SOCIAL NETWORKS

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THIS ALSO REFERS TO NETWORK THEORY IN GENERALand SOCIAL MEDIA
promoted primary on trump

=Although Spencer has positioned himself as the effective leader of the Alt-Right, other proponents include several well-known names on the far right, including <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/jared-taylor" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 0.3s;">Jared Taylor</a> , editor of the <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/american-renaissance" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 0.3s;">American Renaissance</a> racist journal; Greg Johnson of the publishing house Counter-Currents; Matthew Parrott and <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/matthew-heimbach" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 0.3s;">Matthew Heimbach</a> of the Traditionalist Youth Network; and Mike Enoch, who runs The Right Stuff blog. But the general population of the Alt-Right is composed, by and large, of anonymous youths who were exposed to the movement’s ideas through online message boards like 4chan and 8chan’s /pol/ and Internet platforms like Reddit and Twitter.=<div>aha clickbait CEC plus big data plus dark $? //Bb?</div><div>
</div><div><div><div>XANDRIA, Va. — Last week, with the midterm elections fast approaching, the conservative website Independent Journal Review was not focused on the control of the Senate or crucial statehouse races. Instead, it led its home page with a gruesome beheading on Long Island and a video of a belligerent drunk being arrested at a Dallas airport.</div><div>
</div><div>But sprinkled throughout the attention-grabbing fare was a steady stream of articles critical of President Obama and other Democrats. “Obama’s schedule from today shows how toxic he is to Democrats running for Senate,” read one headline. Another asked, “Did Hillary intentionally talk over a crowd singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to her?” (The sub-headline: “If elected president, she would be the second oldest in history.”)</div><div>
</div><div>IJReview, a two-year-old site started by a pair of Republican operatives, has emerged as one of the most popular online destinations for conservatives. The site mixes entertaining, shareable topics like pets through a conservative-values lens (for example, a recent piece about a dog helping to heal a sick veteran) with articles about politics and policy.</div><div>
</div><div>“It’s like if you crossed RedState with BuzzFeed,” said Alex Castellanos, a Republican political consultant and an adviser to IJReview.</div></div></div><a href="http://reader.eblib.com.oca.ucsc.edu/(S(iv5ndlxchhxpmp12hwjrz4p5))/Reader.aspx?p=1998231&o=972&u=NQhE2P7Ip5T5VfRx8ENUTw%3d%3d&t=1485720743&h=B810A83442DCA2A47C06B3D33512F695DA9BCCD8&s=52909113&ut=3189&pg=22&r=img&c=-1&pat=n&cms=-1&sd=2">http://reader.eblib.com.oca.ucsc.edu/(S(iv5ndlxchhxpmp12hwjrz4p5))/Reader.aspx?p=1998231&o=972&u=NQhE2P7Ip5T5VfRx8ENUTw%3d%3d&t=1485720743&h=B810A83442DCA2A47C06B3D33512F695DA9BCCD8&s=52909113&ut=3189&pg=22&r=img&c=-1&pat=n&cms=-1&sd=2</a><h2 class="briefcitTitle" style="font-size: 1.0625em; display: inline; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 228);"><a href="http://cruzcat.ucsc.edu/search_{S5?/tNetworks+of+Outrage+and+Hope&searchby=3/tnetworks+of+outrage+and+hope/1%2C1%2C2%2CB/frameset&FF=tnetworks+of+outrage+and+hope+social+movements+in+the+internet+age&1%2C%2C2}" style="color: rgb(124, 20, 184);">Networks of outrage and hope : social movements in the Internet age</a></h2>  Castells, Manuel, 1942- Cambridge, UK ; Malden, MA : Polity Press, 2012.<table id="bib_items" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="2" align="center" class="bibItems" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px rgb(211, 211, 211); background: none rgb(255, 255, 228); clear: both; padding: 8px 0px 0px; margin: auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.4928px;"><tbody><tr class="bibItemsEntry"><td width="32%" style="border-top: 1px solid rgb(236, 236, 236); border-bottom: none; vertical-align: top; padding: 1px 8px; margin: 0px;"> <a href="https://library.ucsc.edu/mchenry/mchenry-library-floor-plans" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(124, 20, 184);">McH Stacks</a></td><td width="40%" style="border-top: 1px solid rgb(236, 236, 236); border-bottom: none; vertical-align: top; padding: 1px 8px; margin: 0px;"> <a href="http://cruzcat.ucsc.edu/search_{S5?/cHM851+.C369+2012/chm++851+c369+2012/-3,-1,,E/browse}" style="color: rgb(124, 20, 184);">HM851 .C369 2012</a>  </td></tr></tbody></table><a href="http://netchange.co/distributed-organizing-in-directed-network-campaigns" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">http://netchange.co/distributed-organizing-in-directed-network-campaigns</a>...<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; vertical-align: baseline;"><h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: 500; line-height: 33px !important;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; vertical-align: baseline;">How much autonomy is too much?