General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow a hoax website about paid protesters came crumbling down live on TV
The website for an organization calling itself Demand Protest made its mission pretty clear: When your strategy demands paid protest, we organize and bring it to life. Billing itself as a group that generated the appearance of outrage on behalf of left-wing causes, the existence of Demand Protest became an attractive story for many right-wing media outlets. The group, it appeared, was proof that dissent against Trump was manufactured by shady leftist organizations, and could be lucrative: one Backpage.com ad placed in Demand Protests name promised a full-time job that paid a $2,500 retainer, plus $50/hr., and benefits.
It was the perfect story to share, if youre inclined to believe that anti-Trump protesters must be getting paid to be there. Something to that effect has long been in the canon of largely unsubstantiated rumors circulating on the Trump Internet. A well-known fake news writer even fabricated an interview with a protester who said he was paid $3,500 to protest at a Trump rally a story that was shared on Twitter by Trumps then-campaign manager. And like that made-up story, it also appears that Demand Protest is a made-up group, one that fooled quite a few news sources before being dramatically debunked on-air by Tucker Carlson.
-snip-
All this happened with no evidence to support claims that Demand Protest actually did anything it advertised on its website the existence of a backpage ad, which pretty much anyone can create and place, was it.
The company has a San Francisco phone number, but Demand Protest LLC the name, the website says, that is associated with a copyright doesnt exist in Californias public records. Calls to the group lead to a voice mail labyrinth with no way to speak to a real person. The Washington Post left a message on Tuesday afternoon, but it was not returned.
-snip-
The Verge and Boing Boing, among others, were skeptical as the story circulated through the conservative press. And on a Fox News segment Tuesday night, someone claiming to represent the group more or less admitted that the whole thing was a hoax.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/how-a-hoax-website-about-paid-protesters-came-crumbling-down-live-on-tv/ar-AAlZKj1?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=edgsp
ghostsinthemachine
(3,569 posts)Victory... And the cretins that follow are hanging big time love towards them.
Paid protestors. Heard that since Vietnam. The WTO. Iraq war... Never ends. The right buys it because the only way they would protest is if they WERE being paid.
And we all know that at 8am on the morning of every protest, George Soros, sends a secret code to protestors telling them where to go get paid.