[Reader-list] US Reaction to Guardian letter writing campaign

[Diya Mehra]

UK anti-Bush letters spark outrage

Tuesday, October 19, 2004 Posted: 8:54 AM EDT (1254 GMT)

14,000 people registered to write letters to Cook county.

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- A pro-Kerry letter-writing campaign by
Britain's left-leaning Guardian newspaper, targeting undecided U.S.
voters, has provoked outrage across the Atlantic.

The paper has encouraged its readers to express their opinions on the
November 2 presidential election to voters in the key swing state of Ohio
-- to the fury of Clark county.

"Hey England, Scotland and Wales, mind your own business. We don't need
weenie-spined Limeys meddling in our presidential election," was one of
the e-mail reactions to the campaign.

The Fox national cable television network tore into the newspaper and even
John Kerry's own Democrats expressed horror at the campaign.

"We all feel it is not a good idea. I think it was unwise. It is so poorly
thought-out," said Sharon Manitta, spokeswoman in Britain for Democrats
Abroad.

But the newspaper, whose cartoons regularly portray President George W.
Bush as a semi-literate ape, was unrepentant.

"We did consult a number of opinions and made our decision accordingly,"
assistant features editor Paul MacInnes told Reuters. "It has been an
operation to give our readers an opportunity to express their opinions."

With just two weeks to go before the election, Kerry is running neck and
neck with Republican incumbent Bush.

Ohio is a key swing state which Bush won by just four percentage points in
2000, and Clark county is at its heart.

The campaign is a bid to sway voters on the county's electoral register
who have declared themselves undecided.

As of Monday night, more than 14,000 people had registered to write to a
voter in Cook county which has a population of just 143,000.

Individuals like film director Ken Loach, spy writer John Le Carre,
historian Antonia Fraser and opposition Liberal Democratic parliamentarian
Menzies Campbell have all written in their own capacity -- not that their
names necessarily carry much weight in Cook county.

The Guardian, which simply bought a list of registered voters and
extracted the undecided, pledged that it would only give out the name of
each voter once, to avoid them being swamped by unsolicited mail from
complete strangers.

"We know that in many ways this is the world's election, and we understand
the passion and concern in many parts of the world over it. But I wonder
how people here in the UK would react to Americans telling them how to
vote," Democrats Abroad's Manitta said.

"This will certainly garner more votes for George Bush. I have strongly
advised other media entities who have come to me and suggested this
against doing so," she added.

While some e-mails to the Guardian from Democrats in Ohio were supportive,
others suggested the campaign was misguided.

But their mild admonitions paled into insignificance against the more
reactionary views received by the paper.

"Real Americans aren't interested in your pansy-ass, tea-sipping opinions.
If you want to save the world, begin with you own worthless corner of it,"
wrote one from Texas.


-- 
Diya Mehra
Sarai: The New Media Initiative
Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
29 Rajpur Road, New Delhi 54
(011) 23960040, www.sarai.net