</h2></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; vertical-align: baseline;">In Manuel Castell’s <a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/book.asp?ref=9780745695761" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; vertical-align: baseline;">Networks of Outrage and Hope </a>– an analysis of distributed movements from the Arab Spring and the Indignados through Occupy Wall Street – the author attempts to map the forces behind new horizontal uprisings. Castells first talks of emotional triggers built into the causes themselves as important drivers of spontaneous mobilization. Beyond the causes, Castells focuses on technology (social networks) as an enabler of remote organizing and the autonomy of self-starting groups as being key factors behind the momentum these movements have generated.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; vertical-align: baseline;">The movements Castells writes about rose and fell quickly, while the climate campaigning organization <a href="http://350.org/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">350.org</a> and anti-street harassment network <a href="http://www.ihollaback.org/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">Hollaback! </a>are still going strong years later. These two campaign-based organizations seem to draw from the horizontal logic and tactics of Occupy while capitalizing on new networked technologies. Both also claim to be facilitating the rise of grassroots-led movements.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; vertical-align: baseline;">Despite the relative autonomy of their local chapters, however, a closer look at the operational structures behind Hollaback! and 350.org reveals a good amount of top-down framing and central leadership.<h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: 500; line-height: 33px !important;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; vertical-align: baseline;">An ‘action-worthy’ cause</h2><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; vertical-align: baseline;">Before getting down to tactics, it is worth spending time looking at the importance of the issues being acted upon. In <a href="https://medium.com/organizer-sandbox/how-we-make-change-is-changing-part-i-5326186575e6#.5c21kyly4" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; vertical-align: baseline;">How We Make Change is Changing</a>, campaigners and writers Marisa Franco, B Loewe and Tania Unzueta note that finding an “action-worthy problem and solutions” is an essential first step. According to these organizers, action-worthy causes must answer to two questions: “Does the problem you are trying to solve really matter to anyone?” and “Is the solution you propose realistic and effective?”<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; vertical-align: baseline;">Both 350.org and Hollaback! are working on issues that affect people at a personal level across the world. On street harassment, the cause at the heart of Hollaback!’s campaigning, Executive Director Emily May notes that: “Unfortunately, we have a huge population of young women and LGBT folks who have been affected by this and have no resources to deal with it.” For 350.org’s Social Media Manager, Thelma Young, “Climate change is affecting people in communities all across the world. It’s become personal now, so people are more likely to mobilize.”<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; vertical-align: baseline;">When it comes acting on these causes, Hollaback! and 350.org have carefully framed responses to issues for their members while making sure that proposed actions are straightforward and doable.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; vertical-align: baseline;">In its <a href="http://www.ihollaback.org/take-action/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">Take Action guides,</a> Hollaback!’s HQ builds on years of organizing to pull together best practices for new members. Their guide leads newbies through a series of simple entry-level actions, such as sharing their stories with the community or organizing a ‘<a href="http://wechalkwalk.tumblr.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">chalk walk’</a> to the wholesale activation and leadership of a new Hollaback! local chapter.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; vertical-align: baseline;">350.org, for its part, has centrally planned and conceived climate action ideas for its followers from the start. Beginning with their <a href="http://beautifultrouble.org/tactic/distributed-action/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">Global Day of Climate action in 2009</a> through the People’s Climate March and the Fossil-Free Divestment campaign, 350.org has been clear about what its members can do on their own turf to fight climate change.<h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: 500; line-height: 33px !important;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; vertical-align: baseline;">Getting autonomy right</h2></div>1/3/17 soc network analysis of chicago gun // public health approach effort npr=amplifying feedback:social network "supernode"luther 95 thesis were statement he wanted to have a debate, al l greeks, but picted up by one printer, then copies copiedstandage writing on the wallsil valley "accelerant"  https://kpfa.org/episode/letters-and-politics-december-28-2016/aha; trump may be the culmination of disabling of moderation: free press, then clickbaitfake news propagated by twitter and facebook and googletrump twitter candidacy fed TV coverge; donny as proto trolltwitter botsaha:7/16
social media create maw

