The far right's view of public opinion.
A new book "Murdoch's World" by David Folkenflik documents the extreme degrees to which FOX News' PR hacks would generate false social media posts in the early to mid 2000s. In a
recent article by Media Matters, it's revealed that Folkenfilk based these assertions of statements from four former FOX News employees. Up to a hundred fake social media IDs would be used by a given FOX News PR flak to fake "grass roots" opinions in comments posted in social media Web sites like blogs. Guidelines were given to ensure that the Internet addresses used to generate these comments could not be tracked back to FOX News. Key pull quote from the book (p.67) via Media Matters:
On the blogs, the fight was particularly fierce. Fox PR staffers were expected to counter not just negative and even neutral blog postings but the anti-Fox comments beneath them. One former staffer recalled using twenty different aliases to post pro-Fox rants. Another had one hundred. Several employees had to acquire a cell phone thumb drive to provide a wireless broadband connection that could not be traced back to a Fox News or News Corp account. Another used an AOL dial-up connection, even in the age of widespread broadband access, on the rationale it would be harder to pinpoint its origins. Old laptops were distributed for these cyber operations. Even blogs with minor followings were reviewed to ensure no claim went unchecked.
Thoughts about this after the break.
It's unclear that these practices by FOX News are still ongoing, and given the tightening up of identify management in a number of social media services, it may be marginally harder for Murdoch, Roger Ailes and others to create the illusion of popular support for extreme views via social media. But let's face it - we're still in an era in which buying thousands and even millions of followers on Twitter is a simple business transaction if you have enough money. So my money is on a healthy army of far right sock puppets funded on some regular basis to tip the scales of perceived social opinion.
I was shocked by the number of sock puppets who pumped out fake grass roots opinions via social media portals in the period covered by David Folkenflik's book. What's interesting to me, though, is the huge overlap between the FOX News efforts and those employed by major corporate interests. I would encounter them regularly in portals like Newsvine, some with almost transparent identities linked easily to major oil companies and even companies such as GE. The immensity of the effort to persuade public opinion through deceptive and false opinion-making is staggering.
And now we have the country that this investment has purchased, with a huge sector of the American people indoctrinated with false statements, propaganda and just plain lies that are now taken by many as gospel fact. Well, hopefully the truth is now evident a bit more clearly to some of the less addled of those minds, and they will slowly begin to unfollow (or whatever) such fake opinion makers. But I wouldn't bet on it. The mass media can be a tool for disseminating truth, but its role in steering our nation to the brink of disaster is shameful. FOX News is allowed to do this, but perhaps they shouldn't be allowed to do it as a credentialed news organization. The Republicans should be honest and go back to the brand that they tried to use to push out their propaganda on cable TV before the rise of FOX News - "GOP TV." At least label your bull appropriately, please...