Patterico's Pontifications

12/29/2007

Hillary Clinton’s Campaign Sock-Puppets (Updated)

Filed under: 2008 Election,Blogging Matters — DRJ @ 12:31 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

UPDATE: Oops. Old News. Sorry about that.

Via Ann Althouse, it seems Hillary Clinton’s campaign is learning the good and bad sides of sock-puppets at a website called Blue Hampshire:

“Recently, we admins noticed this comment thread on a recommended diary, and the oddities it posed made us look a little deeper than we normally would.

As the comment thread revealed, users pinballwizard, elf, shley24, MTAY all registered in succession to recommend the diary. A further look by us revealed that:

* they had registered within minutes of each other, including another user a bit later, janbaby, who was not among the recommenders,

* the same IP address was used by all of them, and is registered to the Clinton campaign,

* two other recommenders, blues and kmeisje, also registered from the same IP address.

To be clear, and to reiterate what’s stated in our Getting Started page: paid campaign staff are welcome in this community, but are asked to disclose their affiliation to a campaign, either through their signature line, a disclosure statement on a diary, or even in the choosing of a username. The fact that all the users mentioned above came from a Clinton campaign IP, but did not register with campaign email addresses, and avoided making comments or diaries, instead only recommending pro-Clinton diaries, strikes us as gaming the system and a form of “recommend astroturf.” As a result, we have banned those accounts, and will do so again for undisclosed paid staffers of any campaign if need be.”

Here’s a link to the Blue Hampshire blog entry that enthusiastically supported Hillary Clinton, along with a link to the list of people (and sock-puppets) that recommended the post.

The internet seems anonymous and it’s tempting to use that anonymity to influence a discussion. However, even on the internet, reputation is unimportant until you lose it.

H/T Instapundit.

— DRJ

12 Responses to “Hillary Clinton’s Campaign Sock-Puppets (Updated)”

  1. I blogged about this several days ago, albeit somewhat more cryptically.

    Patterico (ebbcf5)

  2. Really? Was it “Hillary’s Views on Dissent”? I really do read your posts but apparently my reading comprehension leaves something to be desired.

    DRJ (09f144)

  3. Here you go. It’s from over two weeks ago.

    Patterico (0c2a06)

  4. I remember now. That seems like a lifetime ago. At least now I know why you are so good at this stuff. You’re 2 weeks ahead of everyone else.

    DRJ (09f144)

  5. Thanks for the link. I did say “I’m extremely interested in that story, which I missed.”

    Ann Althouse (e30f71)

  6. Ann Althouse,

    I have no problem with your story or with doing a story that’s a week, a month, or a year old. I do it and often the extra time brings added perspective. But it’s pretty dumb of me to redo a story Patterico already did on his own blog. Any recriminations were intended for me, not you.

    DRJ (09f144)

  7. Oh, it’s no big deal, DRJ. It’s a good enough story to blog twice, and you included details that many people missed the first time. And Ann’s right, she did say she had missed the story, so it’s not like she was acting like it was a new story..

    Patterico (0233fe)

  8. Here’s a thing that has been bothering me about Hillary and sock puppets. I have been doing research to find audio clips of her for a radio show I was doing. After suffering through a gajillion youtube videos of her ads, I noticed something about the comments on most of them. Nearly all comments were enthusiastically positive. Tons of you-go-girl and You’re the best and Hillary for President. Nary a negative one. If you go check her Christmas ad, you will see what I mean.

    Now how is it that the most offensive Christmas ad of the campaign gets the most positive comments? I swear she must have sock puppets on you tube as well.

    She is not to be trusted.

    MagicalPat (ed14bb)

  9. David E.,

    I’ll have to take your word for it. Your link is in French and I don’t remember enough of my college French to decipher it.

    DRJ (09f144)

  10. I am shocked to find dishonesty in a Democrat campaign!

    Another Drew (8018ee)

  11. i am suprised so see such dishonesty in a democratic campaign. just kidding.

    cledus (25f095)


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