that must be fed, so good use of cheap student labor is all those

interns; they get instant feedback, can network, can work their way up

ring within org eg FIRE) or up escalator: ctt, legislative aide,

staffer, spokesperson, oppo res, candidate
[caption with derigeur unflattering foto: A group of conservative leaders calls on Americans to urge their

representatives in Washington to protect citizens from abuse by IRS

officials such as Lois Lerner, above. ] cute Portrait of Leah Jessen, so a PR platform for baby ideological entre?
@LeahKay

Leah Jessen is a news reporter for The Daily Signal and graduate of The Heritage Foundation's Young Leaders Program. Send an email to Leah.
fang machine 2013
<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ch 5 social media
<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">instead of change ideas post 2008 loss, gop improved info delivery via soc med (already had direct mail radio etc)
<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">heritage and nat rev --> Townhall //drudge msg coordination 154  precursor TCC aei James Glassman w/ DCI (laster GWB Inst in dallas
<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">rt had media dominance, but got lazy after kerry win; edelman peer-to peer (3rd party spin?) IN imp form of info; 2008 edelman study of BO online efforts by Krempasky --> REDstate (mirror daily kos) later boosted TP 157  TPM broke AG fire
<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">tpm instant fact check McC
<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">bozell at CNP decried left gains (MRC made media left meme myth ; google wikipedia and FB said leftists
<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ning illusion of open democ platform; TPP fed info by FWs; FWs and iol paid Odom 167
<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ypucut scam .017%
<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">porter Novelli videogames ~ aca; OcO hooter certificates 168
<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fleishman Hill mirror BO online 169
<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">CoC paid google to redirect fang query to ~ www 169
<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">scott brown teddy seat Am Fut Fund, twitter spam vs Martha Coakley 171
<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">geo allen r va media tracker dem --> Macaca 173  rising star; McC shaky vid seems authentic vs slick media 173
<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">scripted rants at town halls led dems to not run for re-election, some videos, some were stealth staffers eg etheridge
<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">perrileo dirty tricks, followed by Marchi AFP 176
<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">daily caller 2010 tucker carlson  mirror huffpo: news, invest jrnl, ent and pol gossip; Martosko oppos res for Berman 177  Blaze, PJ (anti muslim, pro-Israel ) escalator: afp ~ clAA--> pj made news pkg (VNR/fake news? 179 
ning->fake tweet -->pjtv videos -->dailyc/blaze --> viral vid, digg bury correction 180.raytheon RIOT scrapes http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15817&printsafe=1=<h1 class="headline" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0.4em; padding: 0px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.2em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Reddit’s science forum banned climate deniers. Why don’t all newspapers do the same?</h1><section class="article-body" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(42, 42, 42);">In addition to my career as a PhD chemist, I am one of a select few who enjoy the privilege of moderating content on <a href="http://reddit.com/" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(157, 157, 157); text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%;">reddit.com</a>’s science forum. The science forum is a small part of reddit, but it nonetheless enjoys over 4 million subscribers. By comparison, that’s roughly twice the circulation of The New York Times.The forum, known as <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/science" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(157, 157, 157); text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%;">/r/science,</a> provides a digital space for discussions about recent, peer-reviewed scientific publications. This puts us (along with <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(157, 157, 157); text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%;">/r/AskScience</a>) on the front line of the science-public interface. On our little page, scientists and nonscientists can connect through discussions on everything from subatomic particles to interstellar astrophysics.As a moderator of this discussion, I’ve observed scientific discourse across a wide variety of disciplines. I consider it a microcosm, representative of the vast range of views that can be supported by empirical evidence. Importantly, it provides the same window for those who are not scientists, who do not regularly talk with PhDs, and who may be unfamiliar with how science is discussed by scientists. In essence, it is a window into the Ivory Tower.Given that our users are mainly academics (and all are nerds), the discussion generally resembles any scientific debate. That is, there are always numerous links to peer-reviewed science to support positions, people don’t deliberately mislead or misrepresent content, and there is a basic level of respect shared regardless of position. When a user strays from such decorum, they are kindly warned and, if necessary, the comment is removed.Some issues, however, are particularly contentious. While evolution and vaccines do have their detractors, no topic consistently evokes such rude, uninformed, and outspoken opinions as climate change.Instead of the reasoned and civil conversations that arise in most threads, when it came to climate change the comment sections became a battleground. Rather than making thoughtful arguments based on peer-reviewed science to refute man-made climate change, contrarians immediately resorted to aggressive behaviors. On one side, deniers accused any of the hard-working scientists whose research supported and furthered our understanding of man-made climate change of being bought by “Big Green.” On the other side, deniers were frequently insulted and accused of being paid to comment on reddit by “Big Oil.”After some time interacting with the regular denier posters, it became clear that they could not or would not improve their demeanor. These problematic users were not the common “internet trolls” looking to have a little fun upsetting people. Such users are practically the norm on reddit. These people were true believers, blind to the fact that their arguments were hopelessly flawed, the result of cherry-picked data and conspiratorial thinking. They had no idea that the smart-sounding talking points from their preferred climate blog were, even to a casual climate science observer, plainly wrong. They were completely enamored by the emotionally charged and rhetoric-based arguments of pundits on talk radio and Fox News.As a scientist myself, it became clear to me that the contrarians were not capable of providing the science to support their “skepticism” on climate change. The evidence simply does not exist to justify continued denial that climate change is caused by humans and will be bad. There is always legitimate debate around the cutting edge of research, something we see regularly. But with climate change, science that has been established, constantly tested, and reaffirmed for decades was routinely called into question.Over and over, solid peer-reviewed science was insulted as corrupt, while blog posts from fossil-fuel-funded groups were cited as objective fact. Worst of all, they didn’t even get the irony of quoting oil-funded blogs that called university scientists biased.The end result was a disservice to science and to rational exploration, not to mention the scholarly audience we are proud to have cultivated. When <a href="http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/2/024024/article" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(157, 157, 157); text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%;">97 percent of climate scientists agree that man is changing the climate</a>, we would hope the comments would at least acknowledge if not reflect such widespread consensus. Since that was not the case, we needed more than just an ad hoc approach to correct the situation.The answer was found in the form of proactive moderation. About a year ago, we moderators became increasingly stringent with deniers. When a potentially controversial submission was posted, a warning would be issued stating the rules for comments (most importantly that your comment isn’t a conspiracy theory) and advising that further violations of the rules could result in the commenter being banned from the forum.As expected, several users reacted strongly to this. As a site, reddit is passionately dedicated to free speech, so we expected considerable blowback. But the widespread outrage we feared never materialized, and the atmosphere greatly improved.We discovered that the disruptive faction that bombarded climate change posts was actually substantially smaller than it had seemed. Just a small handful of people ran all of the most offensive accounts. What looked like a substantial group of objective skeptics to the outside observer was actually just a few bitter and biased posters with more opinions then evidence.Negating the ability of this misguided group to post to the forum quickly resulted in a change in the culture within the comments. Where once there were personal insults and bitter accusations, there is now discussion of the relevant aspects of the research. Instead of (almost comically) paranoid and delusional conspiracy theories, we have knowledgeable users explaining complicated concepts to non-scientists who are simply interested in understanding the research. While we won’t claim /r/science is perfect, users seem happy with the changes made.Like our commenters, professional climate change deniers have an outsized influence in the media and the public. And like our commenters, their rejection of climate science is not based on an accurate understanding of the science but on <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2013/nov/08/climage-change-denial-celebrity-not-science" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(157, 157, 157); text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%;">political preferences and personality</a>. As moderators responsible for what millions of people see, we felt that to allow a handful of commenters to so purposefully mislead our audience was simply immoral.So if a half-dozen volunteers can keep a page with more than 4 million users from being a microphone for the antiscientific, is it too much to ask for newspapers to police their own editorial pages as proficiently?<a id="grist-end-of-article" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(237, 95, 0); max-width: 100%;" /></section><section class="author-bio clear margin-bottom-x4" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 1.5em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a id="grist-end-of-article" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(237, 95, 0); max-width: 100%;"></a><a id="grist-end-of-article" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(237, 95, 0); max-width: 100%;">Nathan Allen is a PhD chemist for a major chemical company, and the opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the position of his company. He also is a volunteer moderator of </a><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/science" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(157, 157, 157); text-decoration: none;">reddit.com/r/science</a>.=pjt c; militias use soc netowrks</section>===

