To the editor: *Astroturf*

Kevin McKague suggests fighting Astroturf with Astroturf! He has a letter to the editor for you to copy, just waiting for your signature.

I'm no fan of these fake letters to the editor, along with other tactics like e-mail or fax blasts. (Do you think the politicians who receive thousands of identical e-mails or faxes pay any attention to them?) If an advocacy group wants to encourage people to write to their paper in support of a topic, they could just as easily lay out an assortment of arguments and facts, and let each writer phrase his or her own letter.