusetts, reported receiving a letter to the editor in early 2009 urging "that people contact their congressman about the Medicare Advantage program," a "sort of privatized health plan paid for via the recipient's [[Medicare]]. Reportedly, there's some interest in doing away with the program." The actual, physical letter was in the name of a local resident, but it didn't mention any of the local Congressional delegation, which the newspaper's editor, Matthew Nadler, found strange. So, he called the local resident who had supposedly written and mailed the letter. "He had no idea what I was talking about," Nadler reported. Then, "I got a phone call Monday from a young man who said he was calling on behalf of the letter's non-writer. I told him what happened, and I think I had some pointed words about what was a pretty sleazy use of an elderly person. I asked the caller who he was and who he worked for. Which, not surprisingly, I suppose, he declined to tell me." However, Nadler could see his phone number, and traced it back to the Dewey Square Group. Nadler noted that DSG's "Web site doesn't list their clients, but it doesn't take a genius, or a newspaper editor, to figure out they've been hired by someone with an interest in keeping Medicare Advantage in business." The firm's site "promises 'grassroots' communication," he added, but "it looks more like [[Astroturf]] from here." <ref>Matthew Nadler, "[http://www.wickedlocal.com/halifax/news/lifestyle/columnists/x917905567/Musings-Grassroots-letter-campaign-smells-of-fertilizer 'Grassroots' letter campaign smells of fertilizer]," ''Halifax-Plympton Reporter'' (Marshfield, Massachusetts), March 27, 2009.</ref>
=== Driving public support for GM ===