===

lee fang:

Republican politicians or did not generally skew toward the right. Many of the early Internet innovations from conservatives relied on simply creating new models of one-way content distribution. But the rise in Internet culture, in which users expect decentralized networks and user-created content and control, has forced the Right to adopt more sophisticated strategies to reach the public.

A central dynamic created by the growth of new media is the proliferation of virtual communities. The Obama campaign in 2008 tried to harness this trend by creating MyBarackObama, an interface for campaign supporters to create online identities, connect with other supporters and publicize their campaign activity. The technology was based on Howard Dean’s successful use of the web site Meetup, used in 2004 to network and find fellow supporters. By showcasing their own contributions in the form of pictures, videos and “points” for volunteer service, MyBarackObama did more than simply foster engagement. They created a social premium for volunteers to share their contributions with others. Also, users of MyBarackObama, like the Obama campaign generally, saw themselves as insurgents fighting against entrenched powers, from the Democratic establishment during the primary with Hillary Clinton, to special interests and Washington insiders during the general election. The online community gave Obama campaign operatives a wealth of information about its supporters, and the seemingly walled structure (although it was open to anyone) of such a network provided a sense of togetherness for people inside that community.

Just as insurgency helped the large MyBarackObama community create tight bonds as an ideologically coherent community, Obama’s victory undid them. Shortly after Obama took office, Democratic planners moved the MyBarackObama listserv and online community into the apparatus of the Democratic National Committee, converting it into Organizing for America. The social capital of the community evaporated quickly as the DNC ordered the community to support conservative politicians like Democrat Ben Nelson of Nebraska, or to simply fall in line with the agenda of the president, even when policies drifted from ideologically pure campaign promises that had brought people to the web site initially.

While MyBarackObama died a quick death as a functional community, the Right went to work building communities to oppose Obama and his agenda. Republican consultants flocked to Ning, an easy tool to create entire social networks for niche communities. Ning replicates common features of any social network: Users may create online identities, send messages within the network, post links and news articles, and create events for offline activities.

