The Washington Post ran a story with some fraudulent "novice" protesters, that happened to be picked up by Stars and Stripes in the Saturday 24 September edition. This is highly reminiscent of the NY Times "man on the street" interviews when the same, randomly selected "man on the street" turns out to have a sideline career in giving interviews to NY Times reporters.

I guess when they want a certain type of quote for a certain type of response that fits the template, they know where to go.

Same here with the Washington Post, it seems. Matt Rustler at Stop the Bleating! explains how the Post set this piece up:

To hear the WaPo tell it, Patrice is a mild-mannered, middle-aged former schoolteacher from Olathe, Kansas, and will be a "novice protestor" in the upcoming rallies. The Post article seems to suggest that Cuddy represents a growing contingent of small town, mainstream, Red State Americans who're beginning to join in anti-war protests.

And of course, as Rustler points out, that is the very point of the Post story to begin with, that this "emerging" resistance is red state groundswell from "flyover country."

Rustler took the advice of Glenn Reynolds and googled the featured "novice protester," Patrice Cuddy, with results perhaps not so surprising:

But it turns out that Patrice Cuddy is also known as "J. Patrice Cuddy-Lamoree (see here and here), and has been helping organize antiwar protests from the beginning.

Rustler found more than half a dozen links going back two years, amply demonstrating the utter falsehood of presenting Cuddy as a "novice."

The part that really aggravates me, that I intend to follow up on, is that this Post puff piece on a phony "groundswell" of novice protesters was picked up by Stars and Stripes. Those of us who rely on S&S as our only print media deserve better.

The Washington Post should know better. Stars and Stripes should know better. This is already an old media trick (a trick that's old, that Old Media keeps trying pull).

Links: Basil's Blog, Everyman, Blogs for Bush, The American Mind, Sortapundit, Dean's World, Mere Patriots, Mudville Gazette, Wizbang