It turns out that I have not been the only one who has researched the IP address used by Andy "The Troll" Yaco-Mink at Huffington Post.
The blog MAXPOWER has just posted an amazing story about how this IP address and the people behind it (supposedly HuffPo staffers) have abused the internet.
After having demonstrated how this IP is associated with anoymous e-mails and supported his belief that the Huffington Post was “astroturfing” (the use of paid shills to create the impression of a popular movement [source][wikipedia]), he concludes:
"Coincidences come in clusters: the pattern is clear, staff at THP have attempted to manipulate bloggers and the public by appearing as independent voices online. They have anonymously posted comments and sent emails to promote their product in an attempt to orchestrate a viral contagious marketing initiative.
On their own site, THP, they censor critical comments refusing to publish them — contrary to their clients wishes (if you believe the adweek quote). I have no proof, but comments on THP blog within the JWT advertising section also appear to be written by marketers posing as you or me in an attempt to get us to endorse their product.
There is a credibility problem at The Huffington Post. Who are they trying to fool — the public, or the advertisers willing to pay six figures a week for fake superlative feedback?"
The full and very amazing story here.
You can also read more here about how HuffPo has teamed up with JWT to create viral marketing and hoodwink intenet users.
47 comments:
Suurprise! Suurprise! Suurprise!
1. It shows the tech people there at HuffPo are idiots... (sorry, but I can't really find a better word)
They claimed how flawless are their website features, and yet they actually used the SAME internet connection for marketing? (or Astroturfing, as you've mentioned).
Makes me question how their features are really "flawless".
2. It shows that Andy Yaco-Mink, was using a company computer and company connection when making his comments.
Makes me wonder whether this was also under company orders...
The beauty of the blogosphere is that it allows anyone to set up his/her own site and publish just as intently as anyone else.
Because she owns the playground and all the balls within it, Ms. H. has pretty much every right to determine who writes on the site and how it is run. We are, of course, free to disagree with her motives and intentions.
Good to see you picking up your virtual pen and writing elsewhere. If I may be so bold, I look forward to your putting this behind you so that you can once again focus on the topics that matter most to your readers.
And for what it's worth, personal perspectives can make for compelling reading. Don't let the critique of society's few affect your willingness and ability to hit your audience with relevant, challenging material.
All the best.
I guess the thing that really surprises me, well two things actually.
1. The amount of money involved. Dr. could you give more details about that aspect please?
I've been following your ordeal and you've made mention of it a few times but mostly in general terms. The other part of this aspect that intrigues me is Arrianna's blog entry of 22 June 06, titled and linked to below with excerpt.
What I found interesting about this entry is that it's amazing in it's lack of connection to HuffPo. Why was Arrianna there? She doesn't really tell us. She spends no time speculating about the possible benefit of this new swing in ad creativity personnel, into positions of decision making power, in educating the gloriously blissful ignorant. I mean wouldn't that be the primary concern from a political perspective, at least as one might think it would impact Arrianna's HuffPo?
She spent not a second of time on that though. I find the lack of commentary in that regard curious. I haven't read any of her other blog entries from Cannes so she may have addressed it elsewhere. On it's own, however; I think its lack of connection to the purpose of HuffPo invites speculation that she was there to learn how best to encourage ad click through rates on HuffPo, which is at least a little disturbing to me.
It concerns me because with everything going on over there including what happened to you, the apparent curtailing of critical commentary, and the way she pushes her rather ridiculously titled new book (it's a title one might expect from a minority women who's reached success despite immeasurable obstacles, rather than a privileged white women who's main claim to obstacles is the occasional broken heel on her several thousand dollar Manolo Blahniks), it's beginning to look like HuffPo is little more than a life support system for Arrianna's financial aspirations.
It's a shame really because at one point I really did respect her, and went out of my way to read her articles.
==========
Ad Festival: The Rise of the Creatives
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/ad-festival-the-rise-of-_b_23610.html
"Everyone here is talking about how the ad world needs to recreate advertising in a way that will embrace new technologies and engage the new breed of consumers who are more and more likely to be found getting their content on the web, on their cellphones, watching video games, or listening to their iPods."