Template Ning networks provided the Right with the ability to quickly assemble Tea Party groups without the appearance of top-heavy Republican partisanship. Eric Odom, the former new media director of Sam Adams Alliance, used his consulting firms Strategic Activism and American Liberty Alliance to create dozens of ready-made Ning web sites to cultivate the early stages of the Tea Party movement. Some Tea Party groups he created, like the Patriot Caucus, were geared toward a national constituency, while others catered to specific localities, such as Lehigh County in Pennsylvania. Although the web sites appeared to be citizen generated, all of Odom’s sites were actually centrally planned and operated. Every major Tea Party organization got in on the act: Smart Girl Politics, working with Odom’s colleagues, created a Ning for Tea Party women; Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, used her Liberty Central group to help local Tea Party groups in Florida build Ning web sites; and the lobbying firm Libertas Global Partners created Regular Folks united using Ning to organize Tea Party groups. Grassroots Action Inc., a company that thrived by building huge email and petition lists using conservative outrage over immigrants or gay rights, operated as a business by selling its lists to corporate or politics interests. After Obama’s election, Grassroots Action redesigned their network as a Ning, called ResistNet. Even Glenn Beck, with his so-called 9/12 movement, used Ning to develop local and national communities of supporters.

The power of Ning is the illusion of open, democratic communities. Republican operators and consultants in control of most of the Tea Party Nings set the agenda, administer the talking points available on the main page, and have the ability to censor information they disapprove of. Tea Party Patriots, one of the largest Ning communities of over 100,000 members, was regularly fed action items by lobbyist-run entities such as FreedomWorks. So when members of Tea Party community web sites received emails from web site administrators to call Congress to oppose a student lending bill or hold a rally against a Democratic member of Congress, the orders appeared to come from community members of their respective Ning networks. To the casual user, the site appeared to be maintained by citizen activists, but in many cases the actual online organizers worked for right-wing corporate fronts or a Republican campaign. Functionally, the Ning social networks provided grassroots cover for the oil interests funding FreedomWorks or Republican campaigns paying Odom.

</div>

===

SEE WHEREGOOD IDEAS NOTES

Ruef at Stanford found that creative ppl have broad network diverse 166 // Ron Burt found innovation in ppl who bridge "structural holes" between tightly knot clusters 167 (U of Chic studying RAytheon! Chapter 7 The Social Capital of Structural Holes Ronald S. Burt

faculty.chicagobooth.edu/ronald.burt/research/files/scsh.pdf

Structural Holes and Good Ideas

www.econ.upf.edu/docs/seminars/burt.pdf

===

fail:

Medical examiners identified Sunil Tripathi, 22, through dental records, but the cause of death has not been determined yet.

Last week, amateur sleuths wrongly identified Sunil as the Bomber Marathon bomber on the social media site Reddit. As the Atlantic’s Alexis Madrigal chronicled, Sunil’s name blew into the mainstream after Greg Hughes, who followed the Tripathi crowd sourcing, tweeted that he had heard the Brown student’s name on the Boston Police scanner. (Hughes’ Twitter account @ghughesca, has since been deactivated).

Soon, a Facebook group set up to find Sunil became bombarded with hateful messages, forcing his family to take the page down. As <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013/04/25/boston-bombing-social-media-student-brown-university-reddit/2112309/">AP notes</a>, Sunil’s name briefly surfaced onto Twitter’s top trends’ list.

"The last eighteen hours have generated tremendous and painful attention -- on social media platforms Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit, as well as from television media inquiries -- linking Sunil to the video stills released by the FBI yesterday afternoon," the Tripathi family said in a statement last week.

Reddit general manager Erik Martin released an apology Monday, pledging to “look at what happened and make sure that in the future we do everything we can to help and not hinder crisis situations.”

Immediately following confirmation of Sunil’s death, the Tripathi family set up a Sunil Tripathi memorial fund, announcing that, “As soon as we are able to, we will select organizations reflecting Sunil's spirit, particularly those focusing on mental health and environmental sustainability.” The <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Help-Us-Find-Sunil-Tripathi/403275636436466">family also posted this message</a>:

As we carry indescribable grief, we also feel incredible gratitude. To each one of you–from our hometown to many distant lands–we extend our thanks for the words of encouragement, for your thoughts, for your hands, for your prayers, and for the love you have so generously shared.

Your compassionate spirit is felt by Sunil and by all of us.

This last month has changed our lives forever, and we hope it will change yours too. Take care of one another. Be gentle, be compassionate. Be open to letting someone in when it is you who is faltering. Lend your hand. We need it. The world needs it.

