BLOGS

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no merri

aha 719: precursor to social media?

RWI has Borg-o-sphere echo chamber; see early red/blue graph on insulation

blog is entry level/farm team for IE

Borg-o-sphere ditto-heads; right is always going for solidarity as well as ideological purity (hence RINO hunting; out of control now in TP est fight); dovetail msgs;

left is accused of political correctness (unthinking party line) but Occupy dissed for diversity of views (flakes who cannot get it together); actually left thinks more holistically: everything is connected: Right; nothing is connected thus Thatcher and "externalities"

revisit 8 25 katie pavlich incubator gaza BS

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https://crooksandliars.com/matt-osborne/national-bloggers-club-and-their-supe

Ali Akbar, now President of the National Bloggers Club, is one of the conservative blogosphere's most infamous characters. He began his campaign of notoriety with a crime spree in 2006, blazing a six-year trail of fraud. That's him up there, in the mug shots. Akbar's story is as improbable as the Tea Party movement itself, and a lesson on the privileges of power in the age of Citizens United. How did a petty crook rise to these heights in such a short time? Why does he enjoy such influential connections today?

We ask these questions because we see an emerging bipartisan consensus that Akbar's National Bloggers Club (NBC) is entirely notional. Akbar has never applied to the IRS for 501(c)3 status -- despite having claimed as much on the NBC Facebook page. While the NBC requires an unusual amount of personal information from donors, they do not offer those donors an EIN (Employer ID Number) to make their contributions tax deductible.

An EIN is provided upon application for nonprofit status, and should be available if the National Bloggers Club has applied. It is an easy online process. Yet we have been unable to locate an EIN in any database, and inquiries by both liberal and conservative bloggers have been met with silence. When journalist Bill Schmalfeldt contacted the Internal Revenue Service, he was informed that no EIN existed in their database for a National Bloggers Club.

This would be less distressing if Akbar didn't have a long history of covering up his tracks and minimizing his criminal past. In 2006, he stole items from a woman's home; he later broke into a vehicle, stole a debit card, and withdrew money from the victim's account, earning a felony conviction. Yet this record did not keep Akbar out of Republican politics.

Barely a year later, Akbar was accused of discussing election fraud tactics. The accuser, Joey A. Dauben, was a former colleague. In coverage of the controversy, Akbar was frequently and mistakenly identified as a John McCain campaign staffer due to his involvement in Bloggers for McCain, a "cooperating" website independent from the campaign itself. Akbar also caught flak for “scrubbing the web” to cover the tracks of who was charged with posing as a woman and soliciting photos of underaged boys.

In April 2008, Akbar pleaded guilty to the debit card fraud and was sentenced to four years probation and restitution of the stolen money. His probation ended in May of this year. In the meantime, Akbar has built quite a blog empire for himself -- and runs it from his mother's house.

By 2008 Akbar had linked up with Eric Odom's Don't Go movement. They likely met up when Akbar’s firm, Republic Modern, designed the old website of Sam Adams Alliance, for which Odom was the new media director. When Odom started American Liberty Alliance (ALA), a tea party website that was mainly in the business of monetizing other Tea Party sites with ads, he brought Akbar along with him. Starting off as ALA’s Technology Consultant, Akbar would eventually became Chairman of ALA's Board, spending much of his time collecting non-deductible donations.

Yes, despite claiming to be in the application process for 501(c) 4 status in August 2009, ALA eventually was embarrassed into posting the following caveat on their website (though not their donation page): “The American Liberty Alliance is not a 501c3, 501c4 or a PAC. We are not registered as a non-profit and we do not raise funds as such.” Yet they incorporated under the name “American Liberty Alliance - A Non-Profit Corporation.”

The most excoriating examination of the ALA came from Erick Erickson, who reported that ALA had eventually been rolled up into an Eric Odom PAC:

For a number of months I have had more than my share of phone calls from conservative donors, bloggers, activists, campaigns, and others wishing someone would speak out. Several tried pushing this story into the mainstream media, but we all know what would happen there ? we’d turn people into martyrs who shouldn’t be.

At best this conduct looks like ignorance of the complex bureaucracy and regulations surrounding the FEC. At its worst, it looks like . . . well, you decide. I’m sure even more will come out now that I’m willing to speak up and it does not look like a case of simple ignorance. If it were an isolated incident it’d be one thing, but it is a pattern.

Indeed, the pattern begins with a profitable deception. Although ALA was registered as a non-profit in Nevada, as far as we can determine they never actually applied for non-profit status with the IRS, despite always claiming they were "in the process" of doing so. The pattern repeats with NBC, which incorporated in Texas as a non-profit, and has collected donations as a non-profit, without ever applying for legal non-profit designation. (The NBC has scrubbed 501(c)3 language from its donations page at Rally.org.) Our attempts to reach the law firm listed as the NBC's registered agent have been rebuffed. (Update: the address appears to be a "virtual" office.)

These dubious credentials in the new Tea Party movement propelled Akbar into the upper echelons of conservative organizing, where he has apparently met Karl Rove. Yet Akbar seems to have done remarkably little real work during his ascension. Take the NBC's website, for example, which contains no content -- just a redirect to the group's Facebook page. There, you will find grassroots conservatives wondering how to join, and why the donation practices are so intrusive:

Like many of Akbar's websites, content doesn't seem to be key. For example, despite supposedly representing a robust movement, Akbar's Tea Party Brew.com has surprisingly few posts. Bill Murphy, now the Social Media Director for the Romney campaign, wrote the final post at that site in February. By then, he had been Akbar's venture partner since 2009.

Murphy (right) was Director of Strategic Initiatives for American Liberty Alliance, though the position does not appear on his LinkedIn resume. Murphy was also Akbar's partner in an organization called Vice & Victory, which put on the BlogBash party at CPAC in February. Akbar was listed as the Host Organizer and Murphy as the Event Coordinator. BlogBash’s director is usually identified as Devon Wills, but many of NBC’s announcements and press releases offer contact information for "Bill Murphy at director@blogbash.com." Yet the BlogBash website doesn't even mention the NBC, which supposedly organized the event.

When he appeared on the radio program of conservative Larry Sinclair in March, Murphy also identified himself as the Director of the NBC -- though that position also does not appear on his resume. Whenever he has been asked about such omissions, Murphy has responded by further scrubbing his LinkedIn profile. Sinclair now calls foul on Akbar and Murphy's notional blogging club for using Andrew Breitbart's name to raise money for a scholarship fund -- again, while claiming 501(3)c status was "pending:"

In March 2012 we received an email which came from Bill Murphy and Ali Akbar from BlogBash.org and Vice and Victory email addresses announcing the creation of an Andrew Breitbart Scholarship Fund. After receiving the email and because of our own personal encounters with Andrew Sinclair News decided we would do a feature story on the Scholarship fund. In preparing the story we sent an email to Joel Pollak who was the primary Breitbart.com principle since the untimely death of Andrew early the morning of March 1, 2012. In the email to Mr. Pollak we asked if Pollak would be interested in going on Through the Mirror w/Larry Sinclair to talk about the recently established Breitbart Scholarship Fund. Pollak responded almost immediately by telling us he knew nothing of any such fund; that anyone using Andrews name along with any such fund was doing so without authorization and Pollak even went to the point of saying that any such organization was in his opinion a scam.(Emphasis added)

Aside from Michelle Malkin, nobody knows who is on the board of the NBC, or how they were selected. NBC won't even say whether they have any bylaws, and has never applied for non-profit status. If the NBC was an ACORN office, Malkin would denounce it as a criminal organization. Instead, she is Akbar's public ally and defender.

These inconsistencies had already drawn criticism from conservatives when we began reporting on them. First was Paul Lemmen, a convicted con artist working out his redemption in his blog, "An Ex Con's View." As the details of Akbar's criminal record appeared on the website Breitbart Unmasked in May and June, Lemmen expressed disdain for the fact that "the other side" had been the one to reveal Akbar's criminal past. Citing the NBC's disturbing lack of transparency and its behavior with donors, Lemmen called for transparency and accountability.

As a result of his outspoken blogging, Lemmen received the close attention of NBC "enforcer" and Andrew Breitbart protege Lee Stranahan amid a series of attack posts by other bloggers. Lemmen fell silent for a while, reemerging later to write on more general topics. Today, he is a member of North American Conservative Bloggers United (NACBU), a new association of conservative indie bloggers opposed to the NBC and its opaque operations. In supporting Lemmen, David West called out Akbar for elitism:

See, Ali Akbar was the ‘technical guru’ for a while behind the Don’t Go Movement which I was a part of as Northwest Regional Coordinator. I, however, was ignored back then by Mr Ackbar. When he formed the NBC, I was ignored as well.

The NBC billed itself in part as an organization that could give bloggers desperately-needed press credentials. Those who have received credentials are unable to activate them as instructed. The NBC does not explain how to receive a credential, or even describe any standards for applicants. NACBU organizer "Impolite Canadian" just wanted to webcast an event; after being rebuffed in all attempts to learn more about how to obtain the privileges of membership, the pseudonymous blogger concluded that NBC was simply a club of Akbar's friends:

It's like they all of a sudden became part of the ''elites'', encouraging and defending the ''mastermind'', but when asked how does one join this ''elite'' club, you get the ''I dunno man, it just happened, u know?''.

There are only 340 "likes" on the NBC Facebook page at the time of this writing -- far fewer than one would expect for a popular netroots organization. Ladd Ehlinger, Jr., aka FilmLadd, questioned whether the NBC was even a real organization:

Screw Ali's political connections. You love him? Want to blacklist me? Be my guest. Won't be the first time that's happened. Been happening for two years now anyway. It's the sort of thing I think Ali likes to do to people who get crosswise with him - trash them, prevent them from getting work, and so on. I could regale you with first-hand stories I've heard, but this post is already too goddamn long.

Akbar did not prevent Ladd from getting work. In fact, Ehlinger received a plum new gig from Washington lobbyist Dan Backer of DB Capitol Strategies. He serves as Treasurer for many well-known PACs, including the Conservative Action Fund, which has already given Akbar's "Vice & Victory Fund" over $44,000 in 2012. Backer is also Treasurer for Stop This Insanity Inc PAC, which recently signed Ehlinger to a complex $10,000 contract. Ehlinger hasn't spoken out on the subject of Ali Akbar ever since. (CORRECTION: see below)

Backer (right) is the attorney who created "hybrid Super PACs" through his Carey v. FEC lawsuit in 2011. As part of his contract, Ehlinger agreed to be classified as an employee and then kick back $1,500 to Stop This Insanity Inc PAC, creating an opportunity to challenge federal limits on employee PAC contributions. Backer also wants to lift limits on contributions to federal candidates. True freedom, Backer argues, is American billionaires donating more hard political money every year than an average American family makes.

Dan Backer's other PAC products include Todd Cefaratti, who became infamous for fleecing PAC donors and using his for-profit JoinTheTeaParty.us website as a lead generator for spam. Cefaratti was found out by activists at Free Republic, who quickly discovered that his real estate sales lead business was named Glengary Inc. Despite grassroots revulsion at this character from a David Mamet play, Cefaratti. He and his Glengary LLC are also party to Dan Backer's FEC suit with Ehlinger. Stop This Insanity Inc. runs another one of Cefaratti's websites, TheTeaParty.net.

The "made men" of the Inner Party are never held accountable. Their revolution has been monetized: shirts, buttons, email addresses, and page views turn dedicated activists into revenue streams for "producers." Meanwhile, these same "producers" also get paid by billionaires and PAC lawyers who benefit from stoking the grassroots fires on behalf of their corporate agenda. It's a great job if you can get it. No wonder Akbar likes to throw big, exclusive parties at CPAC and the Republican National Convention.

In order to make the BlogBash party an instant institution this year, Akbar and Murphy took money from a host of the usual suspects in astroturf politics, including Americans For Prosperity, FreedomWorks, and the vote-suppressing True The Vote organization. Billionaire and megadonor Foster Friess also helped throw Akbar's party at CPAC, then cracked a terrible joke about aspirin as a form of birth control: "You know, back in my days, they used Bayer Aspirin for contraception. The gals put it between their knees, and it wasn’t that costly.” Friess has vowed to spend a large chunk of his fortune through Karl Rove's American Crossroads this year.

We believe the National Bloggers Club encapsulates a problem common to Tea Party organizing since February 2009. As with Mark Meckler, the multilevel marketing billionaire who organized Tea Party Patriots, we see a disturbing pattern of grift in the National Bloggers Club. Sincere Americans have been organized to prevent corporate regulation and billionaire tax hikes; the organizers fleece them while also accepting money from representatives of these same corporations and billionaires.

This charade may be close to an end, however. Larry Sinclair has presented the National Bloggers Club with a demand they publish the following:

The names of every National Bloggers Club Board member including the date each became associated with the NBC

A complete financial report showing the amounts of all monies paid to in contributions; services; or sponsorships made to NBC or BlogBash.

A Complete financial reporting of all funds paid out by NBC or BlogBash including the names of those receiving said payments and the reasons for each.

A complete financial accounting of all funds paid out by NBC/Blogbash including an accounting of what the payments were for and if they were made for the personal benefit of Ali Akbar or any other member of the NBC Board.

A complete accounting of all contributions made to the Breitbart Scholarship Fund as well as an accounting of all disbursements of said funds as well as the name of the financial institution(s) where contributions are on deposit.

A statement as to Bill Murphy’s position with NBC and BlogBash; whether Murphy has been involved in any NBC/BlogBash activities and or promotions since becoming Mitt Romney for President Social Media Director?

The IRS 501(c)(3) documents confirming the below stated claim by NBC:

"National Bloggers Club is a new 501(c)(3) founded by top new media operatives, bloggers and journalists as a loose association of bloggers who are for free enterprise and limited government and to advocate on bloggers behalf."

In the spirit of nonpartisan opposition to criminal misbehavior and opaque political activity, we join these conservative voices in calling for accountability. Akbar has been dishonest about his criminal record. His organization has been dishonest about its non-profit status. The NBC did not ask Breitbart's family before asking for donations in his name. Their associations with powerful figures in the world of campaign finance have not been able to fully silence grassroots opposition to their questionable practices:

These aren’t unfair questions. They are very simple, basic questions spoken without malice or any agenda save that of telling the truth. And has already been noted, the truth has no agenda. It’s just the truth.

Conservative bloggers are asking for simple transparency -- and being refused. Liberal bloggers meet only scorn and harassment for asking the same legitimate questions. We believe it is time for "real" journalists to consider this information, as no mere blogger of any political persuasion will ever glean answers from the National Bloggers Club or their Super PAC friends. They are apparently a law unto themselves.

CORRECTION: Advised via Twitter that Ladd Ehlinger had recently denounced Ali Akbar on Twitter, we include the following items for your consideration:

@xcitizen10 @brooksbayne When I came out against Ali, it was after extended 1st hand evidence. Not hearsay, not Twitter snark. 1st hand.

— Film Ladd (@FilmLadd) September 6, 2012

@xcitizen10 @brooksbayne Let's do a reality check on that. Ever got a link from either's blog? (er, Ali doesn't actually blog, but...)

— Film Ladd (@FilmLadd) September 7, 2012

@brooksbayne @xcitizen10 1st, I can agree to disagree w/others in regards to Lee or Ali w/out lining 'em up in front of Twitter firing squad

— Film Ladd (@FilmLadd) September 6, 2012

@thecypressgang @aaronworthing @brooksbayne 2nd, reasonable people can disagree over Ali being a p.o.s. Con-men are good at confusing folks.