...
"Discussing his role as worldwide creative director of WPP, Robyn Putter told me that the best ad campaigns "go beyond embracing a big idea and embrace a big ideal." As examples, he pointed to Dove's award-winning ads featuring real women comfortable in their own skin, and the far-more controversial campaigns for BP, which highlight the company's openness to alternative energy sources. Putter was very aware of the charges from some environmental groups that the ads were an attempt to "greenwash" the oil company. "For the campaign to ultimately work," he said, "the company will have to live up to the campaign's ideals." "
===========
2. The expectation that HuffPo is anything but a blog compilation site. From what I've read there seems to me to be some expectation somewhere, and I'm not sure if it's on the part of the person who authored the comments, or Huffpo, that Huffpo is an online Newspaper, or Magazine rather than news aggregator with individual contributing bloggers.
For some reason, it didn't show my name on my comment (the second one).
Have you guys read James Love's second blog entry on this matter?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-love/free-andy-yacomink_b_23805.html
I seriously don't see any reason to drop it now that we know this IP (Andy's/Company's) was used this way... What else have they been doing on the internet!?
It looks like they're semi-censoring my ID... My comments are appearing a lot later than others, but they still do show up from time to time.
I'm just curious, do they catagorize reader IDs into "Safe to pass", "Not-so-safe", "Spammer", "Trolls", "Haters", "Anti-Israel/Jew-Haters" so on? I not kidding guys, but I'm pretty sure my comments aren't batch-screened by the same ppl, but rather took extra scrutiny by someone else...
Drop it! Not if I dont want to open up my newspaper to the editorial page and read an editorial telling me how real opinion makers drink bud!
This stuff is disgusting!Advertising does not mix with news or editorial content. Ben Bradley will tell you all about it. Stories on Watergate pissed off advertisers, but they didnt quit running the stories because of revenue dropping. That is the very slippery slope you go down when you allow this kind of stuff to slip by. If anything, this is much worse than I imagined.
WOW!
Geez doc, it may only be a small firestorm, but firestorm it is.
Over at Huffpost, I've noticed ANY reference to you being deleted.
JUST LIKE THE GOP does things. I guess maybe Arianna has been hanging with Karl Rove lately and he's been giving her tips.
One does have to wonder if Arianna truly has looked into this or is just being given a sanatized version ala our Fearless Leader Prez Dumbya who probably couldn't find Iraq on a map if he was given a sudden pop quiz.
I wish the NYT has done a bit more of an in depth article pointing out the problems with trollz who seem be given free access to publish ANY lame, rude, obscene or hateful comments towards liberals, progressives and others on her site.
That alone has risen suspicions in me for quite some time. In my original incarnation there (no need to say) before Rosethejet, I continually questioned the real purposes of the trollz.
Now it appears mine and everyone else's suspicion's have been proven correct. That they are INDEED paid trollz except now it begins to look like they are being paid by HUFFINGTONPOST!
To have to stoop to such levels is just beyond me and it makes the site along with the purpose HIGHLY suspect.
I realized all along it was for money but I actually had hoped it would be honest and forthright about it's mission.
Now it appears this is completely false.
Just for money and nothing else.
What a sham and hypocrisy of the highest order.
Three cheers for Ms Huffington. Block that post. Block that post. Block that post.
Seems she wants to be the "Decider", and a good number of Posters think that's just all right. I feel so dirty, so...so used!
Blame the victim. Yeah, that's it, she was asking for it, and I, well I just gave her what she wanted, Mr. Judge.
Hypocrisy at its finest. Maybe a little Irony as well.
Well Dr. It appears even more comments regarding you have disappeared. Yesterday on Marty Kaplans blog there were at least half a dozen comments relating to the Huffingpost debacle. Including two that had made reader's favorite comments.
They are now gone. In fact Huffingpost has whitewashed this completely.
Talk about sheer hypocrisy.
I got an idea for ya Doc.
Can you post a poll? Not one asking for comments but one of those where you click yes or no and we can see the results?
I wonder how many people see the ads?
I can't see them due to the programs on my computer blocking every single one of them.
