Media outlets are more likely to notice or publish letters to the editor if they recieve several letters that hit on the same subject. If we pick a single theme to hit on each day and spend a few minutes to write our local papers and perhaps some national outlets, we're more likely to gather some attention.
I propose having a "daily theme" for letters to the editors on this blog. If we all take the time to write a letter to our media outlets on that theme, we're more likely to get attention. The flood of hundreds or thousands of kossacks would be hard to ignore.
Themes should meet a few criteria to make them useful and likely to be published, in addition to the usual tips for LTEs:
- It should be a current event or issue. Letters about old news aren't going to get published. Letters about current events that are fresh in peoples minds are effective.
- It should be a single simple concept. Letters to the editor should be short and pithy. Ideally, the theme should be expressable in 100 words or less. Longer letters are less likely to be published - most papers have a 200 word limit.
- It shouldn't be a pre-written letter that everyone copies. We should highlight the bullet points to hit and the relavent facts but everyone should write the letters in their own words to make the message authentic.
- It should contain factual data and not be overly inflammitory. Nothing wrong with being firm or having a strong opinion, but if you look like a nut nobody will listen to you.
- On slow news days we can hit on some other subject that's sorta smoldering in the campaign, e.g. setting the record straight on the authority for war vote, the $87 billion vote, flip-flopping, etc.
- Some topics should be specifically promoting Kerry or trashing Bush, but it's a good idea to have some that just try to bring attention to an important story that helps our cause (e.g. news events from Iraq, gas prices, economic problems, etc.)
If we give the theme front page attention (with some links to assist the LTE process) we can get some wide participation and generate the noise neccessary to get our voices heard. The Republicans have been beating us at having a single message coming from all channels and not disagreeing in public. Consistency is the key to making this work.