— Film Ladd (@FilmLadd) September 6, 2012

Tags:

Ali Akbar, American Liberty Alliance, Andrew Breitbart Scholarship Fund, astroturfing, Bill Schmalfeldt, BlogBash, Dan Backer, Glengary Inc., Karl Rove, Ladd Ehlinger, Lee Stranahan, Michelle Malkin, National Bloggers Club, Paul Lemmen, Tea Party movement, Todd Cefaratti, Vice & Victory Fund

Ihttp://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Blogging

dictionary defines blog (derived from web log) as, "A website that displays in chronological order the postings by one or more individuals and usually has links to comments on specific postings." ^[1] ^[2]

Markos Moulitsas of the Daily Kos weblog has written an insightful article about how bloggers helped turn the perception of first 2004 Presidential election debate in favor of John Kerry. "Bloggers, think tanks, the Kerry campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) all worked to fact-check Bush and point out his bizarre behaviour," he writes.[1]

"The flow of information flowed two ways, as the party establishment and allied organisations worked hand-in-hand with the blogs to gather ammunition, then blast it out to the world. The DNC and bloggers also urged readers and supporters to swamp online polls after the debate, and they did. Hours after the debate, just about every online poll gave Kerry huge victories in the debate."

===

Defamation By Internet? Part 1 - Murry Salby's Short-Lived Blog Storm 8/27

Climate anti-science adapted well to the Internet. A blog storm [1] (in this case [2] the "SalbyStorm") can surge through well-linked blogs to spread misinformation or unsupported accusations. Some blogs act as tribal echo chambers [3] where people reinforce others' anger, in this case resembling [4], with Macquarie University as main, but not only, witch.

As in the "Climategate" blog storm, the noise was intended for the mainstream. This reached The Australian,but the main SalbyStormlasted less than a week.

Some earlier storms generated serious harassment of targeted climate scientists. In pre-blog 1996, Frederick Seitz [5] and Fred Singer[6]made personal attacks on Ben Santer [7] via the Wall Street Journal. Later, blogs were employed to continue, as by Paul Chesser [8]in this [9] or this [10]. (Warning: those URLs are OK, but every once in a while, WebCite gets overloaded and gives odd error message. Ignore for now and try later.)

Michael Mann has replaced Santer as favored target [11], but there have been many other victims, such as Katharine Hayhoe [12]. Only a small fraction of readers need get angry enough to produce reputational damage, hate mail, death threats, a dead rat on the doorstep or floods of email.

Some "skeptical" bloggers routinely accept and repeat both silly anti-science ideas, and other unsuppported claims, as here. Apologies or corrections almost never occur and even if they do, they rarely flow through the network, leaving waves of misimpression there. First impressions stick.

On July 9-12, Macquarie suffered this kind of attack (Wave 1). Ex-Professor Murry Salby made serious, but unsupported and sometimes contradictory, accusations against Macquarie, by the unusual route of email to bloggers. Joanne Nova [13] (Australia),Anthony Watts [14] (Watts Up With That, USA), and Andrew Montford [15] (Bishop Hill, UK) republished them.

After 4 days and 1,500+ comments at those blogs alone, SalbyStorm'sWave 1 ended quickly when Salby's checkered past [16] was detailed at DeSmogBlog. Discussions stopped, although with little apology or introspection about gullibility at "skeptical" blogs. A very few people had wondered at oddities of Salby's claims, searched for his past history, and independently started finding problems within a few hours. Salby supporters did not do that, preferring to specualte and comment.

People believed the worst and repeated it, sometimes expanding defamatory accusations with little concern for evidence. A few of the phrases applied to Macquarie or mainstream climate science included criminal, dictatorial, barbaric, Orwellian, Nazi, Stasi,Deutsch Physika [17], Marxist, Stalinist, Lysenko, thugs, Mafia,and extended further to"goose-stepping, alarmist, fascist, progressives."Salby was praised as a science hero,compared toGalileo, Copernicus or Einstein, despite the evident problems in his scientific claims.

Salby sent accusations to bloggers who republished them with little visible effort to calm the mutually-reinforcing commenter outrage. Finally, the story got repeated by The Australian. Experienced watchers have seen this before [18], but SalbyStorm makes a compact case study to document and recall in future storms.

SalbyStorm's short duration and bounded set of blogs help illustrate roles in the network and behavior inside echo chamber blogs. Part 1 lists the blog posts and graphs their chronology. Soon, Defamation by Internet? Part 2 - SalbyStorm Surges Through (Un)skeptical Blogs, annotates the 1700+ blog comments in detail and summarizes the results.

Part 1 -Tight-coupled blog network

A crosslinked blog network rapidly spread the accusations beyond the key blogs. Steven F. Hayward [19] (Powerline) wrote, "The Climate Mafia Strike Again..." and called Tim Flannery a thug who must have been behind this. Marc Morano [20] (Climate Depot) rapidly reblogged one blog after another for his readers. Australian NO CARBON TAX Climate Sceptics party (NCTCS) and Lord Monckton Foundationfollowed. YouTube got 5 videos by 1000frolly, seeminglyMonckton himself [21], although those had been removed with no comment by August 16. The prize was The Australian'sarticle by Environment Editor Graham Lloyd,quickly copied by the UK's Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) and then reblogged by Morano. The Australian published twice later.

Part 2 - (Un)skeptical echo chambers, conspiracy theories, vitriol

Eager discussions ensued at the key blogs and a few elsewhere, with cross-posting showing clear overlap of readership. Many took Salby on faith. They compared him to Einstein, Galileo or Copernicus as a martyr for good science, despite the clear technical absurdity of his claims, at Skeptical Science [22] or more technically, at Macquarie [23] in 2011 by MU Professor Colin Prentice. Some amplified the accusations to attack the reputations of MU and specific people in various ways, including a cartoon by "josh." [24]

The University of Colorado had not publicized Salby's departure, although he chose to generate court records by suing in 2008 and 2009. MU had not publicized Salby's 2nd departure until forced by blog storm and The Australian. MU issued press releases, but was criticized strongly by people obviously unaware of rules about personnel actions that tend to minimize publicity. They demanded details and complained that MU made few available and that MU should appear at WUWT and defend itself. A few commenters commendably counseled caution, but most ignored early hints of awkward evidence.

Salby history unearthed, comments rapidly evaporate, interest lost

On July 12, DeSmogBlog ran a post by Graham Readfearn[16]and one by me [2] that detailed past deceptive behavior by Salby, his subsequent NSF debarment and other personal credibility issues. In 5 days, the 3 key blogs got 7 posts and 1,500 comments. but then the excitement ended as commenters suddenly lost interest. Of the 1,584 comments in the 3 blogs accumulated July 9-21, only 81 comments (5%) occurred from July 14 onward, most irrelevant to Salby. Blogs had spread a wave of unsupported accusations across a slice of the Internet.

The Australianpersisted anyway, Wave 2, very small

On July 23, The Australian'sBernard Lane and an editor somehow had missed or ignored the July 12 exposure and two articles then appeared, including quote:

'Asked about the case, Dr Salby said he could not say much because it was "headed to court".'

Given Salby's past record of deceptions, it is hard to know what that meant. Was that intention or a claim that he or MU had already filed suit? If Salby filed, when? Before mailing bloggers July 9? Before exposure July 12? Since then? He now can avoid answering any inconvenient questions, but one might wonder if a lawyer would have advised him to publish via blogs.

On July 28, Readfearn published Top Physicist Withdraws Support For Climate Sceptic Professor Sacked By Australian University [25].Wave 2 did not get far. Salby has often been to court, with little success [2]. Many facts are yet to become public, and university administrations can perform badly [26], so reasoned caution is appropriate, although some accusations made little sense. In past cases he made serious, misleading accusations that rarely got far. Some of his accusations could be correct, if unlikely, but are irrelevant to this study, which simply illustrates a widespread willingness by many people to accept and amplify unsupported accusations in an outpouring of confirmation bias and conspiracy thinking that extended far beyond Macquarie.

In Wave 3, a month after July 12's DeSmogBlogposts, Salby gave a reply in NOVA.3, reblogged by DEPOT.8 and WUWT.4. After a few days, most comments diverted from Salby himself into long, old arguments claiming natural origin for CO2 rise in the last 150 years.

Chronology and overall flow among climate anti-science blogs

Dates and times can be tricky in tracking worldwide Internet events, but can be estimated using a time zone converter [27] to get UTC[28]. Web servers are assumed to be located in same time zones as blog owners unless other evidence is found. Although unclear when Salby sent the email, it was republished in NOVA.1 (July 09 afternoon) and WUWT.1 (late evening, Jul 08). About 3 hours later, in the UK morning, BISHOP.1 appeared. Many blog posts referenced others, so had to follow. Some posts' times were unknown, but had to precede first comments.

	UTC Adj	Local July dd time	Estimated July dd time UTC	Action
AU	+10	??	??	Salby email, ~Sydney
AU	+8	09 01:00pm-	09 05:00am-	NOVA.1, ~Perth
US	-7	08 10:40pm-	09 05:40am-	WUWT.1, ~California
GB	+1	09 08:50am-	09 07:50am-	BISHOP.1, ~UK

If nothing else, readers might scan the titles, often the only things people recall. Bloggers used strong language for events far away, with no evidence. Approximate chronology is shown for the key posts and a sample of others, first as a table, then graphically, excerpted from adetailed spreadsheet [29] that shows the timing analysis. People often copied titles, but sometimes amplified stridency. The first occurrence of author is linked to a DeSmogBlog profile if available. Each title is linked to the file and when possible a WebCited version ~July 21. The large comment #s were at NOVA, WUWT and BISHOP. The list includes a few blogs that allow comments but rarely get any, just as added evidence that those bloggers had read and accepted others. Many more blogs may exist and commenters are typically outnumbered by others, "lurkers." Blogroll links are shown on the 2nd sheet.