When I first started going to Huffingpost, I thought she was covering this entirely herself. She is already wealthy, and never thought there were ads, until someone mentioned them and I turned off my ad blocker.
WOW. Ads everywhere.
So the question remains. Are they getting their money's worth? OR do most people have the ad blockers like I do and perhaps a tiny percentage of people are actually seeing any ads?
Just an idea.
Hey, what do you expect: when money is involved EVERYONE tends to become politically opinionated.
Keep writing Doc: you're like a "Worldly Molly Ivins"!!
Doc...
Just in case you didn't read this comment, from another of your blogs, here it is again because I believe it's important:
""Lumps (huffpo) said...
Hello Dr.
You gave me good advice, in the past, about where to find web site analysers. Thanks!
I agree with this poster:
"rosethejet said...
Apparently you have been removed again!
What the hell is going on and more importantly do you have a way of contacting Arianna and tell her about this?
6/20/2006"
I believe that she may not know the whole story. She needs to know, with bibliography, just what has gone down with your side on this.
Send her an objective snail-mail package, return reciept, telling her about the; Troll, the rigged voting, the right-wing shading of comments, and whatever else you think she needs to know.
Don't trust her website email. It's useless as you probably already know!
Then, when you get the return reciept, just kiss it all goodbye! Be cordial, but, just leave it in her hands. She has to make her own choice of how to percieve it.
Keep writing, you'd make a great investigative reporter!
Patrick
6/25/2006""
Thanks again for great investigative reporting!
Patrick
Here's an e-mail I've sent Dr. Rost. He suggested that I post this as a comment in his blog. so here it goes (try not to laugh too much, or freak out too much):
Some parts are edited, such as my real name as well as e-mail address. I'm keeping Dr. Rost's since it's right there in his profile... *grins*
-------------------------------
From: Reaniel
To: rostpeter@hotmail.com
Subject: Andy Yaco-Mink and the Timing of Trolling
Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 01:14:17 +0800
Dr. Rost,
I'm a reader of your blog, posting under the name "Reaniel" (it'd save you the trouble to search the IP address =P).
While reading the various blog entries you've linked, as well as one line of Arinanna's comment, something just crawled into my head...
I didn't know what it was at first, but after carefully reading everything again, I noticed it:
1. Andy Yaco-Mink was posting using a HuffPo's computer and HuffPo's connection, since it was the exact same connection that was astroturfing other blogs.
2. This passage was in the NYT article you've posted:
"In an interview, Ms. Huffington said that her editorial team had discussed blocking Dr. Rost from the site more than a month ago because of the frequently personal nature of his posts. The editors made the final decision after they said Dr. Rost did not listen to their concerns on the post about Mr. Yaco-Mink."
3. Andy Yaco-Mink's first trolling comment:
"You know what was great? The Berlin wall."
By: yacomink on May 25, 2006 at 12:23pm
In case you havn't seen the connection, few days AFTER the editors discussed blocking you from the site, Yaco-Mink started the trolling attacks!
Now, call me crazy paranoid, wouldn't it be possible that it wasn't Yaco-Mink's idea to attack your entries for his personal dislike, but rather, under the direction from his superior (JP)?? For all we know, this is the exact same IP used to launch the astroturfing campaign, which is, obviously, ordered by HuffPo/JWT higher-ups?
For what reason you might ask? Well, for one thing, it is to create the illusion (to the readers as well as to you) that your blog entries "suck". This would/might encourage like-minded people who have issues with your blog to make negative comments.
Second, this "might" also discourage you from blogging more (by hurting your fragile ego? lol... =P). Thus, making you sort of "fade-away" gradually.
When they found out that it's not working, since you've started blogging even more (I think, not entirely sure) and attracting more audiences (again, I'm not 100% sure about this, but you were getting more comments), they went into the second phase, by "bumping" Yaco-Mink's comment as Reader's Favorite.
By doing this, they hoped to make you, as well as the other readers, know how much your entries "suck".
However, the whole thing came down when you exposed Yoco-Mink's true identity. HuffiPo tried to do some damange control by having Arianna and JP blogging about this matter, but appearantly, the entire fiasco is burning like wildfire.
