9/22/2008

Hope, Change, & Lies: Orchestrated 'Grassroots' Smear Campaigns and the People Who Run Them..

Astroturfing is the term used for what used to be called shadow campaigning; using a fake name masking the real sponsor and purpose of smears that are directed against a candidate. Astroturfing is now easy since any dope can slip a phony ad on to YouTube and then spam mail links to it far and wide. That is a tactic the Obama camp has been doing for a while, but now they've been caught red handed. Instructions on how to carry a smear to every nook and cranny are included in their online posts. The attacks are known as "viral attacks" because like a virus neither the source nor cure can be known.

Viral attacks are where it's at in 2008. Emails, blogs, online news sources. Content flows upstream in today's media environment.

We can be the gun.

Indeed, if Barack can't or won't do the dirty work, then we have to do it for him. No excuses. No more hand-wringing.

Let's get to work.

How, you ask? Simple.

It's all about finding really damaging stuff--news stories, YouTubes, informative blog posts. And then circulating those with the intent of having them work their way up the media stream. Email it to your friends. Email it to any journalists whose email you have. Post it in diaries or blog comments.

Example, here is a devastating YouTube on Sarah Strangelove:

[The Palin smear video was inserted here]

You should email this to ten people. Or ten bloggers. Or both. Spread it far, spread it wide.

If you would like to do this on a regular basis, I've set up a couple of Google Groups to help out with that process.

One group, [group's name] is a gathering point for potentially damaging stories about the enemy. Folks who belong to that one can post whatever stories they find anonymously. Just post a link or create a page, and others will take it from there.
Stay tuned because Jawa Report has blown the whole thing wide open. Jawa has absolute proof that Axelrod and other Obama beards are involved in the Astroturf smearing of Palin and McCain. Jawa has the story up and it is devastating. Titled, Hope, Change, & Lies: Orchestrated 'Grassroots' Smear Campaigns and the People Who Run Them. If you read nothing else today, read that one. From the number of comments on both sites I guess most of you have already read it. (Rewritten from yesterday). Ace, naturally has some of his own discoveries and I am assuming that other bloggers with research capabilities will find more. What is really awful about this "viral tactic" is that for all we know everything on TV and appearing in print is part of an attack.

2 comments:

rhuddan said...

Up at Jawa now...

Webrider said...

It's up on the Jawa Report now. While it's a lot of conjecture, it's very pointed and looks unassailable at first reading. I'd suspect that many more talented folks will begin to look into it. What I'd like to see, is that Axelrod et al. are found to be the perpetrators and the FEC would then have to fine them, big time. Obama's campaign began on a lie, and continues to run on it and many additional ones added in over time.