Fox News used sock puppet accounts to counter negative blog posts

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Is anyone really surprised?

Fox News employees set up a series of dummy accounts to rebut critical blog posts, according to a new book.

NPR media reporter David Folkenflik writes in his forthcoming book Murdoch’s World that the network’s public relations staffers set up “sock puppet” accounts to fill comments sections of “negative or even neutral” blog posts in the mid-to-late ‘00s with “pro-Fox rants.”

The reporter says Fox employees set up wireless broadband connections that couldn’t be traced to back to the network to help cover their tracks, and one employee used an AOL dial-up connection.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/21/fox-news-used-sock-puppet-accounts-to-counter-negative-blog-posts-new-book-claims/

[KansDem]

1. Compared to these guys...

Goebbels was an amateur.

[Decaffeinated]

2. Falls neatly in the category of "Duh"

Common practice among many organizations... news and other...

[spanone]

3. please name other major news outlets that do the same 'common practice' thanks!

[pinboy3niner]

5. Beat me to it

I'd like to know the answer to that!

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

7. Not uncommon among some businesses

But I'm not aware of any other media organization that does fake populism.

[Cleita]

4. Once you become a lying sellout to honest journalism,

I guess there is no stopping the degradation into this type of practice.

[progressoid]

6. Fox News, We report, you decide, then we hire sock puppets because some of you figure out the truth

[Kingofalldems]

8. That's a staple of the right wing

They do it on Democratic sites too.

[TygrBright]

9. :clutch pearls, seek fainting couch: I'm SHOCKED! Just SHOCKED!!! n/t