Salon has done it again, taken a blog inspired and researched story and whipped it up into something palatable to the mainstream press. Their latest effort? "Sproul Play" all about our favorite Arizonian operative. The article is below
I'm interested in two things here, first obviously the story itself is interesting but secondly, I think we are seeing the creation of a new form of journalism. I see it something like this: a community development effort which results in basic research and vetting as well as a storyline. Then, in a second stage, this is knit into a coherent, consumable narrative by a professional writer which is mass distributed.
Online at:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/10/21/sproul/index.html
Sproul play
The RNC-funded firm Sproul & Associates stands accused of lying, cheating and even destroying Democratic voter registration forms to get more Republicans to the polls.
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Selected passages:
...But Democrats in Arizona say that the RNC was playing with fire in choosing Sproul for its outreach efforts and that the selection at least shows the party's lack of concern for preventing fraud...
On Wednesday, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that a Sproul employee script that it had received from a former worker in western Pennsylvania featured additional questions for undecided voters: "Do you consider yourself pro-choice or pro-life?" and "Are you worried about the Democrats raising taxes?" If the voters were pro-life, they were to be registered. "If they are pro-choice, say thank you and walk away."
But former employees and others who've dealt with Sproul say its efforts go beyond the line of acceptable party boosterism sometimes seen in voter registration efforts. The firm's tactics are systematically deceptive, they say; lying seems to be part of its normal business plan. When you tell people you're doing a poll but you aren't really doing a poll, you're lying to them. The established left-leaning groups say they'd never engage in such a practice -- and so far, there's no evidence they have engaged in it.
...The yarn that Sproul concocted for librarians around the country during the summer is another example of the company's uneasy relationship with truth...
Republicans have responded by questioning Russell's motives and his political affiliation. "There's no way to prove what he says either way. He's a disgruntled employee who had access to those forms. There's no way to prove he didn't tear them up," says Brian Scroggins, chairman of the Clark County Republican Party. "I was told he had a prime seat at the Michael Moore event the other day," Scroggins added. According to a report in the Arizona Republic on Friday, Nathan Sproul responded to Russell's allegations by filing a defamation lawsuit against him. "The lawsuit claims that after Russell was fired, he returned to the office holding what appeared to be voter registration forms and told workers he would claim that he saw a supervisor tear up the forms unless he was paid what he wanted," the paper said.