"Unmasking The Source of an Internet Rumor" [FR is hurting the Obama campaign!]

Obama for America ^ | Jun 28th, 2008

[Winged Hussar]

Dr. Danielle Allen

An Attack That Came Out of the Ether Scholar Looks for First Link in E-Mail Chain About Obama

By Matthew Mosk Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, June 28, 2008; C01

...Poring over these early articles on the topic, Allen noticed what she thought was an important pattern. In each instance, someone had posted the articles on the Free Republic Web site, prompting a discussion involving the same handful of people, with several expressing a desire to spread the word about Obama's supposed faith.

...The attacks on Obama are different, Allen says. The level of anonymity, the technical efficiency, and above all the electoral impact of Internet-based smears all represent a new challenge.

"What I've come to realize is, the labor of generating an e-mail smear is divided and distributed amongst parties whose identities are secret even to each other," she says. A first group of people published articles that created the basis for the attack. A second group recirculated the claims from those articles without ever having been asked to do so. "No one coordinates the roles," Allen said. Instead the participants swim toward their goal like a school of fish -- moving on their own, but also in unison.

..."Citizens and political scientists must face the fact that the Internet has enabled a new form of political organization that is just as influential on local and national elections as unions and political action committees," she says. "This kind of misinformation campaign short-circuits judgment. It also aggressively disregards the fundamental principle of free societies that one be able to debate one's accusers."

[Winged Hussar]

This piece, originally from the Washington Post, shows that we can cost Obama the election.

I personally have formal education in organizational psychology, plus considerable self-education in psychological warfare. My basic approach to viral E-mails and other forms of propaganda (any effort to sell an idea is propaganda, whether for good or bad purposes) is to make sure the reader can verify for himself or herself the truth of what is being said.

As an example, I post a picture of Obama arm in arm with "the prominent racist and anti-Semite" Al Sharpton. The picture itself includes the invitation to Google on "Sharpton" and "Freddy's Fashion Mart" or "Crown Heights" or "Tawana Brawley" allows everyone who sees the picture to verify that Sharpton does indeed have a track record of inciting hatred of white people and especially Jews.

As another example, I post quotes from Obama's "Dreams From My Father" WITH PAGE NUMBERS so anyone can pick up the paperback version in a library or bookstore and see that what is being said is not a smear, but the truth.

In the case of hate speech from my.barackobama.com, a link to the page and of course the Google cache in case Obama throws it under the bus works, as does a screen shot with Obama's and Biden's pictures above the hate speech.

Here is the bottom line, though. Free Republic should not be an echo chamber in which we all sing the same hymn and then proclaim "Amen!" The material won't cost Obama any votes if we preach to the choir, so take it to other Web sites, blogs, letters to the editor and, of course, viral E-mail.

Anti-Obama resources here: http://www.stentorian.com/Obama

[vpintheak]

If obama is elected be sure that anonimity for these sites will no longer exist. With the government taking over financial institutions left and right, you can bet that we are next on the hit list.

[Question Liberal Authority]

If they can expend manpower and resources to track the source of an internet rumor, they can find out what Barry actually did as a “community organizer”.

[SaxxonWoods]

Doesn’t matter. Babs does her thing for Obama tonight.

“It ain’t over until the fat lady sings.”

Guess it’s over after tonight then.

[Viking2002]

If we Free Republicans are acting as a viable force that can destroy The Obamanation and his Satanic cabal, then I say let there be scorched earth!!!!!!

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

It also aggressively disregards the fundamental principle of free societies that one be able to debate one's accusers."

WTF? The accuser is the person who wrote the initial article. What this a$$hat is saying is that it's OK to sue the post office if someone mails you a nasty letter?

[Winged Hussar]

Re: “If obama is elected be sure that anonimity for these sites will no longer exist. With the government taking over financial institutions left and right, you can bet that we are next on the hit list.”

I’ll be glad to sign my real name to what I say about this two-bit fraud, and I have done so in my local newspaper. I have given my real name on a local radio show while denouncing this phony as well. If I can prove I did something significant to derail his campaign, I’ll sign my name to it and take credit for it.

I’m also the person who broke the back of the Million Mom March (2000) and crippled MoveOn.org (2006), and it’s pretty easy to find out who I am. I don’t say behind anyone’s back what I won’t say to their face.