With love,

The Tripathi Family

</blockquote>

UPDATE: An earlier version of this article ommited that Sunil Tripathi had been missing since March 16. It was not my intention to mislead, and I regret the omission. -Steven Hsieh

===

<h4 class="meta">04:45 PM - November 9, 2011</h4>

<h3 class="title">The Kochs and Keystone XL</h3>

InsideClimate fails to make its case about brothers’ interest in the pipeline—but it should keep trying

By <a href="http://www.cjr.org/author/curtis-brainard-1/">Curtis Brainard</a>

<li><a href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cjr.org%2Fthe_observatory%2Fthe_kochs_and_keystone_xl.php" class="facebook" title="Submit this article to Facebook">Facebook</a></li>

<li><a href="http://twitter.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cjr.org%2Fthe_observatory%2Fthe_kochs_and_keystone_xl.php&text=CJR%20The%20Kochs%20and%20Keystone%20XL&via=cjr" class="twitter" title="Submit this article to Twitter">Twitter</a></li>

<li><a target="_blank" class="email">Email</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.cjr.org/the_observatory/the_kochs_and_keystone_xl.php?page=all&print=true" target="_blank" class="print">Print</a></li>

</div></li>

</ul>

Koch Industries, a giant oil and energy conglomerate, has InsideClimate News, a four-year-old online news startup, in its crosshairs.

In October, the company launched an online ad campaign via Google, Facebook, and its KochFacts.com website (which rebuts coverage it finds unsatisfactory) claiming that InsideClimate “misleads readers and asserts outright falsehoods” about Koch’s interest in the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. The pipeline would transport crude oil from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada, to Gulf Coast refineries in the US, and has drawn vigorous opposition from environmentalists. Koch’s ads feature a jaundiced image InsideClimate’s founder and publisher, David Sassoon, calling him the “activist/owner” of the site. Sassoon calls the ads “media intimidation.”

===

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Party-Remaking-Republican-Conservatism/dp/0199832633/ref=pd_sim_b_2">http://www.amazon.com/The-Party-Remaking-Republican-Conservatism/dp/0199832633/ref=pd_sim_b_2</a> says twitter drudge imp early on, then rw blogs and radio

--

abboud sock puppet twitter

bs bio

<a href="http://chrisabboudpublicaffairs.com/about_us">http://chrisabboudpublicaffairs.com/about_us</a>  casino, Qwest

<a href="http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2010/10/gop-beating-democrats-with-social-media-for-midterm-elections298.html">http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2010/10/gop-beating-democrats-with-social-media-for-midterm-elections298.html</a>

If 2008 was the year that social networks like Facebook and Twitter broke through to mainstream America, then 2010 is shaping up to be the election year that's defined by social media.

Consider that three out of five Americans who consider themselves somewhat politically active are members of a social network, and 70 percent of them expect to vote on Nov. 2, according to a recent study from the E-Voter Institute.

Meanwhile, a report from the non-partisan HeadCount.org shows Republicans appear to be more engaged online than Democrats in this election cycle. Out of the current crop of Senate candidates, the Republicans have more than 1.4 million friends on Facebook and over 500,000 followers on Twitter.

By contrast, the Democratic Senate candidates have roughly 300,000 friends on Facebook and around 90,000 followers on Twitter as of September 21...Democrats were early adopters of social media, user-generated content and blogging, but it appears that Republican supporters have caught up with, and in some ways surpassed, their rivals online....In contrast to the 2008 presidential elections, many campaigns are choosing traditional forms of political advertising instead of online ads. "This year, ascendant Republicans are flush with cash," wrote Mike Shields at AdWeek. "So why not spend big on TV and use the web for its free communications platforms." Shields cited a Borrell Associates estimate that about $44 million would be spent on web ads but that would make up a miniscule fraction of total ad spending this year.

<a href="http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2010/10/04/herding_donkeys_examines_how_howard_dean_and_the_dnc_harnessed_democrats_grass_roots_activism_in_2008/">http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2010/10/04/herding_donkeys_examines_how_howard_dean_and_the_dnc_harnessed_democrats_grass_roots_activism_in_2008/</a>

leddy

boston

With the Tea Party movement booming on the right, Democrats are facing an “enthusiasm gap,’’ which many predict could cost them control of Congress come Election Day. Yet Democrats have not always been so alienated from their base.

In “Herding Donkeys,’’ Ari Berman, political correspondent for The Nation, chronicles how the Democrats’ harnessing of grass-roots activism ultimately propelled Barack Obama to the White House in 2008. Berman traces the party’s electoral gains in 2006 and 2008 to Howard Dean, who as a presidential hopeful in 2004 used digital technology to expand the base of the entire party. Berman describes how Obama adopted and built upon this same strategy to defeat John McCain.

</div>

Berman’s voluminous reporting, based on interviews with campaign insiders, tracks how Dean first embraced this “netroots’’ strategy as chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Dean was an outsider who had become disillusioned with both the regionalization of the party (strong in the Northeast and Midwest, but conceding much of the South and West to Republicans) and its tendency to seek the safe middle ground by accommodating Republican ideas such as welfare reform, deregulation, and the war in Iraq. As chairman of the DNC, Dean encountered a party controlled by Washington insiders and veteran political consultants, none of whom he much liked. And they loathed him.

