[Rhodes22-list] Election 08 - Welcome to Chicago

[Brad Haslett]

Update-

After 20,000+ hours of flying my ears aren't so good.  Listen to this
tape and tell me if it's the same woman doing the voiceover?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6luB4ptWas&eurl=http://patterico.com/

Brad

On Mon, Sep 22, 2008 at 6:51 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
> Remember 'Rathergate' in 04?  An internet blogger produces a fake
> letter, CBS and Dan Rather pick it up as real news and run with it
> with very little investigation, the letter is proven fake, but CBS
> producer Mary Mapes makes a statement to the effect, "well, the source
> was fake but the story is true".  Rather loses his credibility and his
> job.  The letter and CBS was busted by a conservative blogger that
> posts as littlegreenfootballs.com.  They are still on the job.
>
> This election cycle has seen some interesting things in cyberspace.
> It started against the Hillary campaign.  Sites supporting Hillary
> would be flooded with trolls and sockpuppets.  Trolls make a quick
> appearance in a discussion thread, attempt to highjack the
> conversation, and move on.  Sockpuppets use a fake name (or several
> fake names) and try to build a consensus of opinion. Some members of
> the MSM have been busted using sockpuppetry to hype their articles.
> First it was Hillary, now pro McCain/Palin sites are being hacked,
> infected (as Ed noted), and inundated with trolls and sockpuppets.
>
> Then there's 'astroturfing', the technique of building what looks like
> a grass roots effort for a cause when really there's a professional PR
> firm behind the movement.  David Axlerod (Obama campaign manager) is
> the the inventor and master of astroturfing.  His bread-n-butter
> business is working for major corporations building astroturf
> campaigns for things like utility hikes or sympathy for telephone rate
> increases.  Lately, a lot of conservative websites have been inundated
> with comments from "a concerned Christian against Palin" and " a
> concerned Conservative against Palin" with a familiar tone and similar
> content. Suddenly, there's been an increase in the number of
> "homemade" videos on YouTube spreading rumors against Palin (most of
> which have already been debunked even by the MSM) with comments like
> "this will go viral" and "e-mail this to all your friends".
>
> Yesterday, a conservative blogspot, http://www.mypetjawa.mu.nu/, which
> is owned by Dr. Rusty Shackleford, sprung a trap and announced it in
> advance for all to watch.  Last night at midnight ET, he published a
> story that an anti-Palin video was a little too professional to be
> "homemade" and the voice over sounded suspiciously like the same voice
> in official Obama ads.  He speculated that they were actually  by
> Winner & Associates, a left-leaning Los Angeles PR firm (which would
> be in violation of FEC rules). BOOM!  Within 15 minutes after
> midnight, the YouTube videos were removed and the accounts closed.  Of
> course they saved screen shots and the investigation continues.  I'm
> guessing it will take the MSM a week or so to get to the story if at
> all.  Remember, the hacking into Palin's e-mail account was reported
> on the internet long before it was by the MSM but that story was just
> too big to be ignored (you heard about it here first (and BTW, the
> hacker son of a very liberal TN politician had his party broken-up
> this weekend by the FBI).
>
> Welcome to Chicago style politics!  Stay tuned for more fun and games.
>
> Brad
>