In Wednesday’s Salon.com re-publication of a Sept. 13th article by Dutch writer Margriet Oostveen, the details of her role as a “letters to the editor” ghost-writer for the McCain campaign are laid out in disturbing clarity. Oostveen offers up some evidence in support of her claim, including an email exchange with someone apparently in the McCain campaign, and a sample editorial she was given as a guideline.

“The assignment is simple: We are going to write letters to the editor and we are allowed to make up whatever we want — as long as it adds to the campaign,” she writes.

This plays into a larger trend that we’re noticing here at P+P, and will be addressing in a series of upcoming posts: the McCain campaign is startlingly adept at bending the will of the mainstream media. This is not a new concept in a post-Rovian world, but with the advent of You(tube)biquity and the ways in which MSM bits filter to the extremes of net-dom, the strategy has gained a new degree of potency. Despite claiming to be on the defensive, the Republicans are forcing their agenda across all mediums.

Whether it’s rigging editorial letters to papers in battleground states, stepping on Obama’s post-convention bounce with the Friday morning Palin pick, reigniting the culture wars with the “liberal media,” blockading their VP choice from all media scrutiny outside of hand-picked interviews, or the power-play behind the debate-cancellation plea, the McCain campaign knows how to flex its muscle.

With so much competition in the 24-hour news cycle, networks have no choice but to kowtow in hopes they will get an exclusive ratings boon that can be teased ad-nauseam for a week prior (see ABC’s Palin interview blitz). Step out of line, as CNN did with Tucker Bounds, and you get a Larry King Live appearance canceled as punishment.

On the paper side, with staff budgets being what they are, there is no time to vet letters supposedly sent from well-meaning citizens of the community. Just as the Bush Administration took advantage of the need for “military experts” in the tenuous initial phase of the Iraq War as a means of advancing their agenda, the Republican strategists are subverting the midsize newspaper as a community voice by planting signed letters laced with talking points.

Where does this leave us? With the likes of David Letterman, Jon Stewart, SNL, and Barbara Walters to do the dirty work, expose hypocrisy, and ask the tough questions. It’s strange to witness traditional media being relegated more and more to the role of conduit, with fringe elements filling the shoes of Edward R. Murrow, and even, Tim Russert.

It has become all about taking control of the “media narrative.” That is, being the one fueling the echo chamber fodder, and leaving the other guy to react. Take McCain’s request to cancel the debate: In the face of economic meltdown that can be tied to the Republican party in no less than 17 ways, McCain’s people seize control of the dialogue by requesting to “set aside partisan politics” to address the crisis. If Obama had conceded, he would have been following the leader. If Obama had said the show must go on (which he did), he would be callous in the face of the need for bipartisanship.

(It worked with Ike, but this time it seems to have backfired.)

Full circle: The ghost-writing ploy reflects a “leave no stone unturned” philosophy. Not only is attention paid to gaining traction in cable news airwaves, but in the blogosphere and, as evidenced by Oosotveen’s article, even the print industry. The editorial sections of mid-sized and small Midwest towns are still the blogs of Midwest battleground states in many ways, and with even the tiniest of papers posting content to the web, the dissemination is just as likely as with a piece on Townhall.com.

It’s a cynical approach to grassroots organization that would make even the most jaded community organizer appreciate the mechanical efficiency of it all.

Tags: ghostwriter, letters to editor, margriet oostveen, media subversion, salon.com