ONE CAN'T HELP NOTICING SOMETHING ODD ABOUT THAT AREA CODE:

My name is Ellie Light, and Gannett Wisconsin Media has officially apologized to Fox News for publishing my letter. Michele Malkin's website, based in Washington DC, had objected to my letter's publication in Wisconsin media, because it wasn't written by a Wisconsin resident.

Here is the letter I wrote that Gannett felt so ashamed for running:

"A year ago, if we had read in the paper that employers were hiring again,
that health care legislation was proceeding without a bump, that
Afghanistan suddenly became a nice place to take your kids, we would've
known we were being lied to. Back then, we recognized that the problems
Obama inherited as President wouldn't go away overnight.

During his campaign, Obama clearly said that an economy that took eight
years to break couldn't be fixed in a year, that Afghanistan was a
graveyard of empires, and would not be an easy venture for us. Candidate
Obama didn't feed us happy-talk, which is why we elected him. He never
said America could solve our health care, economic and security problems
without raising the deficit. Instead, he talked of hard choices, of
government taking painful and contentious first steps towards fixing
problems that can't be left for another day.

Right after Obama's election, we seemed to grasp this. We understood that
companies would be happy to squeeze more work out of frightened employees,
and would be slow to hire more. We understood that the banks that had
extorted us out of billions of dollars, were lying when they said they
would share their recovery. We understood that a national consensus on
health care would not come easily. Candidate Obama never claimed that his
proposed solutions would work flawlessly right out of the box, and we
respected him for that.

But today, the President is being attacked as if he were a salesman who
promised us that our problems would wash off in the morning. He never made
such a promise. It's time for Americans to realize that governing is hard
work, and that a President can't just wave a magic wand and fix
everything."

As you can guess, it wasn't the letter's origin that got under the big
Fox's skin. I'd say it was the content. What do you think? Anyway, feel
free to publish or post it as you see fit. If further verification is
required, feel free to call me at 562 *** ****. If you Google "Ellie Light," you'll be told all kinds of things about me. Or, you could just call.

Sincerely,

Ellie Light
562 *** ****

Moreover, Ms Light still seems to be somewhat truth challenged, since the apology was to their own readers, not to Fox, To our readers: About that letter from Ellie Light (Green Bay Press Gazette, January 26, 2010)

A woman who identified herself as Ellie Light recently duped dozens of newspapers around the country, including some here in Wisconsin, into printing her letter praising President Barack Obama as if she were a local resident.

The letter appeared in three Gannett Wisconsin Media newspapers, including the Door County Advocate. As a result, it also appeared on the Green Bay Press-Gazette’s Web site.

Since the Cleveland Plain Dealer broke the story Friday, Light’s bogus letter has been found in more than 60 papers and counting.

The editors of the GWM papers exercised diligence to one degree or another, in most cases calling the phone number provided by the writer to confirm she was the author. However, she responded with false information and a series of different hometowns.

Because the Press-Gazette’s search engine is linked to the other Gannett Wisconsin Media newspaper Web sites, when it calls up content that appeared in other GWM papers, our logo appears on the top of the page.

Therefore, a search for “Ellie Light” would have provided links to the letter under our banner, even though the Press-Gazette did not print it and our editors did not post it directly to our Web site.

People intent on duping us are using more sophisticated methods all of the time. We catch many mass-mailed form letters, but this person managed to get past editors with a simple misstatement of fact.

Like many newspapers, the Press-Gazette already requires writers to provide a street address and phone number (not for publication) for verification purposes.

We still believe in the inherent honesty of many letter writers, but this case will find us reviewing the incident to determine whether additional safeguards are necessary.

We apologize that this letter appeared on our Web site.