Meet Charles P. "Chip" Griffin, Kingpin of Right-wing Professional Trolls.

[VOX]

This is being discussed on DU here, but merits a separate post to get into research and connections:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1438787&mesg_id=1438787

Outstanding research by Robin Hamman of cybersoc.com has shown that the trolls- for-hire outfit Netvocates is part of Griffin Strategy Group, LLC. See here for details:
http://www.cybersoc.com/2006/05/behind_netvocat.html

The head of Griffin Strategy, Charles P. Griffin of New Hampshire, has been affiliated with the right-wing Heritage Foundation, and he couldn't be more deeply associated with right-wing causes and candidates. Political donations by Charles P. Griffin of New Hampshire:
http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?city=Pembroke&st=NH&last=griffin&first=charles
DCI PAC $2,500 on 9/6/05
http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?city=Suncook&st=NH&last=griffin&first=charles
Thomas Dale DeLay $1,000 on 10/21/04

http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/committees/dci_pac.asp?cycle=06
Political Candidates Receiving Contributions from DCI PAC:
Candidate Name Office Party State $ Dollar Amount
ALEXANDER, LAMAR SENATE Republican TN 2,100
BLACKBURN, MARSHA MRS. HOUSE Republican TN 2,000
BURNS, CONRAD SENATE Republican MT 2,100
BYRD, ROBERT CARLYLE SENATE Democrat WV 500
CUBIN, BARBARA L HOUSE Republican WY 1,000
ENSIGN, JOHN ERIC SENATE Republican NV 2,000
FEENEY, TOM HOUSE Republican FL 2,000
KENNEDY, BRIAN M F HOUSE Republican IA 2,100
KING, PETER HOUSE Republican NY 1,000
KRAMER, DAVID JOSEPH SENATE Republican NE 1,000
KYL, JON L SENATE Republican AZ 2,000
LEWIS, RON HOUSE Republican KY 1,000
MOLLOHAN, ALAN B. HOUSE Democrat WV 2,000
O'DONNELL, RICK HOUSE Republican CO 250
PORTER, JON SR HOUSE Republican NV 2,000
SHAW, E CLAY JR HOUSE Republican FL 2,100
WOLF, FRANK R HOUSE Republican VA 1,000
- - - - -
Chip Griffin has been at this for some time. The following article froom the Washington Post of 9/7/1997 shows that he was Web site director for the right-wing TownHall (can't link, this is from a Lexis-Nexis search):
The Washington Post
August 07, 1997, Thursday, Final Edition
SECTION: STYLE; Pg. C05; STYLE PLUS; THE NAVIGATOR
LENGTH: 574 words
HEADLINE: Swerving to the Right
BYLINE: Linton Weeks, Washington Post Staff Writer
BODY:
Just when you thought the Web was full of nothing but pedophiles and pornographers, along comes the Heritage Foundation.If you want a tour of conservatism today, just stop by Town Hall -- a joint creation of National Review magazine and the Heritage Foundation designed for conservatives who want to conserve conservatism. In other words, this is the right site.

Launched on CompuServe's online service in 1991, Town Hall waltzed onto the Web in the summer of 1995, with Bob Dole and Newt Gingrich signing on for the kickoff ceremony. Working out of the Heritage Foundation building in Washington, a staff of six pulls together information from socially conservative folks such as the Family Research Council and fiscal conservatives such as the Citizens for a Sound Economy. "Town Hall is one-stop shopping for conservative news and information," said the site's director, Chip Griffin. "Our forums and chat rooms allow the grass roots to get in touch with the policy makers."

A hundred people a day rotate through the online Rush Limbaugh and Oliver North rooms, says Griffin. "People have been generally surprised at how active and interested the audience has been. Our user base tends to be an older, more mature audience. I think the stereotype is that it's mainly college kids who are on the Web. The people who visit Town Hall are consistent with the voting population."

And through the Links Page, they are introduced to a wide -- well, not that wide -- range of conservative spots...
<snip>

[SpiralHawk]

1. Paid Republicon propagandists

,The Repubs will do anything for money -- as shown by net pimp Griffin, and Bush White House male prostitute Jeff Gannon.

The factual skinny on another republicon propagandist-prostitute: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Gannon

[VOX]

2. "we ask our activists not to create multiple online personalities"

From Chip Griffin's own blog, touting his entities CustomScoop and NetVocates:
http://www.interadvocacy.com/2006/06/about_netvocate.html

3. NetVocates was founded earlier this year to provide online analysis and advocacy services to clients. What does this mean? NetVocates gathers data about blog posts of interest to its clients, uses proprietary software to blend multiple data sources and electronically sort the information. We then have a staff of experts who review the information to provide reports to clients outlining trends in the blogosphere of interest to our clients.

