NOM faces criticism over anti-Starbucks form letters

As a part of its sad anti-Starbucks campaign, the National Organization for Marriage has encouraged its supporters to write send letters to the editor of their respective newspapers.

But apparently some newspapers journalists are not appreciative of a certain aspect of these letters, i.e. the fact that these are form letters. Mike Kirby, editor of The Sun Chronicle  blasts NOM and those who send such letters:

. . . there has been a battle over same-sex marriage going on in Rhode Island, so it perhaps came from a group in opposition there - but there has been a national controversy over Starbucks.


The company has publicly supported a new same-sex marriage law in the state of Washington, where the coffee giant is based. The Washington, D.C.-based National Organization for Marriage then announced a "Dump Starbucks" protest, urging consumers to boycott the brand.

Opinion Page Editor Mark Flanagan says he occasionally runs into these form letter campaigns. Our policy is simple: Don't run them.

We encourage letters to the editor - I estimate that we run 1,500-2,000 a year. But the mission of our Opinion page is to offer a forum for discussion of local issues, or of state and national issues by local residents. That doesn't apply to Rhode Islanders mad at Starbucks. In addition, these junk mail letters to the editor are clearly not the words of the people who signed them; I'm not even sure these people exist. This is simply a tactic by an advocacy group.

Meanwhile, according to Laurel Ramseyer at Pam's House Blend:

NOM and allies have been thrashing the weeds for almost two weeks now trying to get people to pledge to “Dump Starbucks” because Starbucks has joined the ever-lengthening list of businesses that support Washington’s marriage equality law. And 25,000 signatures is all they have to show for it.

In the mean time, over 460,000 people have signed the Thank Your Starbucks note over at SumOfUs.