Salby blog storm - estimated chronology	Salby blog storm - estimated chronology	Salby blog storm - estimated chronology	Salby blog storm - estimated chronology	Salby blog storm - estimated chronology	Salby blog storm - estimated chronology	Salby blog storm - estimated chronology	Salby blog storm - estimated chronology	Salby blog storm - estimated chronology	Salby blog storm - estimated chronology	Salby blog storm - estimated chronology
Code	Author or	Com			TitleF Link to original file, maybe changed since ~July 21	TitleF Link to original file, maybe changed since ~July 21	TitleF Link to original file, maybe changed since ~July 21	TitleF Link to original file, maybe changed since ~July 21	TitleF Link to original file, maybe changed since ~July 21	TitleF Link to original file, maybe changed since ~July 21
Bold: key	Reblogger	#	F	w	w Link to WebCited file, when possible	w Link to WebCited file, when possible	w Link to WebCited file, when possible	w Link to WebCited file, when possible	w Link to WebCited file, when possible	w Link to WebCited file, when possible
Wave 1					Jul 09-14, mostly	Jul 09-14, mostly	Jul 09-14, mostly	Jul 09-14, mostly	Jul 09-14, mostly	Jul 09-14, mostly
Salby email	Jul 09				Before 1pm local time, ~Sydney	Before 1pm local time, ~Sydney	Before 1pm local time, ~Sydney	Before 1pm local time, ~Sydney	Before 1pm local time, ~Sydney	Before 1pm local time, ~Sydney
NOVA.1 [30]	Joanne [13]Nova [13]	458	F[31]	w[30]	Did Macquarie University sabotage, exile, blackban, strand and abandon Murry Salby?	Did Macquarie University sabotage, exile, blackban, strand and abandon Murry Salby?	Did Macquarie University sabotage, exile, blackban, strand and abandon Murry Salby?	Did Macquarie University sabotage, exile, blackban, strand and abandon Murry Salby?	Did Macquarie University sabotage, exile, blackban, strand and abandon Murry Salby?	Did Macquarie University sabotage, exile, blackban, strand and abandon Murry Salby?
WUWT.1	Anthony Watts [14]	376	F[32]	w[33]	Professor Murry Salby who is critical of AGW theory, is being disenfranchised, exiled, from academia in Australia	Professor Murry Salby who is critical of AGW theory, is being disenfranchised, exiled, from academia in Australia	Professor Murry Salby who is critical of AGW theory, is being disenfranchised, exiled, from academia in Australia	Professor Murry Salby who is critical of AGW theory, is being disenfranchised, exiled, from academia in Australia	Professor Murry Salby who is critical of AGW theory, is being disenfranchised, exiled, from academia in Australia	Professor Murry Salby who is critical of AGW theory, is being disenfranchised, exiled, from academia in Australia
BISHOP.1	Andrew Montford [15]	219	F[34]		Climate of fear	Climate of fear	Climate of fear	Climate of fear	Climate of fear	Climate of fear
TALLBLOKE.1	Roger [35]Tattersall [35]	18	F[36]	w[37]	Professor Murry Salby who is critical of AGW theory, is being disenfranchised, exiled, from academia in Australia	Professor Murry Salby who is critical of AGW theory, is being disenfranchised, exiled, from academia in Australia	Professor Murry Salby who is critical of AGW theory, is being disenfranchised, exiled, from academia in Australia	Professor Murry Salby who is critical of AGW theory, is being disenfranchised, exiled, from academia in Australia	Professor Murry Salby who is critical of AGW theory, is being disenfranchised, exiled, from academia in Australia	Professor Murry Salby who is critical of AGW theory, is being disenfranchised, exiled, from academia in Australia
CLIMATESCAM.1	Ingemar Nordin	103	F[38]	w[39]	Murry Salby drabbas av bannbullan (Swedish, Google Translation gives "Murry Salby suffer bannbullan" ~NOVA.1.	Murry Salby drabbas av bannbullan (Swedish, Google Translation gives "Murry Salby suffer bannbullan" ~NOVA.1.	Murry Salby drabbas av bannbullan (Swedish, Google Translation gives "Murry Salby suffer bannbullan" ~NOVA.1.	Murry Salby drabbas av bannbullan (Swedish, Google Translation gives "Murry Salby suffer bannbullan" ~NOVA.1.	Murry Salby drabbas av bannbullan (Swedish, Google Translation gives "Murry Salby suffer bannbullan" ~NOVA.1.	Murry Salby drabbas av bannbullan (Swedish, Google Translation gives "Murry Salby suffer bannbullan" ~NOVA.1.
DEPOT.1	[Marc Morano](http://www.desmogblog.com/steven-f-hayward) [19]	-	F[40]	w[41]	Professor who is critical of AGW theory is being disenfranchised, exiled, from academia in Australia	Professor who is critical of AGW theory is being disenfranchised, exiled, from academia in Australia	Professor who is critical of AGW theory is being disenfranchised, exiled, from academia in Australia	Professor who is critical of AGW theory is being disenfranchised, exiled, from academia in Australia	Professor who is critical of AGW theory is being disenfranchised, exiled, from academia in Australia	Professor who is critical of AGW theory is being disenfranchised, exiled, from academia in Australia
NCTCS.1	Geoff Brown	4	F[42]	w[43]	Murry Salby and Macquarie University	Murry Salby and Macquarie University	Murry Salby and Macquarie University	Murry Salby and Macquarie University	Murry Salby and Macquarie University	Murry Salby and Macquarie University
POWERLINE.1	Steven F. Hayward [19]	11	F[44]	w[45]	The Climate Mafia Strikes Again: The Curious Case of Murry Salby	The Climate Mafia Strikes Again: The Curious Case of Murry Salby	The Climate Mafia Strikes Again: The Curious Case of Murry Salby	The Climate Mafia Strikes Again: The Curious Case of Murry Salby	The Climate Mafia Strikes Again: The Curious Case of Murry Salby	The Climate Mafia Strikes Again: The Curious Case of Murry Salby
LMF.1	Chris Dawson	0	F[46]	w[47]	Prof. Murry Salby at Macquarie University. From Science to Dismissal, in his own words	Prof. Murry Salby at Macquarie University. From Science to Dismissal, in his own words	Prof. Murry Salby at Macquarie University. From Science to Dismissal, in his own words	Prof. Murry Salby at Macquarie University. From Science to Dismissal, in his own words	Prof. Murry Salby at Macquarie University. From Science to Dismissal, in his own words	Prof. Murry Salby at Macquarie University. From Science to Dismissal, in his own words
PSI.1	J. O'Sullivan	1	F[48]	w[49]	Scientist Fired by University for Exposing Truth on Climate Fraud	Jul 10
WND.1	Monckton	31	F[50]	w[51]	Academic freedom? Not if you question climate change	Academic freedom? Not if you question climate change	Academic freedom? Not if you question climate change	Academic freedom? Not if you question climate change	Academic freedom? Not if you question climate change	Academic freedom? Not if you question climate change
DEPOT.2	Morano	-	F[40]	w[52]	Murry Salby and Macquarie University	Murry Salby and Macquarie University	Murry Salby and Macquarie University	Murry Salby and Macquarie University	Murry Salby and Macquarie University	Murry Salby and Macquarie University
DEPOT.3	Morano	-	F[53]	w[54]	Macquarie “University” sabotages, exiles, blackbans, strands and abandons Murry Salby	Macquarie “University” sabotages, exiles, blackbans, strands and abandons Murry Salby	Macquarie “University” sabotages, exiles, blackbans, strands and abandons Murry Salby	Macquarie “University” sabotages, exiles, blackbans, strands and abandons Murry Salby	Macquarie “University” sabotages, exiles, blackbans, strands and abandons Murry Salby	Macquarie “University” sabotages, exiles, blackbans, strands and abandons Murry Salby
DEPOT.4	Morano	-	F[55]	w[56]	The Climate Mafia Strikes Again: The Curious Case of Murry Salby	The Climate Mafia Strikes Again: The Curious Case of Murry Salby	The Climate Mafia Strikes Again: The Curious Case of Murry Salby	The Climate Mafia Strikes Again: The Curious Case of Murry Salby	The Climate Mafia Strikes Again: The Curious Case of Murry Salby	The Climate Mafia Strikes Again: The Curious Case of Murry Salby
DRINK.1	Fred Pontius	0	F[57]	w[58]	Dr. Murry Salby, stabbed in the back by Macquarie University or the Boulderians or…? I wonder...	Dr. Murry Salby, stabbed in the back by Macquarie University or the Boulderians or…? I wonder...	Dr. Murry Salby, stabbed in the back by Macquarie University or the Boulderians or…? I wonder...	Dr. Murry Salby, stabbed in the back by Macquarie University or the Boulderians or…? I wonder...	Dr. Murry Salby, stabbed in the back by Macquarie University or the Boulderians or…? I wonder...	Dr. Murry Salby, stabbed in the back by Macquarie University or the Boulderians or…? I wonder...
Macquarie.1	MU	-	F[59]		Statement regarding the termination of Professor Murry Salby	Statement regarding the termination of Professor Murry Salby	Statement regarding the termination of Professor Murry Salby	Statement regarding the termination of Professor Murry Salby	Statement regarding the termination of Professor Murry Salby	Statement regarding the termination of Professor Murry Salby
NCTCS.2	Geoff Brown	1	F[60]	w[54]	Murry Salby and Macquarie University - MU Reply	Murry Salby and Macquarie University - MU Reply	Murry Salby and Macquarie University - MU Reply	Murry Salby and Macquarie University - MU Reply	Murry Salby and Macquarie University - MU Reply	Murry Salby and Macquarie University - MU Reply
DEPOT.5	Morano	-	F[61]	w[62]	Update: Murry Salby and Macquarie University – University Replies	Update: Murry Salby and Macquarie University – University Replies	Update: Murry Salby and Macquarie University – University Replies	Update: Murry Salby and Macquarie University – University Replies	Update: Murry Salby and Macquarie University – University Replies	Update: Murry Salby and Macquarie University – University Replies
WUWT.2	Watts	226	F[63]	w[64]	Macquarie University responds to Murry Salby termination issue	Macquarie University responds to Murry Salby termination issue	Macquarie University responds to Murry Salby termination issue	Macquarie University responds to Murry Salby termination issue	Macquarie University responds to Murry Salby termination issue	Macquarie University responds to Murry Salby termination issue
NOVA.2	Nova	210	F[65]	w[66]	Macquarie Uni responds to Murry Salby. What they don’t say speaks volumes	Macquarie Uni responds to Murry Salby. What they don’t say speaks volumes	Macquarie Uni responds to Murry Salby. What they don’t say speaks volumes	Macquarie Uni responds to Murry Salby. What they don’t say speaks volumes	Macquarie Uni responds to Murry Salby. What they don’t say speaks volumes	Macquarie Uni responds to Murry Salby. What they don’t say speaks volumes
JOSH.1	"josh"	-	F[67]	w[68]	Climate of smearcartoonsbyjosh.com, BH home for many	Climate of smearcartoonsbyjosh.com, BH home for many	Climate of smearcartoonsbyjosh.com, BH home for many	Climate of smearcartoonsbyjosh.com, BH home for many	Climate of smearcartoonsbyjosh.com, BH home for many	Climate of smearcartoonsbyjosh.com, BH home for many
BISHOP.2	Montford	63	F[69]		Climate of smearcartoonsbyjosh.com, BH home for many	Climate of smearcartoonsbyjosh.com, BH home for many	Climate of smearcartoonsbyjosh.com, BH home for many	Climate of smearcartoonsbyjosh.com, BH home for many	Climate of smearcartoonsbyjosh.com, BH home for many	Climate of smearcartoonsbyjosh.com, BH home for many
WUWT.3	Watts	30	F[70]	w[71]	Josh on the Salby – Macquarie University affair	Josh on the Salby – Macquarie University affair	Josh on the Salby – Macquarie University affair	Josh on the Salby – Macquarie University affair	Josh on the Salby – Macquarie University affair	Josh on the Salby – Macquarie University affair
CCDIS.1	Hayward	0	F[72]	w[73]	The Climate Mafia Strikes Again: The Curious Case of Murry Salby	The Climate Mafia Strikes Again: The Curious Case of Murry Salby	The Climate Mafia Strikes Again: The Curious Case of Murry Salby	The Climate Mafia Strikes Again: The Curious Case of Murry Salby	The Climate Mafia Strikes Again: The Curious Case of Murry Salby	The Climate Mafia Strikes Again: The Curious Case of Murry Salby
1000FROLLY.1	Monckton [21]	5	[74]		Macquarie University Fires Prof Murry Salby Part 1 (YouTube)	Macquarie University Fires Prof Murry Salby Part 1 (YouTube)	Macquarie University Fires Prof Murry Salby Part 1 (YouTube)	Macquarie University Fires Prof Murry Salby Part 1 (YouTube)	Macquarie University Fires Prof Murry Salby Part 1 (YouTube)	Macquarie University Fires Prof Murry Salby Part 1 (YouTube)
1000FROLLY.2	Monckton	0	[75]		Macquarie University Cans Prof Murry Salby Part 2	Macquarie University Cans Prof Murry Salby Part 2	Macquarie University Cans Prof Murry Salby Part 2	Macquarie University Cans Prof Murry Salby Part 2	Macquarie University Cans Prof Murry Salby Part 2	Macquarie University Cans Prof Murry Salby Part 2
1000FROLLY.3	Monckton	1	[76]		Macquarie University Sacks Prof Murry Salby Part 3	Macquarie University Sacks Prof Murry Salby Part 3	Macquarie University Sacks Prof Murry Salby Part 3	Macquarie University Sacks Prof Murry Salby Part 3	Macquarie University Sacks Prof Murry Salby Part 3	Macquarie University Sacks Prof Murry Salby Part 3
1000FROLLY.4	Monckton	1	[77]		Macquarie University Dumps Prof Murry Salby Part 4	Macquarie University Dumps Prof Murry Salby Part 4	Macquarie University Dumps Prof Murry Salby Part 4	Macquarie University Dumps Prof Murry Salby Part 4	Macquarie University Dumps Prof Murry Salby Part 4	Macquarie University Dumps Prof Murry Salby Part 4
1000FROLLY.5	Monckton	2	[78]		Macquarie University Terminates Prof Murry Salby Part 5	Jul 11
LMF.2	Dawson	0	F[79]	w[80]	Statement regarding the termination of Professor Murry Salby	Statement regarding the termination of Professor Murry Salby	Statement regarding the termination of Professor Murry Salby	Statement regarding the termination of Professor Murry Salby	Statement regarding the termination of Professor Murry Salby	Statement regarding the termination of Professor Murry Salby
THE.AUST.1	Graham Lloyd	-	F[81]	w[82]	Climate chair left high and dry by uni	Climate chair left high and dry by uni	Climate chair left high and dry by uni	Climate chair left high and dry by uni	Climate chair left high and dry by uni	Climate chair left high and dry by uni
DEPOT.6	Morano	-	F[83]	w[84]	Macquarie Uni responds to Murry Salby. What they don’t say, speaks volumes	Macquarie Uni responds to Murry Salby. What they don’t say, speaks volumes	Macquarie Uni responds to Murry Salby. What they don’t say, speaks volumes	Macquarie Uni responds to Murry Salby. What they don’t say, speaks volumes	Macquarie Uni responds to Murry Salby. What they don’t say, speaks volumes	Macquarie Uni responds to Murry Salby. What they don’t say, speaks volumes
PONDER.1	kim2000	0	F[85]	w[86]	Macquarie University responds to Murry Salby termination issue	Macquarie University responds to Murry Salby termination issue	Macquarie University responds to Murry Salby termination issue	Macquarie University responds to Murry Salby termination issue	Macquarie University responds to Murry Salby termination issue	Macquarie University responds to Murry Salby termination issue
PONDER.2	kim2000	0	F[87]	w[88]	Josh on the Salby – Macquarie University affair	Josh on the Salby – Macquarie University affair	Josh on the Salby – Macquarie University affair	Josh on the Salby – Macquarie University affair	Josh on the Salby – Macquarie University affair	Josh on the Salby – Macquarie University affair
TURBLE.1	Sizzle Chest	0	F[89]	w[90]	Professor Murry Salby vs. University of Macquarie -Scientist Fired by University for Exposing Truth on Climate Fraud	Professor Murry Salby vs. University of Macquarie -Scientist Fired by University for Exposing Truth on Climate Fraud	Professor Murry Salby vs. University of Macquarie -Scientist Fired by University for Exposing Truth on Climate Fraud	Professor Murry Salby vs. University of Macquarie -Scientist Fired by University for Exposing Truth on Climate Fraud	Professor Murry Salby vs. University of Macquarie -Scientist Fired by University for Exposing Truth on Climate Fraud	Professor Murry Salby vs. University of Macquarie -Scientist Fired by University for Exposing Truth on Climate Fraud
GREENIE.1	John Ray	0	F[91]	w[92]	Dissident scientist fired: Shades of the old Soviet Union	Jul 12
AUSPOLITIC.1	Ray	0	F[93]	w[94]	Dissident scientist fired: Shades of the old Soviet Union	Dissident scientist fired: Shades of the old Soviet Union	Dissident scientist fired: Shades of the old Soviet Union	Dissident scientist fired: Shades of the old Soviet Union	Dissident scientist fired: Shades of the old Soviet Union	Dissident scientist fired: Shades of the old Soviet Union
GWPF.1	BennyPeiser?[95]	-	F[96]	w[97]	Climate Chairman Left High And Dry By University	Climate Chairman Left High And Dry By University	Climate Chairman Left High And Dry By University	Climate Chairman Left High And Dry By University	Climate Chairman Left High And Dry By University	Climate Chairman Left High And Dry By University
DEPOT.7	Morano	-	F[98]	w[99]	Climate Chairman Left High And Dry By University Salby was ‘left stranded at Paris airport	Climate Chairman Left High And Dry By University Salby was ‘left stranded at Paris airport	Climate Chairman Left High And Dry By University Salby was ‘left stranded at Paris airport	Climate Chairman Left High And Dry By University Salby was ‘left stranded at Paris airport	Climate Chairman Left High And Dry By University Salby was ‘left stranded at Paris airport	Climate Chairman Left High And Dry By University Salby was ‘left stranded at Paris airport
Macquarie.2	MU	-	F[100]		Professor Murry Salby and his dismissal from Macquarie University	Professor Murry Salby and his dismissal from Macquarie University	Professor Murry Salby and his dismissal from Macquarie University	Professor Murry Salby and his dismissal from Macquarie University	Professor Murry Salby and his dismissal from Macquarie University	Professor Murry Salby and his dismissal from Macquarie University
DeSmogBlog.1	Graham Readfearn		F[16]		Climate Sceptic Professor Sacked From Australian University Was Banned By National Science Foundation For "Deceptive Conduct"	Climate Sceptic Professor Sacked From Australian University Was Banned By National Science Foundation For "Deceptive Conduct"	Climate Sceptic Professor Sacked From Australian University Was Banned By National Science Foundation For "Deceptive Conduct"	Climate Sceptic Professor Sacked From Australian University Was Banned By National Science Foundation For "Deceptive Conduct"	Climate Sceptic Professor Sacked From Australian University Was Banned By National Science Foundation For "Deceptive Conduct"	Climate Sceptic Professor Sacked From Australian University Was Banned By National Science Foundation For "Deceptive Conduct"
DeSmogblog.2	Mashey		F [2]		Murry Salby: Galileo? Bozo? Or P.T.Barnum?	Jul 15
PAPUNDITS.1	John Droz,Jr[101]		F[102]	w[103]	Recent Energy And Environmental News ... Salby and Carter	Jul 23
Wave 2					July 23-28	July 23-28	July 23-28	July 23-28	July 23-28	July 23-28
THE.AUST.2	Bernard Lane	-	F[104]	w[105]	Academic's dismissal could face scrutiny	Academic's dismissal could face scrutiny	Academic's dismissal could face scrutiny	Academic's dismissal could face scrutiny	Academic's dismissal could face scrutiny	Academic's dismissal could face scrutiny
THE.AUST.3	Editorial	-	F[106]	w[107]	Are academics whingers or just really unhappy?	Are academics whingers or just really unhappy?	Are academics whingers or just really unhappy?	Are academics whingers or just really unhappy?	Are academics whingers or just really unhappy?	Are academics whingers or just really unhappy?
			Jul 28
DeSmogblog.3	Readfearn		F[25]		Top Physicist Withdraws Support For Climate Sceptic Professor Sacked By Australian University	Top Physicist Withdraws Support For Climate Sceptic Professor Sacked By Australian University	Top Physicist Withdraws Support For Climate Sceptic Professor Sacked By Australian University	Top Physicist Withdraws Support For Climate Sceptic Professor Sacked By Australian University	Top Physicist Withdraws Support For Climate Sceptic Professor Sacked By Australian University	Top Physicist Withdraws Support For Climate Sceptic Professor Sacked By Australian University
Wave 3					August 11- (ongoing, but mostly at NOVA.3)	August 11- (ongoing, but mostly at NOVA.3)	August 11- (ongoing, but mostly at NOVA.3)	August 11- (ongoing, but mostly at NOVA.3)	August 11- (ongoing, but mostly at NOVA.3)	August 11- (ongoing, but mostly at NOVA.3)
Nova.3	Joanne Nova	137	F[108]	w[109]	Murry Salby Responds to Attacks on His Record	Murry Salby Responds to Attacks on His Record	Murry Salby Responds to Attacks on His Record	Murry Salby Responds to Attacks on His Record	Murry Salby Responds to Attacks on His Record	Murry Salby Responds to Attacks on His Record
WUWT.4	A, Watts	214	F[110]	w[111]	Murry Salby responds to critics (later WebCites may occur)	Murry Salby responds to critics (later WebCites may occur)	Murry Salby responds to critics (later WebCites may occur)	Murry Salby responds to critics (later WebCites may occur)	Murry Salby responds to critics (later WebCites may occur)	Murry Salby responds to critics (later WebCites may occur)
DEPOT.8	Marc Morano	-	F[112]	w[113]	Skeptic Murry Salby responds to the attacks on his record...	Skeptic Murry Salby responds to the attacks on his record...	Skeptic Murry Salby responds to the attacks on his record...	Skeptic Murry Salby responds to the attacks on his record...	Skeptic Murry Salby responds to the attacks on his record...	Skeptic Murry Salby responds to the attacks on his record...