4. For some – but not all – clients, NetVocates works to develop advocacy programs. These programs can take many different forms – steps the client might take to communicate more proactively through its own blog, to work with bloggers to provide information on products and issues, or to address misinformation published in blogs.

5. We have a few basic principles we ask all of our staff and the activists we work with to operate under. First, we ask our activists to only engage on issues they actually believe in. Second, we ask everyone not to lie about anything. Third, we ask our activists not to create multiple online personalities to engage in blogosphere conversations.

6. Have we ever made mistakes? Sure. Do we learn from them? You bet. So does everyone else in this new world of reaching out to bloggers. Most firms that are navigating these waters hit a rock or two, and we haven’t been (and won’t be) any different. All we can promise to do is watch out for rocks and communicate clearly when we hit one.

[brentspeak]

3. Thanks for this info

I'm doing my own research on these activities. I'll lay it all out once I get some of my data organized.

[MADem]

4. This guy is a creep

And he lives in NH? Was he the "brains" behind the phone jamming scheme that allowed Sununu to steal the election?

[DBoon]

5. Can someone with Slashdot "karma points" post this there?

I'm convinced that Slashdot is targetted, esp. by anti-global warming interests

I'd like to see someone submit this as a topic to see if it gets posted.

Afraid my own slashdot ID has vanished....

[gratuitous]

6. Consider the common fly

If it weren't for elephant-sized piles of shit, the fly wouldn't serve any purpose. Same goes for Mr. Griffin, who sounds like a camp follower picking up whatever cash spills out of overstuffed pockets.

[SidDithers]

7. Good research...

thanks for posting.

Sid

[mmonk]

8. Thanks

[VOX]

9. Here's a guy who's noticed the infestation by NetVocates clones...

This guy blogs on utahadventurevideos, has noticed the sudden influx of NetVocates clones. He is at least questioning it, and is trying to connect the dots...
http://www.utahadventurevideos.com/blog/archives/2006/06/10/has-netvocates-visited-your-blog-recently/
Many bloggers are starting to notice some new referrals from a company called “NetVocates” (mine showed up as coming from arrca.netvocates.com to be specific).

I recently invited a guest blogger (who writes under the pseudonym D. Sirmize) to share his political opinions on my blog. I began to get hits (55 to date) from NetVocates a couple days after his first political post. It would seem that whatever they’re currently looking at is based on opinions of a political nature.

Political posts of the last week or so include titles such as, “My Favorite Political Blogs“, “Liberal Bias in Mainstream Media“, “Liberal Media Bias: Follow-up #1“, and “Google Admits Mistake with China, But…“.

Other bloggers that have written about visits from NetVocates seemed to have an Al Gore video in common. None of his posts mention Al Gore, but it would seem that the common link is certainly of a political nature.

Mindcaster, PSoTD, and Baraka, have all posted about visits and have all speculated as to the whys and whats, but no clear answers have emerged. Robin of cybersoc.com speculated about the relationship between CustomScoop and NetVocates which he says were owned by one and the same, Chip Griffin. That theory was rebutted by Chip himself, but in his “verbose” post he didn’t answer the more nagging question: Which of his clients are interested in our content and what exactly are they doing with it?

<snip>

[VOX]

10. "Prepare to be spun" -- one Canadian blogger gets it...

http://www.robcottingham.ca/20060614/prepare-to-be-spun/
14 Jun 2006
Prepare to be spun
Category: Politics; Technology; Blogging
If you have a blog, you’ve had to deal with everything from comment spammers to juvenile flame warriors. Well, brace yourself: your blog may soon pick up a new breed of online pest.

According to the folks at Blanton’s and Ashton’s, paid commenters are now cruising the blogging world and trying to skew the conversation on behalf of their clients:
Recently I have had several visits from http://arrca.netvocates.com/Default/index.cfm?, most recently to the posting on Congressman Rush Holt’s appearance on Lou Dobbs. “Who”, I wondered, “are Netvocates?” I did a little checking and now I know. Basically, Netvocates is an organization that sends people out to web logs to post propoganda in comments. They appear to be tied to conservatives and there appears to be a tie to townhall.com, the ultra-right-wing web site. Cybersoc.com spent time running down the facts on Netvocates and the man behind Netvocates. I recommend that people who read blogs check out the Cybersoc.com posting. Education is armor.

[Kurovski]

11. K&R

:thumbsup:

[Jeffersons Ghost]

12. Kicked and Recommended

[VOX]

13. Shameless kick...

Well, sort of shameless. :blush:

[brentspeak]

14. Kick

:kick: