Ellie Light meet H. L. Harris

Ellie Light (I first heard this on radio and thought it was "L.A. Light") is now claiming to be a Californian--a guy--who sent letters to the editors of many major newspapers in the U.S. supporting Obamacare--42 newspapers in 18 states, as well as Politico. Here's the Cleveland Plain Dealer story. Who knows. Maybe this guy is just trying to cash in on Ellie's fame and mystery. However, it happened 100 years ago too, according to the Jan. 6 issue of JAMA, which always has a "JAMA 100 Years Ago" feature in each issue.

"Many and devious are the ways by which those who would "doctor" our food attempt to create public sentiment in favor of chemical preservatives. During the last few months a harmless looking letter signed "H.L. Harris" has appeared in the newspapers of those cities and towns in which deaths from ptomain poisoning have recently been chronicled. This letter--we use the singular advisedly--does not vary in its wording in different papers, except for the opening sentnence. . . Not only in the form of letters do we find these much-reiterated sentiments of Mr. Harris. Overworked editors occasionally use them en bloc to fill a gaping void on the editorial page." (Reports an incident in the Alliance, Ohio Review, Dec. 4, 1909.)

It seems that H.L. Harris was an advocate of using boron compounds as food preservatives, and it turned out he worked for the Pacific Coast Borax Company and sometimes used the name H.H. Langdon. He referred to himself as a food expert, but seemed to have only one topic--attacking pure-food legislation. Harris-Langdon differed from Ellie Light in that he focused on and fooled smaller town newspaper editors. 100 years ago there was no way for small town editors to check these things. Not so today. With Google, there's no excuse for editors, with their leftist bias and custom of carrying Obama no matter what, to not do a bit of checking when something seems "too good to be true." I do it with viral messages sent to me, and I'm just a blogger. Give those unpaid college interns something to do.