Red lines are clear references, blacks show cases where Australians or NOVA posters visited blogs elsewhere or referenced those blogs at NOVA.

Thus, unsupported accusations spread rapidly through key interconnected blogs read by many, in Wave 1. They spread later into isolated blogs that attracted little attention, but served to record belief in the original posts. The Australian published 3 articles, presumably reaching a larger audience, although Wave 2 failed in its objective of misleading a French physicist into support. In Wave 3, once again Salby worked through Nova, this time arguing with selected minutiae of the NSF case, still not offering any evidence regarding Macquarie.

Defamation by Internet? Part 2 - SalbyStorm Surges Through (Un)skeptical Blogs continues the analysis to examine the behavior patterns, starting with a sample of fascinating quotations.

Image Credit: ramcreations [114] / Shutterstock [115].

Attachment	Size
SalbyStorm blog table and flow graph [116]	228.5 KB
SalbyStorm flow graph image [117]	107.39 KB

Tags:

murry salby [118]

blog storm [119]

salbystorm [120]

comment trolls [121]

climate scientists [122]

macquarie university [123]

michael mann [124]

Source URL: http://desmogblog.com/2013/08/25/defamation-by-internet-part-1-murry-salbys-short-lived-blog-storm

Links:

[1] http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/B/blog_storm.html

[2] http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/07/12/murry-salby-galileo-bozo-or-p-t-barnum

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echo_chamber_%28media%29

[4] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrzMhU_4m-g

[5] http://www.desmogblog.com/frederick-seitz-dead

[6] http://www.desmogblog.com/s-fred-singer

[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_D._Santer

[8] http://www.desmogblog.com/paul-chesser

[9] http://www.webcitation.org/6IVSqRuL2

[10] http://www.webcitation.org/6IVUFBWmw

[11] http://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/articles/3648

[12] http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/02/01/416510/price-of-truth-limbaugh-operatives-encourage-abusive-hate-mail-at-female-evangelical-climate-scientist/

[13] http://www.desmogblog.com/joanne-nova

[14] http://www.desmogblog.com/anthony-watts

[15] http://www.desmogblog.com/andrew-montford

[16] http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/07/12/murry-salby-sacked-australian-university--banned-national-science-foundation

[17] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Physik

[18] http://www.desmogblog.com/crescendo-climategate-cacophony

[19] http://www.desmogblog.com/steven-f-hayward

[20] http://www.desmogblog.com/marc-morano

[21] http://www.desmogblog.com/christopher-monckton

[22] http://www.skepticalscience.com/Murry-Salby-CO2-rise-natural.htm

[23] http://www.climatefutures.mq.edu.au/files/file/How%20we%20know%20the%20recent%20rise%20in%20atmospheric%20CO2%20is%20anthropogenic.pdf

[24] http://www.cartoonsbyjosh.com/

[25] http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/07/29/top-physicist-withdraws-support-climate-sceptic-professor-sacked-australian-university

[26] http://www.desmogblog.com/foia-facts-4-george-mason-takes-the-money-breaks-the-rules

[27] http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

[28] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinated_Universal_Time

[29] http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/timeline2.xls

[30] http://www.webcitation.org/6ICCuUx5d

[31] http://joannenova.com.au/2013/07/macquarie-university-sabotages-exiles-blackbans-strands-and-abandons-murry-salby

[32] http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/07/08/professor-critical-of-agw-theory-being-disenfranchised-exiled-from-academia-in-australia

[33] http://www.webcitation.org/6ICEssQbO

[34] http://bishophill.squarespace.com/blog/2013/7/9/climate-of-fear.html

[35] http://www.desmogblog.com/roger-tattersall

[36] http://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2013/07/09/is-professor-murry-salby-who-is-critical-of-agw-theory-being-disenfranchised-exiled-from-academia-in-australia

[37] http://www.webcitation.org/6IAfH9Oy0

[38] http://www.theclimatescam.se/2013/07/09/murry-salby-drabbas-av-bannbullan

[39] http://www.webcitation.org/6IbYu3QTz

[40] http://www.climatedepot.com/2013/07/09/professor-critical-of-agw-theory-being-disenfranchised-exiled-from-academia-in-australia

[41] http://www.webcitation.org/6IAUVAb3J

[42] http://theclimatescepticsparty.blogspot.com/2013/07/murry-salby-and-macquarie-university.html

[43] http://www.webcitation.org/6I9Hwqt1i

[44] http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2013/07/the-climate-mafia-strikes-again-the-curious-case-of-murry-salby.php

[45] http://www.webcitation.org/6IdQLfJyO

[46] http://lordmoncktonfoundation.com/blog/view/489/professor_murry_salby_at_macquarie_university__from_science_to_dismissal__in_his_own_words

[47] http://www.webcitation.org/6IC0i7P07

[48] http://principia-scientific.org/supportnews/latest-news/243-scientist-fired-by-university-for-exposing-the-truth-about-climate-fraud.html

[49] http://www.webcitation.org/6I9IiOZ4r

[50] http://www.wnd.com/2013/07/academic-freedom-not-if-you-question-climate-change

[51] http://www.webcitation.org/6ImihoNub

[52] http://www.webcitation.org/6I2jncfle

[53] http://www.climatedepot.com/2013/07/10/macquarie-university-sabotages-exiles-blackbans-strands-and-abandons-skeptical-scientist-murry-salby

[54] http://www.webcitation.org/6IAe47T6X

[55] http://www.climatedepot.com/2013/07/10/the-climate-mafia-strikes-again-the-curious-case-of-murry-salby-power-line

[56] http://www.webcitation.org/6IAWkJSA0

[57] http://drinkingwateradvisor.com/2013/07/09/dr-murry-salby-stabbed-in-the-back-by-macquarie-university-or-the-boulderians

[58] http://www.webcitation.org/6IPnbmGjP

[59] http://www.mq.edu.au/newsroom/2013/07/10/statement-regarding-the-termination-of-professor-murry-salby

[60] http://theclimatescepticsparty.blogspot.com/2013/07/murry-salby-and-macquarie-university-mu.html

[61] http://www.climatedepot.com/2013/07/10/update-murry-salby-and-macquarie-university-university-replies

[62] http://www.webcitation.org/6IAXe0Ryt

[63] http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/07/10/macquarie-university-responds-to-murry-salby-termination-issue

[64] http://www.webcitation.org/6ICF4r2w8

[65] http://joannenova.com.au/2013/07/macquarie-uni-responds-to-murry-salby-what-they-dont-say-speaks-volumes

[66] http://www.webcitation.org/6IAkKbFeS

[67] http://Climate of smear cartoonsbyjosh.com, BH home for many

[68] http://www.webcitation.org/6IAjU5DEA

[69] http://bishophill.squarespace.com/blog/2013/7/10/climate-of-smear-josh-229.html

[70] http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/07/10/josh-on-the-salby-macquarie-university-affair

[71] http://www.webcitation.org/6I47weMpx

[72] http://www.climatechangedispatch.com/11407-climate-mafia-strikes-again.html

[73] http://www.webcitation.org/6IAGCjENs

[74] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpc8UL5bwik

[75] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fc64pLO5Og

[76] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfuVigEz-N4

[77] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM2NwaL25dk

[78] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhqt08aO04s

[79] http://lordmoncktonfoundation.com/blog/view/490/statement_regarding_the_termination_of_professor_murry_salby

[80] http://www.webcitation.org/6IC1chgbc

[81] http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/climate-chair-left-high-and-dry-by-uni/story-e6frgcjx-1226677907258

[82] http://www.webcitation.org/6I5ojFIgL

[83] http://www.climatedepot.com/2013/07/11/macquarie-uni-responds-to-murry-salby-what-they-dont-say-speaks-volumes

[84] http://www.webcitation.org/6IAbyC70Y

[85] http://climaterealistponderings.wordpress.com/2013/07/11/macquarie-university-responds-to-murry-salby-termination-issue

[86] http://www.webcitation.org/6I9GQ1uOz

[87] http://climaterealistponderings.wordpress.com/2013/07/11/josh-on-the-salby-macquarie-university-affair

[88] http://www.webcitation.org/6I9HUVA6I

[89] http://turble.blogspot.com/2013/07/professor-murry-salby-vs-university-of.html

[90] http://www.webcitation.org/6I9L7sctg

[91] http://antigreen.blogspot.com/2013/07/dissident-scientist-fired-of-old-soviet.html

[92] http://www.webcitation.org/6IAHFBTAS

[93] http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/2013/07/dissident-scientist-fired-shades-of-old.html

[94] http://www.webcitation.org/6IATJCxsW

[95] http://www.desmogblog.com/benny_peiser

[96] http://www.thegwpf.org/climate-chairman-left-high-dry-university

[97] http://www.webcitation.org/6I46JxMiw

[98] http://www.climatedepot.com/2013/07/12/climate-chairman-left-high-and-dry-by-university

[99] http://www.webcitation.org/6IAcAXqQm

[100] http://www.announcements.mq.edu.au/vc/professor_murry_salby_and_his_dismissal_from_macquarie_university

[101] http://www.desmogblog.com/john-droz

[102] http://papundits.wordpress.com/2013/07/16/recent-energy-and-environmental-news-july-15-2013

[103] http://www.webcitation.org/6ICAZUIbV

[104] http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/academics-dismissal-could-face-scrutiny/story-e6frgcjx-1226683987876?utm_source=The%20Australian&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial

[105] http://www.webcitation.org/6IST1x179

[106] http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/academics-dismissal-could-face-scrutiny/story-e6frgcjx-1226683987876

[107] http://www.webcitation.org/6ISSVDT36

[108] http://joannenova.com.au/2013/08/murry-salby-responds-to-the-attacks-on-his-record/

[109] http://www.webcitation.org/6ItxU0E6S

[110] http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/08/11/murry-salby-responds-to-critics/

[111] http://www.webcitation.org/6IuFTqcEp

[112] http://www.climatedepot.com/2013/08/13/skeptic-murry-salby-responds-to-the-attacks-on-his-record-salby-was-sacked-from-macquarie-u-macquarie-struggled-to-explain-why-among-other-things-it-was-necessary-to-abandon-and-strand/

[113] http://www.webcitation.org/6IqxPmEVh

[114] http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-896311p1.html

[115] http://www.shutterstock.com

[116] http://desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/timeline2.xls

[117] http://desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Flows2.png

[118] http://desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/13162

[119] http://desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/13383

[120] http://desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/13384

[121] http://desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/12181

[122] http://desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/3659

[123] http://desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/13163

[124] http://desmogblog.com/tags/michael-mann

[125] http://desmogblog.com/2013/08/25/defamation-by-internet-part-1-murry-salbys-short-lived-blog-storm

http://desmogblog.com/print/7341

Contents [hide]

Blogs driving the news

Commenting on the sentencing of Judith Miller in the outing of his wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA undercover operative, Ambassador Joseph Wilson had this to say July 6, 2005, about the role of blogging:

"I am glad to play a small role. In my America, when companies get big and lazy, competion arises. That is what is happening with the blogs. The press (MSM) has gotten fat and lazy. The blogs are now driving the stories."

WaPo Driving the "Right"

The Washington Post has hired Ben Domenech, co-founder of the conservative *RedState.com*, to write a new daily blog on its website called *Red America*, Editor & Publisher reported March 21, 2006.

"After a stint as chief speechwriter for Senator John Cornyn (R-Tx.), he co-founded [RedState.com] and became a book editor at Regnery Publishing, where he worked with Michelle Malkin and others," E&P wrote.

"Almost immediately the liberal blogosphere exploded with outrage over Domenech's hiring by the Post. But by Thursday bloggers had more than ideological reasons to oppose the Post's move, as he plagiarized film critic Stephanie Zacharek, and Mary Elizabeth Williams, writing about television," Joe Conason reported in Slate March 24, 2006. "As a college student Ben Domenech lifted arts criticism; as a GOP henchman, he was accused of fabricating a Tim Russert quote."

Dan Froomkin "has spent a decade at the Post, and also worked for the Winston-Salem Journal, the Miami Herald and the Orange County Register. Froomkin is also deputy editor of niemanwatchdog.org, the web site of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University," E&P wrote.

"Whatever Froomkin's political views may be, he is a veteran reporter with a long résumé of newspaper jobs, including a decade at the Post. Domenech is a partisan operative with no newsroom experience of any kind, no training in journalistic standards and ethics, and nothing to guide him except home schooling and Republican reflexes," Conason wrote.

Corporate blogging

Declaring "a new milestone for the commercialization of blogs," AdAge.com reports that Sony Consumer Electronics e-Solutions Group is paying $25,000 a month to be the exclusive sponsor of LifeHacker, a new weblog published by Gawker Media "about the software of personal gadgetry." Gawker blog readers are considered "prime influencers" or "connectors" on technology issues. "What Sony is paying for is reducing their odds that they look idiotic and increasing their odds that they hit a home run," explained Blogads.com founder Henry Copeland. But "ads can cheapen and compromise a blog," warned Carat Interactive's media director John Cate. [2]

Corporations have begun hiring bloggers to put out their messages and to promote products, wrote Mary Jacobs in the Dallas Morning News. Examples: "Stonyfield Farm Inc., a dairy products maker in Londonderry, N.H., hired a corporate blogger to write company-hosted blogs on nutrition and health as well as organic farming. Microsoft Corp. plans to hire bloggers to generate excitement about an upcoming product release. Electronic Data Systems Corp. of Plano last week launched its "Next Big Thing" blog at www.eds.com/blogs to discuss the future of technology." And Hill & Knowlton, one of the world's largest PR firms, is encouraging its employees all to blog—after they pass a quiz. Question #1: "Why do you want to blog?" is multiple choice, with the following options for answers: a) Get promoted; b) Get noticed; c) Get fired; d) Get headhunted; e) All of the above; f) None of the above; g) I don't know. [3]

In March 2006, news reports first appearing on blog sites and then in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal revealed that via the Edelman PR firm Wal-Mart was using bloggers to promote their company. [4]

The PR industry goes blog watching

In April 2005, the PR company Edelman and the "marketing intelligence" firm Intelliseek released a directory of the most influential bloggers and a white paper detailing the importance of blogs to marketing and PR. The directory "profiles bloggers in business, consumer packaged goods, consumer technology, healthcare, and marketing and public relations," and also "gives advice on blogger behavior and jargon."

