The lesson comes from FARM. Here is a newspaper’s account of events:

A Lothrop Street, Beverly resident who has supposedly written dozens of letters to the editor supporting being a vegan and opposing eating meat doesn’t exist.
And the Beverly address he was using as his home address is also phony.
A man named Matthew Warden has written at least 24 letters to the Citizen since 2004, according to a search of the paper’s archives. In the letters, Warden often wrote opposing eating meat.

Note:

• No mention of the newspaper’s missing fact-checking department.
• No apology for publishing letters that weren’t local.
• No explanation for a letters-to-the-editor policy that requires a local address yet waits 5 years to verify that address.

I think it’s all pretty funny.

Remember kids, the world is run by those who show up. SHOW UP.