[ncfool]

Gee! I’m proud to be a poster on Freerepublic.com where the truth is exposed about the left!

[listenhillary]

Lets see Sarah faked her pregnancy to cover for her daughter...

Who created this? I think we had almost tracked it back to a paid Obama acolyte. Lost the thread though.

[6SJ7]

We're the new Pamphleteers. Doing the work the MSM won't.

[null and void]

If they can expend manpower and resources to track the source of an internet rumor, they can find out what Barry actually did as a “community organizer”.

THEY already know.

They don't want US to know.

[nclaurel]

Let me get this straight we on FR are bad but Daily Kos could start numerous vile rumors about Palin and her family which the MSM ran with and that is ok? Well alrighty.

[Winged Hussar]

“Lets see Sarah faked her pregnancy to cover for her daughter...

Who created this? I think we had almost tracked it back to a paid Obama acolyte. Lost the thread though.”

It would not surprise me if My.BarackObama.com is being used by Obama campaign staffers to spread rumors that McCain has an age-related neurodegenerative disease. Hmmm, “no controlling authority” over the site (even though they do exercise editorial control) and hundreds of pages that promote this rumor...

[itsPatAmerican]

With the government taking over financial institutions left and right, you can bet that we are next on the hit list.

No doubt, that makes total sense. What should we do? Does anyone know servers and how to move these things off to somewhere safe?

[vpintheak]

Same here. I will also be one of the best defended around if it comes down to it.

[1035rep]

“Gee! I’m proud to be a poster on Freerepublic.com where the truth is exposed about the left!”

Ditto! FReeper reporting for duty.

[DBrow]

I too like to attribute sources, and I frequently urge people here to post a link.

I'll also whack a pure rumor or false quote; no point in spreading a lie that can be used to discredit everything else in the list.

The takeaway in the article is that anonymity is the key factor. This is how they will stop these “vicious rumors”, the true ones that hurt, by making everyone online use their true identities.

So what? Well, look what the left always does when an unpleasant truth comes out- immediately discredit the messenger, any way possible.

Alinsky said freeze it, personalize it, polarize it, demonize it. They can't personalize it if they don't know who you are,

[Roccus]

Anyone remember getting all those e-mails in 2000 about the black churches that were going to burn if Bush got elected?

[redstateconfidential]

[Chaguito]

The accuser is the person who wrote the initial article

And that is why this psycho(logist)'s article is bogus. Daily Kos and others made smears up out of whole cloth and went viral. Individually-generated nasties on FR are generally reprimanded and/or zotted. The author is a putz.

[PapaBear3625]

The Obamanations are upset that they can’t send thugs to beat us up.

[mel]

How do you get more than one post in before you are zapped?
Awesome. Great work. Can’t think of enough kudos. You are on target about preaching to the choir.

[indylindy]

Geesh, I can think of nothing more damaging to the Obama campaign than Obama, Biden, and the MSM.

They are hiding the truth about Obama and all anyone does here is expose it.

[bray]

When the Mainstream press asks Palin for her DNA, they have eliminated all credibility.

Pray for W, McCuda and Our Troops

[Carley]

So FR made Obama refer to his ‘muslim faith’ to Stephanopoulous?

[WakeUpAndVote]

“No one coordinates the roles,” Allen said. Instead the participants swim toward their goal like a school of fish — moving on their own, but also in unison.

_______

Marla Mapes basically said the SAME THING IN 2004!

[Mark]

"Citizens and political scientists must face the fact that the Internet has enabled a new form of political organization that is just as influential on local and national elections as unions and political action committees," she says.

In other words no money coming in.

[caseinpoint]

“It also aggressively disregards the fundamental principle of free societies that one be able to debate one’s accusers.”

Since when has this been a fundamental principle of free societies? Anonymous or pseudonymous tracts have been part of civilization as long as writing has been. The right to confront one’s accusers arises from the Constitution in the matter of criminal charges, and is not applicable to all accusations.

[Doogle]

It also aggressively disregards the fundamental principle of free societies that one be able to debate one's accusers."

...just like the great debate on Globull Warming that one way or another has cost us billions, or the unforgettable debate on the Great Society that has cost us trillions,or the national debate on Socialistic National Health Care which when operated by a inefficient government will cost trillions,or the serious debate on Illegals that our government insist is too big for them to handle costing the American citizens billions.....all proposed laws and programs being shoved down our throats....those debates? Debates monitored by some agenda pushing knot-head?