"Clients are calling us with increasing regularity, asking what's going on [with blogs] and how is this affecting the business," said Edelman executive vice-president and GM of diversified services Rick Murray. Murray also warned that companies face risks when "attempting to communicate with the blogosphere -- you will do yourself harm." [5]

Edelman's white paper on blogs [6], called "Trust MEdia?: How Real People Are Finally Being Heard," was a little less ominous. "For companies, bloggers represent an immediate source of information and feedback, but also an opportunity to engage a rapidly expanding global network of influential, credible, passionate and involved group of real people who communicate constantly," said Pam Talbot, the head of Edelman U.S. The paper also notes that Edelman was the first major PR firm to launch a corporate blog, that of CEO Richard Edelman.

In April 2005, Issue Dynamics, Inc (IDI) "launched a formal Blogger Relations Practice and a companion website, http://www.bloggerrelations.com." The firm's press release stated, "IDI Blogger Relations clients have already included Fortune 50 corporations, national trade associations, advocacy groups and political party committees." The practice includes a "robust blog monitoring service," to provide clients with "actionable intelligence." Other practice offerings include "Blogger Outreach," Blog Building" (a "simple, inexpensive way to build a community for messaging, rapid response & brand protection, fundraising, analysis, and a host of other activities"), "Training" and "Blog Advertising." [7] [8]

Noting IDI's new practice, journalist, author and grassroots journalism advocate Dan Gillmor wrote, "As eWeek reported in February, a subsidiary of the firm issued a report denouncing municipal wireless installations without making clear that big telecom firms, which vehemently oppose municipal wireless systems, are among the firm's chief funders. (See also Glenn Fleishman's 'sock puppets' piece about this.) ... One of the imperatives in the emerging citizen journalism sphere will be to ferret out and tell readers about these techniques, in a systematic and lasting way." [9]

PR advice on handling activist bloggers

In an article posted to the Legal PR Bulletin, Richard S. Levick of Levick Strategic Communications advises companies on how they can defend themselves against online critics. Levick warns: "It is only a matter of time before blogs become commonplace weapons allowing well-organized adversaries to both disseminate and preserve shrewder anti-corporate messages. One recent blog, for example, attacks a plan by FedEx to build a hub at the Piedmont Triad Airport in Guilford County, North Carolina. Guilford County is a sprawling community that cannot easily convene town meetings to debate development projects. The blog is a natural substitute. ... The FedEx experience is illustrative for a larger reason as well. NGOs have often been marginalized as radicals. But because blogs are pure stealth warfare, people who might never choose to ally themselves with activists are more susceptible to their messages." And "NGOs are but one possible adversary. Labor unions and plaintiffs’ counsel are others. ... Tactically, blogs pose far greater threats than any other kind of online attack." [10]

RedState blogger boosts Wal-Mart for bucks

PR giant Edelman has hired RedState.org blogger Michael Krempasky "for his ability to connect with conservative audiences," O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports. "Krempasky, on his site, refers to the Edelman gig as his 'day job' versus his blogging hobby. His first mission is to play up Wal-Mart Stores' contribution to Hurricane Katrina. The world's largest retailer, which had over $282 billion in sales last year, has donated a total of $17 million for hurricane relief and is opening up "mini Wal-Marts" in effected areas to distribute food, diapers, clothing, water and other items to those in need. According to Edelman, Krempasky's hire demonstrates the firm's "leading role in trying to harness the power of the blogosphere for its clients." [11]

Fake bloggers

Fake blogs—a form of viral marketing in which PR or advertising agencies attempt to generate interest in their client's product by creating a fictional character on the internet—are drawing criticism from real bloggers. The Cohn & Wolfe PR firm had to apologize recently after "using a fictional character to leave a series of thinly veiled advertisements on blogs and other websites. A number of websites were hit last week with messages from Barry Scott," a fictional spokesman for a British household cleaning product. [12] [13]

British blogger Tom Coates was especially outraged and called it "a new low for marketers" after he wrote an emotional account of his relationship with his father, and then received comment spam from "Barry Scott" disguised as condolences. [14] Coates replied: "My view was that any right-thinking person would view trying to market your product on such a post as revolting, corrupt, cynical, disgusting, sick and dishonourable." According to some PR people, however, fake blogging is a good idea. [15]

Microsoft the enforcer

Microsoft shut down "a popular Chinese-language blog" by journalist Zhao Jing on December 30, on the grounds that it "has run edgy content potentially offensive to Chinese authorities." The blog "had criticized the government's firing of top editors at a progressive Beijing newspaper." Microsoft stated, "Most countries have laws and practices that require companies providing online services to make the internet safe for local users. ... In China, local laws and practices require consideration of unique elements." Mr. Zhao's earlier blog, hosted by the Scottish company Blog-City, was also blocked for writing about another newspaper. The Chinese government requires bloggers to register and prohibits online postings that are "against state security and public interest." Last year, Yahoo helped identify another Chinese journalist now serving a 10-year prison sentence for emailing a secret government order; [16] Cisco Systems has sold web filter programs to Chinese authorities.

Guides and books on blogging

"Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents", Reporters Without Borders, September 2005.

Resources

Related SourceWatch resources

References

↑ blog, Dictionary.com, accessed May 2008.
↑ weblog, Dictionary.com, accessed May 2008.

External links

"splog" in the Wikipedia.
Markos Moulitsas, "In a spin", Guardian, (UK), October 5, 2004.
Jay Rosen, "Political Jihad and the American Blog: Chris Satullo Raises the Stakes", PressThink, October 4, 2004.
Pew Internet & American Life Project, "The State of Blogging", Media Release, January 2, 2005.
Marguerite Reardon, "Network TV bigwigs rail against bloggers", CNET News.com, October 4, 2004.
Jessica Mintz, When Bloggers Make News:As Their Clout Increases, Web Diarists Are Asking: Just What Are the Rules?", Wall Street Journal, January 21, 2005.
Anick Jesdanun, "Blogger Influence Raises Ethical Questions", Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 21, 2005. (This is a syndicated Associated Press story).
Steve Rubel, "Journalists Evangelize Blogs As PR People Doze Off", WebProNews, January 28, 2005. (Rubel is Vice President, Client Services at the New York PR firm CooperKatz & Company and authors MicroPersuasion weblog "which tracks how blogs and participatory journalism are changing the public relations practice".
"Cymfony Launches Product to Help Monitor Blogs and Other Online Sources", Holmes Report, January 31, 2005.
Kris Oser, "Sony Pays $25,000 a month for Gawker Blog", AdAge, February 2, 2005. (Registration required).
Joshua Gliddon, "Wag the blog", Bulletin (Australia), March 3, 2005. (Cites various corporate PR advisors/practitioners including Trevor Cook on the benefits of blogging).
Garance Franke-Ruta, "Blogged Down: Pseudo-journalistic websites are another way right-wingers get around 'the filter' of mainstream media", The American Prospect, March 4, 2005.
Dan Frost, "Legal status of bloggers debated: Journalists' shield claimed in response to Apple's lawsuit", San Francisco Chronicle, March 8, 2005.
Doug Ireland, "Bloggers fight back against F.E.C. crackdown -- sign on Now", Direland, March 11, 2005.
Corey Pein, "Blog-Gate: Yes, CBS screwed up badly in ‘Memogate’ — but so did those who covered the affair", Columbia Journalism Review, January-February, 2005.
Dan Gillmor, "The Gathering Storms Over Speech", March 5, 2005. (A review of the Apple legal action against three online news sites).
Riva Richmond, "Blogs Keep Internet Customers Coming Back: Small Firms Find Tool Useful for Recognition,Connecting With Buyers", Wall Street Journal Online, March 1, 2005.
Jonbathan D, Glater, "Liberal Bloggers Reaching Out to Major Media", New York Times, March 14, 2005.
Edelman, Power Play: How Online Communities Got Control of Your Brand and What to Do About It: Panel discussions hosted at the Yale Club and the Edelman Boardroom", March 22, 2005. Watch the webcast here.
Keith O'Brien, "Edelman's blog directory to educate clients about influential new media," PR Week (sub. req'd.), April 4, 2005.
Issue Dynamics, Inc., Blogger Relations Practice Launched By Internet Pioneers Issue Dynamics: Public Affairs Firm Expands Role, Helps Clients Maximize Public Perception in Blogosphere", Media Release, April 26, 2005.
Dan Gillmor, "'Blogger Relations' - or More Spin?," April 26, 2005.
Stephen Baker and Heather Green, "Blogs Will Change Your Business," Business Week, May 2, 2005.
Jason Di Rosso, "All the News That's Fit to Blog", The Media Report, ABC Radio National (Australia), April 28, 2005.
Richard Edelman, "Beyond Dolly Levi to Facilitating Public Relationships", Speak Up, May 2, 2005.
Pew Internet & American Life Project, "New data on blogs and blogging: About 6% of U.S. adults have created blogs and 16% of them read blogs", Media Release, May 2, 2005.
Stephen Baker and Heather Green, "Blogs Will Change Your Business: Look past the yakkers, hobbyists, and political mobs. Your customers and rivals are figuring blogs out. Our advice: Catch up...or catch you later", Businessweek, May 2, 2005.
Gary Tanner, "Bloggers Learning Tools of Reporting", BusinessWeek Online, May 6, 2005. (This is an Associated Press story).
Richard Aedy, "Media Futures", The Media Report, ABC Radio National, May 12, 2005.
Pew Internet & American Life Project and BuzzMetrics, "Innovative Study Suggests Where Blogs Fit into National Politics", Media Release, May 16, 2005.
Pew Internet & American Life Project and BuzzMetrics, "Buzz, Blogs and Beyond: The Internet and the National Discourse in the Fall of 2004", May 16, 2005. (Pdf).
Niall Cook, "Blogging policies and guidelines", Hill & Knowlton, May 19, 2005.
Erin Biba, "These little bloggers went to market", Sydney Morning Herald, June 14, 2005.
SusanG, "Joe Wilson on Sentencing of Judith Miller," stevegilliard.blogspot.com, July 6, 2005.
Adam Hill, "Reputation management: Blogs Cast a shadow", PR Week, July 1, 2005.
Katharine Q. Seelye, "Why Newspapers Are Betting on Audience Participation", New York Times, July 4, 2005.
Emily Carr, "Beware: your corporate blog is a total bore, Australian Financial Review, July 16, 2005. (Sub req'd).
Connie Levett, "Nimble bloggers one step ahead of embattled Arroyo", Sydney Morning Herald, July 16, 2005.
Richard S. Levick, "A Virtual Omnipresent Enemy: efending Clients against Internet Blog Attacks", LegalPR Bulletin, undated, accessed August 2005.
Mary Jacobs, "Blogging sprouts as a career path: Companies have started to hire people to get their messages on the Web", Dallas Morning News, August 9, 2005.
"Blog Expert Daou Launches 'News Unfiltered' Featuring U.S. Newswire", Business Wire, August 29, 2005.
David Kesmodal, "Blogger Faces Lawsuit Over Comments Posted by Readers", Wall Street Journal Online, August 31, 2005. (Sub req'd).
John Quiggin, "Let a hundred blogs bloom", Australian Financial Review, September 1, 2005. (Sub req'd).
Steven Warren, "The Benefits of Corporate Blogging", IT Management, September 9, 2005.
"Edelman Hires RedState Blogger", O'Dwyer's PR Daily, September 21, 2005. (Sub req'd).
Sophie Nicholson, "Guide Aims to Help Bloggers Beat Censors", Editor & Publisher, September 22, 2005.
Erica Iacono, "Sarcasm on ABC News blog earns criticism", PR Week, October 3, 2005. (Sub eq'd).
Tom Coates, "On Cillit Bang and a new low for marketers...", Plasticbag.org, September 30, 2005.
"An apology from the Cillit Bang team...", Plasticbag.org, October 4, 2005
Bobbie Johnson, "Cleaner caught playing dirty on the net", The Guardian (UK), October 6, 2005.
Lisa DiCarlo, "Can You Tell Blogs From 'Real' News?: Look out: The blogs are coming to Yahoo!", Forbes, October 15, 2005.
David Cohn, "Will Pajamas Media Wake Up Blogs?", Wired, October 26, 2005. re Pajamas Media
Kathy Chen and Geoffrey A. Fowler, "Microsoft Defends Censoring a Dissident's Blog in China", Wall Street Journal, January 6, 2006.
Michael Barbaro, "Wal-Mart Enlists Bloggers in P.R. Campaign", New York Times, March 7, 2006.
"'Wash Post' Launches Conservative Blog, Provokes a 'Firestorm'," Editor & Publisher, March 21, 2006.
Joe Conason, "A portrait of the blogger as a young plagiarist," Salon, March 24, 2006.
David Weigel, "An Army of Bloggers. How to turn low-budget revolutionaries into respectable members of the establishment," Reason Online, July 2006.
Jonathan Darman, "The War's Left Front. The Daily Kos thinks the politics of Iraq will help him shape the Democratic Party," Newsweek (MSNBC), July 3-10, 2006 (issue).
Paul Farhi, "Blogger Takes Aim At News Media and Makes a Direct Hit," Washington Post, August 9, 2006. Also see Matt O., "The 'Responsible' Debate and Political Discourse of Little Green Footballs," The Great Society Blog, Updated August 9, 2006. re Little Green Footballs
Eric Alterman and Danielle Ivory, "Think Again, Blogosphere to Mainstream Media: Get Off the Bus," Center for American Progress, May 21, 2009.

Categories:

In April 2005, Issue Dynamics, Inc (IDI) "launched a formal Blogger Relations Practice and a companion website, http://www.bloggerrelations.com." The firm's press release stated, "IDI Blogger Relations clients have already includedFortune 50 corporations, national trade associations, advocacy groups and political party committees." The practice includes a "robust blog monitoring service," to provide clients with "actionable intelligence." Other practice offerings include "Blogger Outreach," Blog Building" (a "simple, inexpensive way to build a community for messaging, rapid response & brand protection, fundraising, analysis, and a host of other activities"), "Training" and "Blog Advertising." [7] [8]

MANN CLIMATEGATE:

Denialists Frothing Up the Abusers

There is a clear connection between the behavior at climate denialist blogs and the abuse directed towards climate scientists. Denialist blog posts constantly leap from their own flawed scientific analyses to the conclusion that climate scientists must be guilty of fraud, data manipulation, and other immoral behavior. The letters received by climate scientists contain this same sort of language, with baseless accusations of fraud and data manipulation, followed by abusive language and often death threats.

Climate denialist blogs are also the source of the CEI and National Review accusations of fraud,[ESCALATOR] which soon warped into a denigrating comparison betweEn an honest climate scientist and a serial child molester. Instead of condemning this reprehensible behavior, climate denialist ringleader WattsUpWithThat in particular appears to encourage it.

api big outreach to blogs, trips, includes http://www.theoildrum.com/node/9980

http://www.theoildrum.com/special/about

It is just over one week since Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma read Defense Secretary nominee Chuck Hagel four questions suggested to him by Washington Post blogger Jennifer Rubin during Hagel's confirmation hearing. The substance of the questions Inhofe delivered to Hagel in the Senate chamber -- a typical Rubin laundry list of neoconservative wisdom gleaned from her January 28 post titled, "Our Dimwitted State Department" -- was quickly overshadowed by the public reaction of Post senior correspondent and associate editor Rajiv Chandrasekaran. When Inhofe described Rubin's post as "kind of an interesting article," Chandrasekaran shot off an angry tweet. "I hate it when senators refer to WP opinion blogger posts as articles," he growled. "@JRubinBlogger is NOT a WaPo reporter."