</div>

Dean decided to make huge changes in the party’s ossified structure. “Dean had a simple message,’’ Berman writes, that “there were Democrats everywhere . . . and under his leadership the party would travel to all fifty states to find them. No longer would Democrats be a party of eighteen states dominated by a small circle of well-endowed political consultants.’’ Moreover, Dean helped pioneer a “small donor revolution’’ that would use the grass roots to match the traditional “big donor’’ power of Republicans. And it worked. Berman’s detailed reporting shows how Dean’s “fifty-state strategy’’ energized long-forgotten Democratic activists in supposed “red states’’ like South Carolina, Colorado, and Indiana.

</div>

Dean revamped the DNC’s fossilized information systems. He “began overhauling the DNC’s relationship with its online constituents, redesigning the website, conversing over blogs and e-mail, making sure grass-roots activists knew their state party officials and vice versa.’’ Dean also used social networking tools to build a powerful political network for Democrats. Additionally, he provided DNC money to cash-strapped local Democratic organizations. These actions broadened the Democratic base and brought many supposed red states into play for Obama.

</div>

Berman shows how Obama leveraged Dean’s fifty-state strategy and energized grass roots to run an insurgency campaign that would defeat first Hillary Clinton and then McCain. So effective was Obama’s grass-roots strategy that McCain would use his vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, to bolster his own grass-roots standing.

</div>

Yet after Obama’s landmark victory, Dean was shoved aside, receiving neither credit nor a place in the cabinet. Berman describes how many activists have since become disillusioned with President Obama, believing his relationship with the grass roots is a one-way affair: happy to have their votes and money, but not to serve their interests. Berman bemoans that Obama has governed with Beltway insiders such as Rahm Emanuel and Larry Summers: “The decision to stock his administration with weathered fixtures of the Beltway establishment and rely on a much-despised legislative branch to slice and dice his ambitious agenda’’ has frustrated the grass roots, Berman writes.

</div>

Whether Obama, or any Democrat, can govern using the grass roots (beyond just winning elections with them) is still unclear, but Berman asserts Obama has not even tried. And he may yet pay the price in November.

<div>

HERDING DONKEYS: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics

By Ari Berman

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 288 pp., $26

</div>

---

wired 2004

<a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.01/dean.html">http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.01/dean.html</a>

Meetup

"It's the swarm that drives the story, not the queen ant," says Steven Johnson, author of Emergence. For months, local meetups, including the regular Dean meetups in Marin, have been composing handwritten letters to Iowa Democrats, asking them to support Dean.

This past summer, polls showed Dean behind Dick Gephardt in Iowa. After 30,000 handwritten letters went out from the July 2 meetups, Dean surged, and by August the polls had him tied with Gephardt or pulling into the lead. In New Hampshire in midsummer, Dean was behind Kerry. At the August 6 meetups, tens of thousands of letters were mailed to New Hampshire. By the end of the month, Dean was in first place with a double-digit lead he has maintained ever since. By taking a set of widely dispersed supporters and converting them into a swarm of personal advocates, Dean's campaign almost instantly changed the dynamics of the race in the earliest states.

...The first political swarm of Democratic politics was not the Dean campaign but MoveOn.org, whose 2 million members donate money to run advertisements against the Bush administration and engage in massive telephone and petition campaigns. Last summer, MoveOn held an online vote to determine which Democratic candidate, if any, the organization would support. About 317,000 votes were cast. Because no candidate won more than 50 percent of the vote, MoveOn did not make an endorsement. But Dean was the big winner, taking about 44 percent, nearly twice as much as the runner-up, Dennis Kucinich....

Neither policy nor pragmatism alone drove MoveOn to Dean; his key advantage was that his bloggers were already deeply interlinked with bloggers friendly to MoveOn. Dean's network made it easy for his supporters to vote in the MoveOn poll, while offering MoveOn members an opportunity to influence the Democratic race, even if their own state's primary was irrelevant. Participation, not policy, was key.

Joi Ito, founder of Neoteny, a venture firm, and former chair of Infoseek Japan, has joined a group of technologists advising Dean (others include Ross Mayfield, Clay Shirky, and Lawrence Lessig, also a regular contributor to <cite>Wired</cite>).

...

Throughout the fall, the number of people signed up for Dean meetups has been more than three times as large as the number of people signed up for Clark meetups. The Wesley Clark list is almost three times as large as the Kerry list. The Kerry list is almost 30 times as large as the Gephardt list. In <cite>Linked: The New Science of Networks</cite>, the physicist Albert-L�szl� Barab�si describes the factors that influence the size of competing nodes in a network. His research shows why Dean's Internet lead has been so hard to overcome.

Barab�si gives a formal model for what everybody already knows: Popularity breeds more popularity; links are made most quickly to Web sites that have the most links. One of the major factors determining who will win in a race for links, therefore, is time. The first sites gain an early lead, and the lead tends to grow. But, of course, late arrivals sometimes take command. This is because time is not the only factor. The other factor is what Barab�si calls "fitness."

