Josh Marshall's Blind Items...

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

Are generally more important and instructive than the entire yearly output of the Williams Safire and Krystol.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com

Read the first bit, the short one. That one will have more direct effect on you, in the coming weeks and months(If it pans out, and it likely will, Josh being Josh) than anything the other two gentlemen will write in the foreseeable future.

Even on DU. Even here.

[Nlighten1]

1. The URL is wrong

It is http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

3. Fixed.

*

[Jacobin]

2. Your link directed me to some very odd place with lots of pop ups

can you check it out?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. See above.

N/T

[Jacobin]

5. TS, what do you suppose Josh is talking about?

Who is about to be busted for astroturfing?

[frank frankly]

6. yes, help us out here

is this good news...?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

9. Oh...

If this pans out and gets the right characters, this is VERY good news.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

8. There are several...

PR organizations, as well as the RNC, who astroturf all over the net. Some of them do not only 'turf for political aims, but also for huge corporations, as well.

Remember: Astroturfing is not only fake grass roots to the oped LTTEs around the nation. It also has a far more insidious face: FUD. Fear, uncertainty and doubt. By creating FUD and dissension in online communities, you can wedge them and weaken them. It has been done a lot for M$. In fact, that is pretty much where the larger concepts and the smaller details were prototyped. Having said that, those concepts and details also dovetail with political campaigns and online political communities.

And if you don't see where I am going with this, you might want to get that gluebag offn' yer nose. :D

Look around. Think back. Seen any FUD lately?

[NashVegas]

19. If You're Saying What I Think You're Saying

It's something I've been trying to tell DU for months - organized propagandizers here.

But again, who knows? Could you be more explicit?

I can think of several isssues where threads fill up with 300 posts 'o flaming cheeze whiz, on a few topics.

[Shakespeare]

11. My hunch....

Is that it has something to do with the strange AARP endorsement of the GOP's medicare drug "benefit."

[Skwmom]

15. After reading his description of astro-turfing I also thought that the

AARP might have something to do with it.

[NashVegas]

17. That Was My First Guess

But who knows?

[aquart]

7. Astroturf organizing???

?????????????????????

Ignorance here.

[kstewart33]

10. Click on the link in Josh's paragraph

It links to a prior post where Marshall thoroughly explains astro turfing. In essence, it is a formally organized strategy for faking a grass roots movement regarding an issue.

[Jane Eyre]

12. The Reagan miniseries, maybe?

It seemed terribly odd to me that Fox was suddenly all over the "grassroots" movement to get the Reagan miniseries off the air. Interviews with a supposed anyman in NC who started a "Boycott CBS" website on a shoestring.

I saw some interviews with the scumbag. He looked just a bit too professional to me. And didn't it seem odd that this controversy appeared out of thin air before the show was even publicized?

Hmmmmm.... :think:

[Skwmom]

14. Based on my observations,

it's not only the RNC that plays such games.

[Skwmom]

13. In this primary

there is so much smoke and mirrors going on that it is really mindboggling. It even beats corporate america and that's saying something (considering corporate america has given us such gems as Enron and the savings and loan debacle.)

[unfrigginreal]

18. Cue the Twilight Zone soundtrack

:tinfoilhat: :tinfoilhat: :tinfoilhat: :tinfoilhat:

[madfloridian]

16. Often on boards, mentioned before.

It is like posting one thing while having very different motives. It is easy to recognize after a while, and some here have been pointing this out in connection with various *supporters*, not the campaigns themselves. It is important to differentiate.

I have a couple of examples saved, but it would be against policy to use them and would not be nice. It can not be proved easily anyway.

I think that is one aspect of it. Also like the Iraq letters to editors, another aspect.

I think the worst is the kind that is couched in other terms. If done cleverly it does huge damage. I think that is part of what is meant.

[RainDog]

20. This must be it

http://www.buzzflash.com/buzzscripts/buzz.dll/quote

AARP luvs Newt "contract on America" Gingrich

[NashVegas]

21. Wraps are off

For years, the trendsetter in Astroturf has been DCI. And a couple days ago, if you were watching really closely, a tiny sentence changed on an out-of-the-way page on the TechCentralStation website.

The sentence that read ...

"Tech Central Station is published by Tech Central Station, L.L.C."

now reads ...

"Tech Central Station is published by DCI Group, L.L.C."

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/