[Dacula]

bump too funny

[WakeUpAndVote]

“This kind of misinformation campaign short-circuits judgment. It also aggressively disregards the fundamental principle of free societies that one be able to debate one's accusers.”

________

They forgot something. Liberals do not debate. They shout down opposition with talking points. Their foot soldiers are not capable of independent though and must be told what to say. Even if it results in violence to prove their point.

[Right Wing Assault]

Has this wingnut ever been on DU or KOS? They cranked out about 100 times the rumors FR ever did. And a lot of those got legs.

[Twinkie]

Yep. I’ve started calling Democrats - DHIMMI-CRATS - instead. Dhimmicrats because they seem so anxious to hasten the day the people of this country are under the bootheel of radical Islam under the guise of so-called “tolerance”. (They think they’ll be immune from the burka I suppose because they were “tolerant” and so “educated”.) - If JOHN MCCAIN hadn’t stood his ground, the Dhimmicrats in Congress would have declared the war against the terrorists LOST several months ago - including the #1 Dhimmicrat, BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA.

[imahawk]

I like it,I like it.

[daylilly]

” Alinsky said freeze it, personalize it, polarize it, demonize it. They can’t personalize it if they don’t know who you are, “

IIRC when the Dan Rather thing happened, someone outed Buckhead. When the thing happened with the kid who needed government health insurance, I thought someone was trying to out that freeper as well. There are some times when Freepers have lost their anonymity.

If one of us is effective, they will try to find out who you are and where you live and get that information out.

[DBrow]

"For this kind of chain-mail message to gain traction, it must be plausible, and it has to resonate, said Eric Dezenhall, a public relations specialist who once worked in the Reagan White House. Obama was vulnerable, Dezenhall said, because of his unusual name, his childhood in Indonesia, a foreign-born father, and his sudden arrival on the national stage without a fully fleshed-out biography. "All of these things gave it merchandising legs," Dezenhall said."

And, his biological father was a Muslim, don't forget that smear, too. Muslims tend to think that if your dad is a Muslim so are you. Obama converted, baptized into Wright's church 20 years ago, but in Islam, they'll see him as an apostate, a murtad fitri.

[HereInTheHeartland]

“The Obamanations are upset that they can’t send thugs to beat us up.”

They would if they could. They have held protests outside of their opponents headquarters. I would expect them to try any illegal activity that they can get away with.

[21twelve]

“Anonymous or pseudonymous tracts have been part of civilization as long as writing has been.”

That’s just Common Sense! ;)

[redstateconfidential]

[DBrow]

“IIRC when the Dan Rather thing happened, someone outed Buckhead.”

MSM sent teams online to research, not who faked the memos or how they got to Dan, but WHO IS BUCKHEAD?

[beckysueb]

Obama was vulnerable, Dezenhall said, because of his unusual name, his childhood in Indonesia, a foreign-born father, and his sudden arrival on the national stage without a fully fleshed-out biography. "All of these things gave it merchandising legs," Dezenhall said

Well gee, imagine that. How would anyone get such an idea about him based on this flimsy evidence? (sarc) They think the American people are so stupid that they can't put two and two together without someone telling them what to think.

[Spiff]

For goodness sakes, someone needs to learn to spell.

And to compare Obama (as much as I detest him) to Osama bin Laden is way over the top. This isn't DU or KOS.

[Gator113]

Well then, we better not talk about the October Surprise on FR, and save that discussion for our super top secret cone of silence site.

[DBrow]

Bingo!

Woudn’t the Crown have liked to get their hands on the author of that little tract!

The Federalist papers were anonymous, too.

We should keep Web anonymity.

[caseinpoint]

LOL

[Rebelbase]

At least this douche didn’t discover the secret decoder rings we all use...Oh, Damn!

[HereInTheHeartland]

Is he referring to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18VOGykrgHo

[DBrow]

“Well then, we better not talk about the October Surprise on FR,”

We’re not going to release it here anyway, we’re going to use that other site we went over at the meeting, plus one more new one. Then we’ll link to it here, and cross post it.

[arrogantsob]

Hmmm, Free Republic vs some Affirmative Action babe at Princeton who will win this is a hard one.

[WakeUpAndVote]

Silly me, MARY Mapes. My apologies to The Donald.