That he's right is a fortunate thing for the Post. If the daily employed Rubin to cover national security and international affairs, they'd have a bit of a Judith Miller problem. Since the Post hired Rubin in late 2010, she has routinely embarrassed the paper by putting bylines on Romney campaign press releases; endorsing blood-thirsty calls for revenge against Palestinians; and successfully experimenting with the manufacture of durable conservative fantasy narratives.

Washington Post blogger Jennifer Rubin:

Washington Post media writer Erik Wemple has been working doggedly to correct one of Sean Hannity's favorite false claims about the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi: that State Department officials watched "real-time" video of the assault from an office in Washington, DC. Wemple's efforts got an assist from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on January 23: "There was no monitor, there was no real time." As Wemple's debunking of the falsehood makes clear, Hannity has been the primary driver of this claim by repeating on a near-daily basis. But the "real-time" video falsehood did not start with the Fox News host. In fact, one of the first mentions -- perhaps the first -- of the spurious Benghazi video was on Jennifer Rubin's Washington Post blog.

The whole story starts with an October 10, 2012, hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. At that hearing, Charlene Lamb, the deputy assistant secretary of state for international programs, had this exchange with Rep. James Lankford (R-OK), describing how she followed via telephone the developments in the Benghazi attack as they were happening:....

A Senior Fellow for Media Matters, Eric Boehlert is the author of Bloggers On the Bus: How The Internet Changes Politics and the Press, and Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush.

How An Austrian Blogger's Report That Paul Krugman Filed For Bankruptcy Ended Up On Boston.com

Blog››› March 11, 2013 6:01 PM EDT ››› JOE STRUPP

Web News Experts: Bogus Krugman Story Shows Dangers of "Mechanical Aggregation"

The bogus story that New York Times columnist Paul Krugman had filed for bankruptcy appeared on Boston.com, the sister website of The Boston Globe, through a third-party content provider that posts content without editorial approval and provides such content to more than 200 web outlets.

That provider, meanwhile, took the story from an Austrian-based blog without any editorial review or fact-checking of its own, a practice that is becoming more and more common in the Internet content sharing world. The blog has since deleted its post and all posts from the author appear to have been removed from Boston.com.

The false story, which had its roots in a satire by the website Daily Currant, was subsequently picked up by the conservative site Breitbart.com, a move later criticized by Krugman himself and numerous news outlets from The Atlantic to Politico. Breitbart.com has deleted the post, with its author blaming Boston.com, which he says he "trusted" for the story.

But according to Boston.com, they played no role in the creation of that post, an editorial mechanism which troubles some observers.

Ron Agrella, editor of Boston.com, said the item was placed on his site by the content provider financialcontent.com on March 7, without approval or review from either Boston.com or the Globe.

He said he reached out to financialcontent.com at roughly 9 a.m. EDT today to have the item removed. It was removed at 11:34 a.m. EDT.

"The reason why we partner with them is to provide stock data," Agrella explained Monday, just hours after the item was taken down. "That is why we contract with them. The stories are additional content provided on the side. We have partnered with them for 10 or 12 years."

Financialcontent.com had picked up the item from an Austria-based business blog, Prudent Investor, without any editorial review of its own, according to financialcontent.com CEO Wing Yu.

"We are a technology company, we don't have an editorial desk," Yu explained. "There is an RSS feed that we parse from each content provider. We have categorized [Prudent Investor] as a business content provider and the content is syndicated along with the byline."

YU said Prudent Investor is one of more than 400 content providers that financialcontent.com draws on for news and data, which it then forwards to some 200 news outlets such as Boston.com, as well as others owned by McClatchy, Media News Group and AOL.

The Prudent Investor website is based in Vienna, Austria, and run by Toni Straka, who describes himself on the blog as "an INDEPENDENT Certified Financial Analyst who worked as a financial journalist for 15+ years and now evaluate global market trends."

Straka said he picked up the item from the Austrian online magazine Format, which he says posted it without any notice that it was satire. Straka said he posted the item on his own website on March 7 and removed it within an hour after Format advised him it was bogus.

But by then the damage had been done, as financialcontent.com and thus Boston.com had already picked up the post. Asked why he did not inform financialcontent.com that he removed the item because it was bogus, Straka said, "I do not always know where" the content is picked up.

Agrella said financialcontent.com is one of a dozen content providers that are able to post content on the Boston.com site without��Globe or Boston.com review. He said Boston.com pays a fee to each provider, but did not disclose the amount.

Financialcontent.com actually posts the items on its own websites, which are linked to Boston.com and appear with the Boston.com shell around them so that they remain under the site's web brand. The Krugman item appeared on the financialcontent.com page that provides market information for Boston.com.

"The page is run by them," Agrella said of financialcontent.com. "They have a multitude of partners that are pulled in by a variety of blogs."

Yu criticized Breitbart.com for wrongly attributing the bogus item on Boston.com to the newspaper rather than to Prudent Investor, whose byline was on the story.

"It seemed that Breitbart should have attributed it to the right outlet," Yu said. "It should have been attributed to Prudent Investor."

Such second- and third-hand sourcing for online news is becoming more commonplace, and more worrisome, according to Al Tompkins, an instructor at The Poynter Institute who lectures about online news.

"You see the cost of mechanical aggregation, the cost is that a lot of junk is going to flow through when you just open the gates to things that look like they are legitimate, that is the curse of human editing," Tompkins said. "If it was as easy as running it though an algorithm we would have no need for human editors. But you need human editors to ask questions like, how do we know that? Has anyone called him? All it would have taken is to actually report it."

Mark Jurkowitz, associate director of Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, and a former Globe ombudsman, offered similar concerns.

"The danger is that news organizations, if not careful, could be increasingly diminishing their reliability in the eyes of a public that already has some doubts," he said.

Yu said no policy changes were expected related to how the service draws content from outside sources. He did say he had stopped taking content from Prudent Investor for the moment, stating they are "on probation for lack of a better word," and described their content as "on hold."

Agrella called the bogus story appearing on his site "obviously a concern of ours," but also said no changes in procedures were planned.

"In the past, we have had very few problems if any," he said. "It appears this one slipped through and we are trying to determine how it slipped through and prevent it from happening again."

Ryan Holiday pretended to be a credible source on a variety of subjects, just to see who would fall for it. Scalps include *CBS, ABC, Today* and *The New York Times.*

“I knew that bloggers would print anything, so I thought, what if, as an experiment, I tried to prove that they will literally print anything?” he says. “Instead of trying to get press to benefit myself, I just wanted to get any press for any reason as a joke.”

At Forbes, Holliday offers a rundown of how fake stories are generated and propagatedeven without intentional misdirection. He even has a book out on the subject, titled *Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator*. [Forbes]

http://boingboing.net/2012/07/19/man-punks-journalists.html

...Cognitive psychologist Stephan Lewandowsky of the University of Western Australiahas been studying climate deniers and conspiratorial thinking -- and the link between the two. He suspected that climate deniers -- as opposed to climate "skeptics," who actually use the tools of science to verify facts -- are highly prone to unrelated kinds of conspiracy thinking, and also to a conservative, pro-business ideology. He decided to test these ideas by questioning people who write and read blogs related to global warming.

He chose blogsbecause people with an anti-science bias have found a welcoming home on the Internet. Science denial is difficult to practice in the mainstream, peer-reviewed literature, but such contrarian views can be freely expressed in the blogosphere, where conspiracy theorists can feed one another's feelings of persecution. Lewandowsky surveyed blog denizens about their views on climate science, other scientific propositions, and their environmental leanings; their perceptions of what scientific "consensus" means; their beliefs about free-marketeconomics; and finally, their views on a number of well-known conspiracy theories. The conspiracies covered the political spectrum, from fears of a world government (a right-wing idea) to the belief that 9/11 was an "inside job" (typically embraced on the left).

:{The results were unambiguous, and unsettling. First, those who hold a laissez-faire view of unfettered free markets were much more likely to strongly reject climate science. Lewandowsky believes that, because the fundamental importance of fossil fuels (and CO2 emissions) to modern economics, climate science in general (and evidence for global warming in particular) is a threat to free market advocates. Free marketers were also more likely to reject other established scientific findings, even the (undisputed) facts that smoking causes lung cancer and HIV causes AIDS.

Second, conspiracy thinking was clearly linked to climate denial -- and to the rejection of scientific propositions in general. This was true even of conspiracy theories unrelated to the environment or climate -- the belief that NASA staged the moon landing, for example, or that the CIA killed Martin Luther King. In other words, conspiracy thinking is not simply a convenient way to dismiss a particularly bothersome scientific consensus. Instead, some people seem to have a general personality trait or cognitive style, which leads them to endorse any conspiracy. Thisparanoidthinking in turn predisposes them to reject completely unrelated scientific facts.

Lewandowsky's study will be published in a future issue of 'Psychological Science,' a peer-reviewed scientific journal, providing further evidence of a vast and ingenious plot to elevate enlightenment thinking and marginalize the unenlightened. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wray-herbert/climate-change-denial-_b_1686437.html?utm_hp_ref=green&ir=Green

fortune mag; How Fast and Furious reached the headlines is a strange and unsettling saga, one that reveals a lot about politics and media today. It's a story that starts with a grudge, specifically Dodson's anger at Voth. After the terrible murder of agent Terry, Dodson made complaints that were then amplified, first by right-wing bloggers, then by CBS. Rep. Issa and other politicians then seized those elements to score points against the Obama administration, which, for its part, has capitulated in an apparent effort to avoid a rhetorical battle over gun control in the run-up to the presidential election. (A Justice Department spokesperson denies this and asserts that the department is not drawing conclusions until the inspector general's report is submitted.)

http://grist.org/list/obama-wants-to-give-white-children-asthma-says-blogger/

http://wonkette.com/474340/barack-obama-now-trying-to-murder-white-children-with-asthma

ALEC SOS:

ALEC Director of External Relations Caitlyn Korb spoke yesterday at a Heritage Foundation "Bloggers Briefing," begging conservative bloggers for help while prepping "a very aggressive campaign to really spread the word about what we actually do." Korb appears to be a new ALEC employee who recently worked for the Cato Institute. Both ALEC and Cato have received funding from Koch family foundations. The Heritage Foundation is an ALEC member.

The "Bloggers Briefing," which was started by Heritage's Rob Bluey and "a dozen conservative online entrepreneurs" six years ago, was broadcast online on "Breitbart TV," a project of the late Andrew Breitbart. Breitbart's team of bloggers and apparatchiks most recently gained notoriety for getting U.S. Department of Agriculture official Shirley Sherrod fired. Breitbart released a clip of a speech given by Sherrod deliberately edited to create the false impression that she was prejudiced against white farmers. Her actual speech was a personal tale rejecting prejudice. Sherrod was later offered resinstatement by USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, with apologies.

http://www.prwatch.org/node/11458

Robert B. Bluey is director of the Center for Media and Public Policy at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, contributing editor of "the daily online edition of Human Events, the oldest conservative weekly print publication in the United States",^[1] a contributor to the "prominent conservative" blogs RedState, Human Events Online's The Right Angle Blog,^[2] and RobertBluey.com.^[3]

Bluey participated in the June 26, 2006, U.S. Department of Defense-sponsored Bloggers' Roundtable on detainee affairs in Iraq and at Guantanamo.^[4]

Contents[hide]

Profiles

"Bluey was among a select group of bloggers invited to the White House in September 2006 for the bill signing ceremony for the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, legislation that won passage thanks to a public educational effort by bloggers. He participated in CNN's Election Night Blog Party in November 2006. He frequently speaks on panels about blogging and online journalism. Bluey is a coordinator for the Open House Project, an effort to increase government transparency.

"Prior to joining Heritage in 2007, Bluey served as Editor of HumanEvents.com, which he transformed into a popular destination for conservative journalism. He was named editor of the Web site in November 2005 after spending a year as assistant editor and later managing editor of Human Events' print edition.

"Bluey also worked at Cybercast News Service, where he was the first journalist to report on the forged CBS documents on President Bush's National Guard service. He covered the Republican and Democratic conventions in 2004.

"He grew up in upstate New York and graduated from Ithaca College, where he edited the college's award-winning newspaper, The Ithacan. He remains closely involved with his alma mater, serving on its Alumni Association Board of Directors. During his college years, he worked for the Clinton Courier, Traverse Record-Eagle and The Los Angeles Times. After college, he was awarded a year-long fellowship at the Student Press Law Center in Arlington, Va."^[3]

Contact information

Weblog: http://robertbluey.com/blog/

Resources and articles

References

↑ Robert B. Bluey in the Wikipedia.
↑ RightAngle Blog.
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 Staff: Robert B. Bluey, Heritage Foundation.
↑ Transcript: DoD Bloggers Roundtable with Alan Liotta, Principal Director for the Office of Detainee Affairs, via teleconference from the Pentagon, June 26, 2007.

External articles

sailerfraud, "Ann Coulter's Plagiarism Story: Part 1," Steve Sailer Sucks Blogspot, August 2, 2006. re Ann Coulter
"Human Events’ Coulter Cover-up Continues: Editor Outs Ann Coulter, by Dan Borchers," LydiaCornell.com, August 2, 2006.
William Beutler, "Let The Eagle Soar: Behind The RedState Acquisition," Blog P.I., January 17, 2007.
"Know Your Young Republican Pundits: Robert Bluey," Urabaniak/Live Journal, July 7, 2007.
Joe Garofoli, "Pundits, bloggers go wild over Rove's resignation," San Francisco Chronicle, August 14, 2007. re Karl Rove

Articles by Robert B. Bluey

Robert B. Bluey publications at the Heritage Foundation.
Robert B. Bluey bio and articles archive, Human Events Online.
Articles archive, The Conservative Voice.
"Bloggers affect change in politics and policy," The Ithican Online, February 1, 2007.
"Do-Nothing? You Know-Nothing. What John McCain isn’t telling you about the immigration bill," National Review Online, June 7, 2007.
"Veterans’ Groups Prepare for Battle on Capitol Hill," Townhall.com, August 19, 2007. re Vets for Freedom and VoteVets.org

Categories: War in Iraq | Elections (U.S.) | Politics (U.S.) | Blogging and Bloggers

The Bloggers' Roundtable is a program of New Media Operations (NMO) within the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (OASD) for Public Affairs.^[1]

By February 20, 2007, when then White House Press Secretary Tony Snow was telling a National Press Club roundtable "You’ve got this wonderful, imaginative hateful stuff that comes flying out. I think one of the most important takeaways is — it's the classical line — not only should you not believe your own press, you probably shouldn’t believe your opposition blogs either,"^[2] the NMO's Public Affairs office had already "hosted" three weekly Bloggers' Roundtables—"conference calls for bloggers writing on Defense Department issues."^[3]

In April 2007, Roxie Merritt, Director of New Media Operations at OSD for Public Affairs, told Robert Bluey of the conservative Townhall.com that the "military’s embrace of bloggers extends far beyond putting them on the ground in Iraq." Merritt told Bluey "she was able to convince top brass at the Pentagon to reach out to bloggers after bloggers broke stories ignored by the mainstream media, such as Iran's meddling in Iraq and the infamous doctored Reuters photo^[4][5] in Lebanon."^[6]

In May 2007, Merritt told Nikki Schwab of the Washington Post that "while bloggers aren't being credentialed like media, the military is taking more time to communicate with bloggers to ensure that they post accurate information. She said the U.S. Central Command was the first command unit to reach out to bloggers. A command team was created to refer bloggers to information generally already available on one of the military's Web sites," Schwab wrote.^[3]

The Roundtables were described June 21, 2007,^[7] by the American Forces Press Service (AFPS) as the "centerpiece" of the Pentagon's new New Media office. The "program -- in which citizen journalists are put into discussions with senior military and political leaders around the world -- was founded on the creation of individual relationships between the department and members of the online community."