Defining fitness is an abstract exercise in Barab�si's work, because he is a physicist attempting to give a general description of network behavior in all its forms. In the earliest stage of the Democratic primary runup, however, fitness can be specified more concretely. Fitness at the beginning of this campaign was closely linked to a candidate's antiwar stance. Dean was first to the Web, while sharing the best fitness position with a number of candidates from the party's left wing.

The most important thing to notice about Barab�si's model is that the advantage of arriving early and offering adequate or superior fitness increases exponentially over time. This means we would not expect to find lots of competing sites clustering closely around the leader. Instead, the graph has a steep curve. This is exactly what we see when we look at the relative size of the online campaigns, whether measured by links, traffic, or Meetup numbers.

...

In <cite>Bowling Alone</cite>, Robert Putnam argues that the decline of civic participation is related to the general collapse of group activities. Instead of going out with friends, people are isolated in their homes. One of the readers of <cite>Bowling Alone</cite> was Scott Heiferman, who in response to reading the book founded Meetup.com. Out of Meetup came Deanspace. Out of Deanspace, a political movement that eerily recalls the cracker-barrel debates and the torchlight parades that characterized presidential campaigns of the distant past. Before television, politics was a type of active recreation. On the foundation of a new technology, Dean has revived an outdated form.

trippi http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.01/dean.html?pg=4&topic=&topic_set=

Last year, Koch Industries began employing New Media Strategies (NMS), an Internet PR firm that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Media_Strategies">specializes</a> in “word-of-mouth marketing” for major corporations including Coca-Cola, Burger King, AT&T, Dodge and Ford. It appears that, ever since the NMS contract was inked with Koch, an NMS employee began editing the Wikipedia page for “Charles Koch,” “David Koch,” “Political activities of the Koch family,” and “The Science of Success” (a book written by Charles). Under the moniker of “MBMAdmirer,” NMS employees edited Wikipedia articles to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:David_H._Koch&diff=prev&oldid=411170214">distance</a> the Koch family from the Tea Party movement, to provide <a href="http://toolserver.org/%7Ebetacommand/UserCompare/MBMadmirer.html">baseless</a> comparisons between Koch and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Sockpuppet_investigations/MBMadmirer/Archive">conspiracy theories</a> surrounding George Soros, and to generally delete citations to liberal news outlets. After administrators flagged the MBMAdmirer account as a “sock puppet” — one of many fake accounts used to manipulate new media sites — a subsequent sock puppet <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Sockpuppet_investigations/MBMadmirer/Archive">investigation</a> found that MBMAdmirer is connected to a number of dummy accounts and ones owned by NMS employees like <a href="http://nms.com/about/our-team/Jeff-Taylor">Jeff Taylor</a>.

Soren Dayton, a GOP operative and executive at New Media Strategies, is <a href="http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=48AFDC2A-E10F-4DC3-A8A9-15DBEBA3F8F2">reported</a> to be the contact for Koch Industries at NMS. Reached by phone yesterday by ThinkProgress, Dayton exclaimed, “I’m not going to talk about this, thanks,” before hanging up. Lyndsey Medsker, a senior account director for NMS, spoke to ThinkProgress today. She explained that NMS also maintains the Koch Industries Twitter page, Facebook page, and has an active team working on promoting Koch Industries in the comment section of blogs and news websites.

As ThinkProgress has <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/media/2011/03/03/147953/bloggers-kneel-to-koch/">reported</a>, the billionaire Koch brothers maintain contracts with over a dozen public relation firms and lobbying firms. Pushing back again recent scrutiny, the brothers have also <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/media/2011/03/03/147953/bloggers-kneel-to-koch/">relied</a> on a conservative media infrastructure owned by the Koch brothers or closely linked to them by way of their <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2010/10/23/koch-meeting-journalists/">donor conferences</a>. We have documented how the Koch message machine has <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/media/2011/03/03/147953/bloggers-kneel-to-koch/">targeted</a> ThinkProgress and even <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/media/2011/03/03/147953/bloggers-kneel-to-koch/">placed</a> hit-pieces against a New Yorker journalist investigated the Kochs. But now it seems the Koch brothers are at work manipulating Wikipedia to polish their image.

<h5>Update</h5>

New Media Strategies at one point tried to lie about its affiliation with Koch Industries. The account “MBMAdmirer” <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:MBMadmirer">wrote</a> in December on Wikipedia: “I am a citizen who has read about and admires the Koch family. I was not pleased with the way that they have been presented in the media. And I thought that I could come to Wikipedia to try to make sure that there are balancing facts. Nothing I do is in coordination with Koch or authorized by Koch.”

lee fan march 9 11

<a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/03/09/149408/koch-wikipedia-sock-puppet/">http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/03/09/149408/koch-wikipedia-sock-puppet/</a>

</div>