Fox News Reportedly Used Fake Commenter Accounts To Rebut Critical Blog Posts

[Mika]

Fox News Reportedly Used Fake Commenter Accounts To Rebut Critical Blog Posts

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NPR media reporter David Folkenflik writes in his forthcoming book Murdoch's World that Fox News' public relations staffers used an elaborate series of dummy accounts to fill the comments sections of critical blog posts with pro-Fox arguments.

In a chapter focusing on how Fox utilized its notoriously ruthless public relations department in the mid-to-late 00's, Folkenflik reports that Fox's PR staffers would "post pro-Fox rants" in the comments sections of "negative and even neutral" blog posts written about the network. According to Folkenflik, the staffers used various tactics to cover their tracks, including setting up wireless broadband connections that "could not be traced back" to the network.

A former staffer told Folkenflik that they had personally used "one hundred" fake accounts to plant Fox-friendly commentary: ...

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More --> http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/10/20/fox-news-reportedly-used-fake-commenter-account/196509

[busterbrown]

1. Jesus Christ.. What we are up against ...24/7

[Maraya1969]

3. I like to go around sometimes and post in their threads. It's really easy.

And kind of fun. But of course no one is paying me and I am not spreading lies. I just tell them the truth that they don't want to hear.+

[Democat]

2. I wonder how many accounts Fox News employees have on DU?

Probably hundreds.

[Enthusiast]

12. That's probably a good guess.

Sad to say.

[gopiscrap]

4. That's why it's called Faux News

[valerief]

5. And now they're on DU doing the same

But we've always known that.

[Botany]

6. Well Fox was set up to be a fake news republican propaganda outfiT

Ailes got his start setting up fake news press conferences for Dick Nixon in 1968.

[judesedit]

7. Why can't I share this? Something fishy here.

[DeSwiss]

8. K&R

• Fake Reporters •

• Fake News Stories •

• Fake Commenters •

• Fake News Organization •

- As Elaine says: ''Fake, fake, fake, fake.''

[avaistheone1]

9. More proof that everything is Faux about Faux News.

Is anyone really surprised that they would employ fake comment accounts on their site?

[silverweb]

10. Color me shocked. lol

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]This is Faux News we're talking about, the organization that went to court and won a decision saying they have no obligation to tell the truth.

Is anybody really seriously surprised?

[Enthusiast]

11. Without lies they would have nothing.....nt

[Faryn Balyncd]

13. Fox has no other purpose.

[TrollBuster9090]

14. NPR book drops bombshell: "Bears shit in the woods."

Okay, just kidding. In truth, it IS a bombshell. Not because we didn't know that the right wing noise machine uses fake accounts to plaster pro-conservative nonsense talking points all over the internet, but because somebody is finally talking about it.

And I'm betting more than one of those fake accounts probably made it onto the DU boards!

[nxylas]

15. George Monbiot was talking about it back in 2011

http://www.monbiot.com/2011/02/23/robot-wars/

[HoosierCowboy]

16. The Bots are everywhere

You can pretty well assume that practically every comment section in any political or news site has bots that are run by right wing elements.
The easiest way to know you are dealing with a bot is the extreme speed at which the reply to some comment comes back at you. There was one bot at a Climate site that would hurl an enormous wad of climate denial back at you, along with the phony stats and links in less than a minute. No one types that fast and its even to short a time for cut and paste.
Don't waste your time responding to right wing bots on websites like HufPo, Salon, etc.
Go out and register voters instead