Contents[hide]

OSD's New Media Outreach

OSD's New Media Operations, launched in October 2006,^[8] was overseen by Allison Barber, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Internal Communications and Public Liaison, AFPS reported. "Barber described the New Media program as a complement to the department’s traditional public affairs outreach through television, radio and print channels.... [and] gave the example of Multinational Force Iraq moving to post its own videos onto YouTube.com."

"The office came about as part of a wider 'public affairs transformation' being pushed by the department’s leadership to make the military’s primary public face more forward-leaning in its approach to disseminating information.

"Barber characterized the global communications situation as moving quickly toward a point where media consumers will have so many choices and such pervasive news feeds that they will both seek and be able to personalize their interaction with information."^[8]

"For the Record" blog

Between October 18 and November 21, 2006, the Department of Defense attempted something it called "For the Record",^[9] which essentially posted a clipped news item called a "Claim" from the mainstream media which it attacked with what it called "Facts".

"The military's latest move is this: a website solely dedicated to rebutting claims made by the mainstream media. Check it out. It's a gas," David Axe of DefenseTech.org commented November 5, 2006:^[10]

On November 19, 2006, Steve Field of The D-Ring Blog wrote:^[11]

I’m not sure anyone in OSD Public Affairs would call it a blog (or are especially aware of the blogosphere). But people in the blogosphere are calling it a blog.I say if it is, it needs a lot of work. ...For the Record misses the whole point of a blog — community. There is no blogroll, no ability to comment, no conversation. It follows the traditional DoD model of communication that says "we will send our messages to the people from up on high."Online communication is not so simple. When you start communicating in the online world, it is not enough to talk at people; you need to have a conversation with them.

War propaganda program

The Bloggers' Roundtable is a unit of the Defense Department's "Communications Outreach" war propaganda program operated by the Pentagon's Office of Public Affairs and "headed up by Erin Healey [sic], a former junior assistant press secretary at the White House," Ken Silverstein wrote July 19, 2007, in Harper's Magazine.^[12]

"In 2006, when the press and retired senior military officials were pummeling Donald Rumsfeld," Dorrance Smith, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, "created a rapid-response team of die-hard loyalists to defend the then-defense secretary," Silverstein wrote in a July 16, 2007, Harper's Magazine article.^[13]

"The rapid-response team has been shut down but several sources tell me that another of Smith's spin projects is ongoing," Silverstein wrote.^[13]

Originally named the "Surrogates Operation", the unit "seeks to bypass the mainstream press by working directly with a carefully culled list of military analysts, bloggers, and others who can be counted on to parrot the Bush Administration's line on national security issues," Silverstein wrote.^[12]

The unit "also reportedly provides talking points and briefings to retired military officials who now support the administration in appearances as media pundits," Silverstein wrote.^[13]

"Surrogates Operation" members

Members of the "Surrogates Operation", Ken Silverstein wrote, include the following.^[12]

Julie George, a "former campaign worker for ex-Senator Rick Santorum"
Jocelyn Webster, "who formerly worked in the White House's political operation" for Karl Rove aide Sara Taylor
James Davis, a "political ally of former senator and GOP presidential candidate Fred Thompson"

Criticism

The Department of Defense was using "selected military analysts, bloggers, former defense officials, opinion-makers, and others who are almost all highly sympathetic to the Bush Administration's national security agenda and initiatives," Ken Silverstein wrote in August 2007 in Harper's Magazine.^[14]

Clearly stated by one of the "selected" bloggers, Ward Carroll, editor of Military.com, "an online military and veteran membership organization, some of the best milbloggers have the ability to shape opinions on the war."^[3]

Silverstein wrote three articles about the Bloggers' Roundtable in July 2007, followed by an August 2007 article in which he reported on a conversation with David Axe, an administration critic who had "participated in the conference calls". Silverstein, who has been critical of the program from the beginning, was told by Axe "A lot of the conference calls are very clearly PR ... The more I've thought about it the more it becomes clear that something is fishy and that [the conference calls] are part of an orchestrated agenda."^[14]

For example, Axe said, "some military officials who have already briefed the bloggers are returning for repeat appearances and they talk about subjects that have been well covered at past events." One officer, speaking with the Roundtable for the second time, "basically repeated himself". Also, Axe said, "the format and design of the program almost inevitably produces, on balance, Pentagon-friendly outcomes."^[14]

Note: A read through of the conference call and teleconference transcripts indicates, at the very least, that some officers were reading talking points rather than honest opinions, particularly in their introductory and summary statements.

Viral communicators = blogger embeds

2007

In late March 2007, Alexander Paul Melonas (a "first year graduate student at American University in Washington D.C.") at The Gun Toting Liberal blog reported^[15] on an upcoming trip for "several bloggers" to Iraq organized by the Department of Defense, with the bloggers having been selected via invitation and "through active petitioning as occurred with both The Gun Toting Liberal and RedState, will be included."

Melonas, who was going to begin the vetting process, said that selection was based on "viral potential: consideration was given to technocrati ratings proving a large viral effect, depth of thought displayed within the contributions, large readership, or simply a weblog’s effective display of their status as important viral communicators."^[15]

"As The Gun Toting Liberal has been identified as an important viral communicator, the opportunity to participate in a weekly conference call between those selected by the D.O.D. in the New Media Operations endeavor, and commanders on the ground in Iraq, has been presented to me (representing the G.T.L.). The prospect of articulating questions regarding ground operations, rebuilding efforts, etc., actively participating in conversations with those in the fight so to speak, and report on the results, is an offer I simply cannot refuse," Melonas wrote.^[15]

In late March 2007, right-wing RedState.com, owned by Eagle Publishing, first informed that it had been invited to send embeds to Iraq at the end of April. It then asked for funding of the trip for two prominent RedState bloggers, Jeff Emanuel and AcademicElephant (a.k.a. Victoria Coates).^[16][17]

Additionally, RedState informed that "The military will take Victoria and Jeff around Iraq and they'll get the word out to all of us on what's really going on over there -- no filter through the mainstream media." The Daily Kos poster sharris0512 asked "why is the military promising an escort? Again, this is an openly partisan outfit. Why are Americans paying tax dollars (that's right, the time and energy spent on pushing these morons around Iraq) for more propaganda?"

2006

In November 2006, Mark Finklestein of NewsBusters was the "first Pentagon-credentialed blogger" to travel to Iraq. He was followed by "popular conservative blogger Michelle Malkin embedded with Army troops at Forward Operating Base Justice in Baghdad."^[6]

About the conference calls

"When the program was started in February [2007], the calls occurred approximately once a week; since September, the Defense Department PR team has surged the roundtables�� frequency to nearly every day.^[18] Many of these conservative bloggers regularly appear on the calls, receiving unfettered access to military strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan," Satyam Khanna wrote October 24, 2007, at Think Progress.^[19] "One military official explained the real intent:^[20]

"'[W]e’re trying to do as many of these type of blogger calls as possible to let folks know what is really going on out there and to provide the opportunity for people to hear and write about it.'

"Despite the regular frequency of the 'Blogger Roundtables,' progressive bloggers or anti-war military bloggers are rarely featured. Furthermore, small blogs like that of Fox News anchor Griff Jenkins are featured on the calls while more prominent progressive blogs are not," Khanna wrote.

Roundtable participant McQ (Bruce McQuain) responded to Think Progress's posting on October 25, 2007, writing:^[21]

"I've been a participant in this program for 3 to 4 months now. To say Think Progress doesn't know what it is speaking about would be to understate the point. It also wouldn't be unusual."First, there is no 'reserved space' for anyone. You get a notice by email that a particular person is available for a half-hour during a time (usually morning if the person is in Iraq) and date and you send an email back saying you'll be on-line or not. It could be 15 or 2 and I've been on calls with both size blogger contingents. You never know until you call in."

It should be noted that, although it is possible that as many as 15 bloggers could be listening to the conference calls, the transcripts do not reveal more than a maximum of 8 participants at any one given time. Additionally, Bruce McQuain did not start participating in the conference calls until the end of July 2007, nearly six months after the Bloggers' Roundtable began.

On the matter of "liberal bloggers are rarely featured", McQ writes:^[21]

"How do I know liberal blogs were invited. Because I've been on a call with at least one - Nicholas Beaudrot with EzraKlein.com was on a call with Jason Hyland, the Ninawa PRT leader on August 30th."To my knowledge, that is the only call he was on, and, I've not been on a call with any other liberal blogger, even though I know they've gotten invitations (as proven by the fact that Beaudrot was on). So what's the problem? Well if I had to guess, it's that the liberal blogs simply don't answer the invitations to participate. That isn't DoD's problem or fault."

In an update to its original posting, Think Progress reported that it had contacted the Pentagon and "they have agreed to allow us to participate in the bloggers roundtables," Khanna wrote.^[19] As of November 5, 2007, no one from Think Progress had participated.

Bloggers' Roundtable DoD website

The Bloggers' Roundtable website "provides source material for stories in the blogosphere concerning the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Global War on Terrorism by bloggers and online journalists. Where available, this includes transcripts, biographies, related fact sheets and video."

Bloggers' Roundtable blog roll

Beginning in February 2007, the OSD's New Media Operations Public Affairs office has arranged conference calls and teleconferences "during which senior Pentagon officials brief retired military officials, civilian defense and national security analysts, pundits, and bloggers. A few moderates are invited to take part, but the list of participants skews far, far to the right. The Pentagon essentially feeds participants the talking points, bullet points, and stories it wants told," Ken Silverstein wrote in July 2007.^[12]

The following blog roll of participants in conference calls and teleconferences with military and civilian personnel in both Iraq and at the Pentagon was compiled from session transcripts. Note that only a few bloggers participated on a regular basis, while most participated infrequently or as little as one time.

Spencer Ackerman, *Talking Points Memo*

Bill Ardolino, *Long War Journal* Blog and INDC Journal

Matt Armstrong, *MountainRunner* Blog.^[22][23]

David Axe, *Aviation Week* Group/*Defense Technology International*

Austin Bay, Pajamas Media; also writes a national security column for Creators Syndicate^[24]

Nicholas Beaudrot, *Electoral Math* Blog and EzraKlein.com

Tom Bevan, *RealClearPolitics* and Chicago Sun-Times

Robert Bluey, RedState.com

Ward Carroll, Military.com

Victoria Coates, RedState.com^[25]

Paul Crespo, NewsMax, et al.

David J. Danelo, *U.S. Cavalry ON Point* Blog (editor)

David Dilegge, *Small Wars Journal* Blog^[23]

John Donovan, *Argghhh! The Home Of two of Jonah's Military Guys* Blog

Megan Donovan, *The Gun Toting Liberal* Blog (Director of Business and Development)

Blake Dvorak, *RealClearPolitics* and The Washington Times

DJ Elliott, *The Long War Journal* Blog

Richard Fernandez, *The Belmont Club* Blog (Pajamas Media)

Steve Field, *The D-Ring* Blog^[26]

Mark Finklestein, NewsBusters and Media Research Center

Lt. Jarred Fishman, *The Air Force Pundit* Blogspot

Pamela Geller, *Atlas Shrugs* Blog

Gerry J. Gilmore, American Forces Press Service

Michael Goldfarb, The Weekly Standard (Goldfarb "brought the Scott Thomas affair to light" in July 2007^[26])

Grim of Blackfive.net

CJ Grisham, *A Soldier's Perspective* Blog (Noble Duty Milblogger)

Jonathan Gurwitz, editorial writer for the San Antonio Express-News and contributor to the Wall Street Journal's editorial page^[27]

John Hinderaker, Power Line Blog

Andi Hurley, *SpouseBUZZ* Blog (also of Andi's World and *MilBlogs*)

Marvin Hutchens, *ThreatsWatch* Blog

Griff Jenkins, *GriffsNotesDC* Blogspot and Fox News

Scott W. Johnson, Power Line Blog

Scott Kesterson, ScottKesterson.net

Andrea Shea King, *The Radio Patriot* Blog (Florida)

Christian Lowe, Military.com

Richard S. Lowry, author and guest blogger at *OPFOR*

Andrew Lubin, *U.S. Cavalry ON Point* Blog/AndrewLubin.com

Paul McLeary, *Aviation Week* Group./*Defense Technology International*. Columbia Journalism Review

Bruce McQuain, *The QandO Blog*

David Mays, American Forces Press Service

Sean Meade, *Aviation Week* Group/*Defense Technology International*

Alex Melonas, *The Gun Toting Liberal* Blog

Brendan Monocomb ?, *American Pundit* Blog

Cynthia Morgan, White Rose's Adventures Blog (CindyInIraq.com) and Noble Duty Milblogger Coalition

Ed Morrissey, *Captain's Quarters* Blog

Dave Price (blogger), *Dean's World* (Pajamas Media)

Charlie Quidnunc, *Wizbang* Podcast/Blog

Quidnunc wrote in July 2007^[28] "The Pentagon has been active participants in what Tony Snow described as a 'surge of facts' from Iraq to hold the line against the Democratic congress and their calls for withdrawal/redeployment/change of strategy/surrender. I've been on several conference calls this week with Lt. Generals, Lt. Colonels, Rear Admirals, and others who are sharing status updates with mil-bloggers like those at BlackFive US Cavalry OnPoint, The Belmont Club, and others."

Glenn Reynolds, *Instapundit* Blog (Pajamas Media)

Bill Roggio, The Weekly Standard; *The Long War Journal* Blog; The Fourth Rail Blog moved to BillRoggio.com

Samantha Sault, The Weekly Standard

Noah Schachtman, *Defense Technology International*

Steve Schippert, *ThreatsWatch* Blog

Jason Sigger, *Armchair Generalist* Blog^[22]

Paul Silva (Silver?)

Streiff, RedState.com

Clay Varney, *ThreatsWatch* Blog

Bloggers' Roundtable conference call and teleconference sessions

Charts of Bloggers' Roundtable sessions provide an overview by date (month/day/year), military or civilian contact, and the individual bloggers who participated in the conference calls or teleconferences. A link is provided for either the accompanying transcript, if it is available, or a news release covering the topic(s) discussed. Additionally, participants' blog postings are added as/if located and can be compared to actual session transcripts.

Transcripts and Participants: February-July 2007

Transcripts and Participants: August-October 2007

Transcripts and Participants: November-December 2007

Transcripts and Participants: January-March 2008

Podcast

The Pentagon Channel podcasts the Bloggers' Roundtable as "a weekly feature that sits senior military and civilian leaders down with bloggers, to provide updates, and frank and first hand perspective about ongoing operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere."^[29]

Video clips

U.S. Department of Defense video clips from the Bloggers' Roundtable can be accessed here.

Contact information

Department of Defense New Media Team

Phone: 703 325-0103

Email: bloggeroutreach AT hq.afis.osd.mil

URL: http://www.defenselink.mil/Blogger/Blogger.aspx

Resources

References

↑ This is according to conference call and teleconference transcripts.
↑ Faiz Shakir, " Think Progress, February 20, 2007.
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 ^3.2 Nikki Schwab, "Blogs Chronicle War from Soldiers' Perspectives," Washington Post, May 2, 2007.
↑ "Reuters Doctoring Photos from Beirut?" Little Green Footballs Blog, August 5, 2006.
↑ "Reuters drops Beirut photographer," BBC News (UK), August 8, 2006.
↑ ^6.0 ^6.1 Robert Bluey, "Blogging war," Townhall.com, April 13, 2007.
↑ Tim Kilbride, "'New Media' Program Seeks Opportunities in 24/7 Global Networks," American Forces Press Service, June 21, 2007.
↑ ^8.0 ^8.1 Tim Kilbride, "��New Media’ Program Seeks Opportunities in 24/7 Global Networks," American Forces Press Service, June 21, 2007.
↑ "For the Record", DefenseLink.mil.
↑ David Axe, "Pentagon Fights Back," DefenseTech.org, November 5, 2006.
�� Steve Field, "DoD: For the Record Blog," The D-Ring Blog, November 19, 2006.
↑ ^12.0 ^12.1 ^12.2 ^12.3 Ken Silverstein, "How the Pentagon’s 'Surrogates Operation' Feeds Stories to Administration-Friendly Media and Pundits," Harper's Magazine, July 19, 2007.
↑ ^13.0 ^13.1 ^13.2 Ken Silverstein, "Meet the Pentagon’s New Spin Unit: Bush Administration hacks court bloggers, talk radio," Harper's Magazine, July 16, 2007.
↑ ^14.0 ^14.1 ^14.2 Ken Silverstein, "Dissent from the Pentagon’s Blogger Roundtables: David Axe has second thoughts about DoD effort," Harper's Magazine, August 13, 2007.
↑ ^15.0 ^15.1 ^15.2 "Followup To 'Send A Liberal Blogger To Iraq' - DOD Receptive, Invites GTL Writer To Participate In Weekly Conference Calls," The Gun Toting Liberal Blog, March 31, 2007.
↑ sharris0512, "Updated 5:37 PM: RedState invited by Pentagon to report on Iraq (but Congressional auditors denied)," The Daily Kos, March 28, 2007. Also see "Help Send RedState To Iraq," RedState.com.
↑ "Will Bloggers Get it Right in Iraq?" Opinion Talk/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, April 2, 2007.
↑ Compare dates at Blogger, DefenseLink.mil. There are no archived postings for October 2007. On the subject of "Iraq Operations," there have been frequent interviews with military officers: 10 in June, 8 in July, 11 in August, but only 6 in September 2007.
↑ ^19.0 ^19.1 Satyam Khanna, "Pentagon Holds ‘Bloggers Roundtables’ To Cater To Right-Wing Noise Machine," Think Progress, October 25, 2007.
↑ "Department of Defense Bloggers Roundtable with Stephen Fakan, EPRT Team Leader, RCT 6 Via Conference Call from Fallujah," DefenseLink.mil, October 4, 2007.
↑ ^21.0 ^21.1 McQ, "Bloggers RoundTable and *Think Progress*, qando.net, October 25, 2007.
↑ ^22.0 ^22.1 It would appear that following Ken Silverstein's July 19, 2007, article, Jason Sigger of Armchair Generalist Blog and Matt Armstrong of Mountain Runner Blog got themselves invited to participate in the conference calls. Read "Selective Public Outreach," Armchair Generalist Blog, July 25, 2007.
↑ ^23.0 ^23.1 "Bloggers' Roundtable: PRTs in Iraq," Jig's Old Saws Blog, August 5, 2007.
↑ See Creators.com website.
↑ FWIW, "RedState Is Already In The Pentagon," The Daily Kos, March 28, 2007: Coates participated in the February 28, 2007, roundtable with Gen. Michael Walsh; March 16, 2007, roundtable with Brig. Gen. Terry Wolff, and the March 7, 2007, roundtable with Maj. Gen. William Caldwell.
↑ ^26.0 ^26.1 "Scott Thomas = Pvt Beauchamp = Liar?" D-Ring Blog, August 6, 2007.
↑ Bio: Jonathan Gurwitz, San Antonio Express-News website.
�� Charlie Quidnunc, "Bloggers Roundtable with the Commanding Generals," Wizbang Blog, July 19, 2007.
↑ Podcasts, Pentagon Channel. Subscription is required.

External articles

"FReeper Canteen ~ Milbloggers," Free Republic, July 2, 2007.
Grim, "Harpers v. the Blogger's Roundtable; The Left v. Petraeus," Blackfive.net, July 18, 2007.
"BlackFive Schools Harper's on Blogging," Jig's Old Saws Blog, July 22, 2007.
Ken Silverstein, "Not 'Terribly Compelling': Pentagon surrogates reply to criticism," Harper's Magazine, July 24, 2007.
"Selective Public Outreach," Armchair Generalist Blog, July 25, 2007.
Noah Schachtman, "Bloggers = Stooges?" Danger Room Blog/WIRED, July 25, 2007.
"Updating the blogger outreach," Mountain Runner Blog, July 26, 2007.
Grim, "More on the Blogger Roundtables & Mr. Silverstein," Blackfive.net, July 26, 2007.
"Military reaches out to bloggers," Brad's Place Blog, July 27, 2007.
"Bush meets with ‘friendly circle’ of military bloggers," Think Progress, September 16, 2007.

External resources

Categories: War/peace | Pro-war lobby | War propaganda | Blogging and Bloggers | Pentagon military analyst program

Conservative Fun with Andrew Breitbart et al. at Right Online

By Tina Dupuy

Jun 18 2011, 3:45 PM ET 7

Why is there a giant Koch-funded conservative gathering at the same time and in the same city as Netroots Nation, anyway?

Over the last couple of decades plenty of women have thought they were going into a medical clinic to get a free pregnancy test only to enter what's know as a crisis pregnancy center. Few of them offer actual health care, instead proselytizing against abortion, birth control and pre-marital sex to women at their most vulnerable. But these establishments often look like and are adjacent to Planned Parenthood or other women's clinics. They mimic these institutions to press their political agenda in the most confrontational way they can.

The right-wing Americans for Prosperity Foundation is using a similar tactic for -- wait for it -- blogger conferences. RightOnline describes itself on its website:

The RightOnline initiative was launched in July of 2008, with more than 600 activists and bloggers attending our first ever RightOnline Conference in Austin, Texas. It was the first conservative event to ever counter the leftwing Netroots Nation Convention ... an annual gathering of what the media called the most concentrated gathering of high-profile progressive bloggers to date.

Yes, Netroots Nation, founded as Yearly Kos in 2006, has for the last four years had to compete with a counter-conference in the same city and on the same weekend it's been held. While no one would ever mistake the conservative confab for the liberal one, the presence of a mimic conference with registration blocks in the same hotels insures that the Netroots crowd doesn't get a media and messaging weekend to itself.

RightOnline remains smaller than Netroots Nation. It boasts 1,500 attendees in Minneapolis this year to Netroots' 2,400. It's cheaper to attend RightOnline, too: $120 for registration, meals included, compared a staggering $355 per registration for Netroots. But that's partly because the two conferences, while both targeted to a blogger and online activist audience, are far from "opposite equals" (to use a math term).

Sponsored by the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, RighOnline benefits from the Foundation's annual budget of $10 million, overseen by board chairman David Koch, of Koch Industries-fame. Netroots' filings to the IRS show a budget of less than $1 million.

In short, the foundation putting on RightOnline has more than ten times the cash of the liberal tweeples two blocks away, making it easier to attend. You'd think then its attendees would be happy. But by the look of those at the gathering, they're a brooding bunch. And yes, the crowd with very few exceptions is entirely white. Netroots is a Benetton ad by comparison.

Tweeter @Mulletmanandy69 laid out some expectations for it as the conference got going, "Hoping for some good conservative fun at RightOnline. #ro2011"

What is conservative fun? Apparently it can be summed up in two words: Andrew Breitbart. Friday afternoon, on the first day of RightOnline, right-wing agitator Breitbart marched the block and a half to Netroots Nation in the sweltering heat with what he called an entourage. Some were left-wing bloggers there to record his annual blogger-con stunt. Yes, he's done this before at Netroots and with the same result. He shows up at the liberal gathering and cameras are put in his face. There's yelling. It's put on YouTube. And the Loki of RightOnline goes back to his conference being the undeserving victim of hippie hate. As Slate.com reporter Dave Weigel said to me the moment the news broke, "Every conference has to have a Breitbart moment, the last one that didn't was CPAC 2009."

The two staple speakers every year at RightOnline are Andrew Breitbart and his equally incensed blogger colleague, Michelle Malkin. It sets the tone. Provocateur James O'Keefe was celebrated by the crowd during his speech on Friday afternoon. His talk was curiously titled "The Left Exposed: Where Investigative Reporting Meets Online Activism." (It should be noted the 27-year-old is on probation for his antics.) Herman Cain was invited to speak, along with the two local Republicans hoping to secure the GOP presidential nomination for 2012, Rep. Michele Bachmann and former governor Tim Pawlenty. Most tellingly, there's what looks like a shrine to Sarah Palin, a 5-foot tall painting of the governor in the hallway of the event space. The documentary about her was screened for attendees Friday night but the media superstar herself is not on the list of speakers.

It's a conference about being online but the attendees haven't been tweeting very much. It's maybe one every ten minutes on their chosen hashtag #ro2011 -- compared to the Netroots twitter stream which has been a reliable geyser. Inside the meeting hall (on a stage that would be the absolute envy of an over-the-top Texas episode of "Toddlers and Tiaras") Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) gave a speech opening with the phrase "we share the same fear" and repeated it twice. She railed against Net Neutrality, the poorly named issue Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) has called the most important free speech issue of our time. But they don't need a conference to be against something Franken is for.

Perhaps that's why the conference has to be held next door to where Franken spoke. It's mainly to create the illusion of there only being two sides. You can find more than one opinion on every single issue imaginable at Netroots Nation. The attendees there agree absolutely on very little save the overwhelming compulsion to hand-wring. So why hold RightOnline so close by? Probably for the same reason pro-life groups set up fake clinics -- mimicking the other establishment at close range is about confronting their political agenda in an in-your-face way.

You could even call it conservative fun.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/06/conservative-fun-with-andrew-breitbart-et-al-at-right-online/240646/

thinkprog:

– Koch launches RightOnline, an effort to train right-wing operatives in using technology, to mimic the success of the left, particularly in blogging.

An organization called BlogPulse, which describes itself as "an automated trend discovery system," has teamed up with Hewlett Packard Labs to crawl the links of a thousand blogs to see what there is to see. Their findings are summarized in a paper by Lada Adamic and Natalie Glance titled The Political Blogosphere and the 2004 U.S. Election: Divided They Blog.

The use of the incubation technique is evident in a map of 8,000 blogs produced by Morningside Analytics for a joint investigation by Columbia University’s Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Reporting and Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. In addition to two large clusters of mostly longtime conservative and liberal bloggers, the map shows a ‘halo’ of about 500 relatively new blogs in two isolated clusters. One cluster includes several hundred anti-Obama blogs (orange) and the other contains several hundred pro-McCain and pro-Palin blogs (green). Most of them were created in mid-July 2007 or afterwards, and are listed listed on “blogrolls�� such as McCain Victory 2008 and the NoBama network.

2008 http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/blogged_down_in_the_past.php

slanders iraq war reporter http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2007/04/02/11553/ware-drudge/

http://66.39.128.35/index.php?title=Michael_Ware

coordinated attack?

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Pajamas_Media joe the plumber, TCC

Samuel Adams was the brewer and patriot who, in 1773, ginned up a mob of Bostonians dressed as Native Americans which conducted history's original Tea Party. The president of Sam Adams Alliance is John Tsarpalas, former executive director of the Illinois State Republican party. Eric O'Keefe, SAA's chairman and CEO, is a former executive director of the National Libertarian Party. He once worked for Citizens for Congressional Reform (pdf), a project of David Koch's Citizens for a Sound Economy. Along with noted Libertarian financier Howard Rich, O'Keefe sits on the board of directors of Americans for Limited Government.

Shortly before online activist Eric Odom helped kick-start the Tea Party movement, he was new media director for Sam Adams Alliance. This put him in charge of (among other things) setting up websites, coordinating Facebook groups, managing Twitter accounts and other social networking tasks. Odom's first known acts as a Tea Partier were to set up the OfficialChicagoTeaParty.com site and Facebook pages within hours of Rick Santelli's February rant, then spreading word through Twitter, initially utilizing #TCOT, a Twitter list and hashtag for Top Conservatives on Twitter.

Both Odom and another former Sam Adams Alliance staffer, Ken Marrero, are now leaders of American Liberty Alliance. Odom is executive director and Marrero is director of grassroots outreach and coalitions. Marrero was a regional new media specialist with Sam Adams Alliance. In July 2008 he described Sam Adams Alliance as "an outgrowth of, I think, visions and dreams from some people who started at Americans for Limited Government."

John Tillman served as president and director of Americans for Limited Government during its start-up phase as well. According to the Illinois Policy Institute, Tillman grew Americans for Limited Government "from a single, part-time employee in May of 2004 to a staff of approximately 25 that had a significant impact on political activity in 13 states in 2006."

Tillman is also president and CEO of the Illinois Policy Institute. Within hours of Rick Santelli's rant, Kristina Rasmussen, who had just been hired as the Executive Vice President by the Illinois Policy Institute that morning, helped kick start the Chicago Tea Party by participating in a February 19 conference call to plan the event. Rasmussen, who was then the Director of Government Affairs at National Taxpayers Union, was the second speaker on the call. Tillman also serves on Sam Adams Alliance's board of directors and was president and COO of Sam Adams Alliance during its start up phase.

Odom formed American Liberty Alliance in March of this year through a combination of the gift of Sam Adams Alliance's :{blogivists:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:.com, a conservative blog hosting hub, and the #DontGo movement, founded by Odom in 2008 to support offshore drilling.

American Liberty Alliance is not the only Sam Adams Alliance affiliate in this fight, however. American Majority, a self-described "political training institute", is a "concept" of Sam Adams Alliance, which in turn describes itself as AM's "sponsor". American Majority staff includes former George W Bush speechwriter Ned Ryun, regional field director for Bush/Cheney '04 Lonny Leitner, former Republican state legislator Shari Weber, and former director of operations at the Oklahoma Republican Party, Matt Pinnell.

American Majority also got involved this summer on Sam Adams Alliance's American Liberty Tour, offering organizer trainings prior to each tour event. The Tour itself was billed as a project of American Liberty Alliance, Sam Adams Alliance and Americans for Limited Government.

Long before Sam Adams Alliance's recent website redesign, they altered an internship recruitment page that connected Sam Adams Alliance to Koch Industries: "Interested parties can apply for a Sam Adams Alliance internship through the Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow Program administered by the Institute for Humane Studies and the State Policy Network." The internship is still listed on the IHS website. Charles Koch founded the IHS. The internship page existed up until the site's ongoing redesign, but recently the Koch reference was absent from the Sam Adams Alliance website. An article in Playboy Magazine, taken down almost as soon as it was posted, claimed the Koch reference was scrubbed on Feb. 16. Three days later, Santelli's rant kick-started the Tea Party movement, enabled by Odom's on-line assistance.

Read full coverage detailing the various parts of the Anatomy of the Tea Party Movement:

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Defamation By Internet? Part 1 - Murry Salby's Short-Lived Blog Storm 8/27

Blogs driving the news

WaPo Driving the "Right"

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RedState blogger boosts Wal-Mart for bucks

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Microsoft the enforcer

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How An Austrian Blogger's Report That Paul Krugman Filed For Bankruptcy Ended Up On Boston.com

Blog››› March 11, 2013 6:01 PM EDT ››› JOE STRUPP

Web News Experts: Bogus Krugman Story Shows Dangers of "Mechanical Aggregation"

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