Many people are asking why they havn't fired Yaco-Mink... and if the above conspiracy theory is true, the reason is obvious: They can't afford having Yaco-Mink going out and tell everyone that he was following company orders.
I mean seriously, why else didn't they have Yaco-Mink coming out and tell his side of story, but instead having JP to relay everything he said?
Anyway, thank you for taking your time to read through this e-mail... I hope it'd achieve what it was meant to achieve: Either to make you freak out even more, or gives you a few giggles ;)
(I personally hope it was the former... *grins*...)
Regards
Reaniel
----------------------------
Part of me is, of course, kidding, but you can't really deny the likelyhood of this being true. Either way, untill I see HuffPo come clean regarding this entire matter (actions coming from this IP), I can't really regain my respect for Arianna and her site at all.
Well, this makes the whole thing seem a little less bizarre. Obviously the sent Andy out to get you going.
But there is one inexplicable thing about all this. Why did they take such a strong dislike to you? I don't buy the bit that they didn't like your posts -- and if they wanted you to blog less all they had to do was give you a limit, like so many times per mo.
No, it doesn't make sense -- and as one astute commenter said, they were dumb enough to single out a whistleblower.
Unless, this is how they routinely get rid of bloggers who simply fade away . . . no need to take their passwords away, no need to explain the the poster's readers, no set it up so that it is the blogger's "decision."
Wonder if we will begin to hear some similar stories from former/inactive HuffPo bloggers.
PS: I never bought Arianna's conversion from Mrs Huffington (I have a rethug fundraiser cousin in So Calif and even she thinks the former Mr is a complete idiot and only became a senator due to Arianna's ambition) to the leader of all progressives. No, she loves to be in the limelight (doesn't really need the money) and it is so much more "cool" to hang out with hollywood types than stodgy rethug wives in DC. ETC.
Nasty, I know . . . but that is how it looks to me.
Sure seems like the inside of HP had people who wanted to use you and other bloggers for a campaign, and were really irked by your writing.
I don't think it was the "personal" issues at all.
I think this is a case of another pfizer fiasco, where the corporate big-wigs want to get the whistleblowers on their side.
Doing it clandestinely or through trollish marketing, with no real care for their james bond juniorish antics.
As usual, whistleblowers have enemies. Now we know how many pretend to be your friend, too.
Since Dr. Rosts accusations and observations appeareds on the Huffington Post I have repeatedly attempted to comment on the various threads there pertaining to this issue. Despite over fifteen attempts to comment, not ONE SINGLE comment actually appeared on the various threads. Considering that I have posted on THP on numerous occassions, and never experienced such blatant censureship prior to Rost's observations, I can only surmise that Dr. Rost's suspicions were as well founded as they were well researched. It WAS truly an incredible bit of sleuthing on his part. The Huffington Post has suffered an INCREDIBLE loss of credibility with this issue and the manner in which they have handled it. I cabn't help but wonder if Arianna is aware of the extent that her blog is being censured through the MANIPULATION of thread content by her staff. If so, then she is deserving of NO respect, and her blog was just rendered irrelevant. If not, than she needs to get her act together, pay attention, and roll some heads right out the door.
Perhaps someone can contact the lauded judges in the Contagious Festival and see if they actually do have a say in judging the competition
The Judges are
John Cusack, Nora Ephron,The Onion Editors, The Yes Men, Jeremy Zimmer, Jim Bankoff and Arianna Huffington.
This is quite imnportant in the whole credibility issue. The statement for the competition is "Do you want to be the first one at work to discover the next JibJab, Detroit Project or Black People Love Us?". However, the Detroit Project is ranked 5,154,000 (hardly a viral marketing success), Black People Love Us is ranked 150,000, a view of Alexa, http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=&url=blackpeopleloveus.com will show that this so called Viral Marketing success has only been since the Contagious Festival was launched.
Interesting enough, both projects are owned by Arianna Huffimngton and Jonah Peretti respectively.
There is a major point here. Huff Po offer 2500 to each award winner, and this is used to get submissions, which in turn generate 10% of the sites traffic. Obviously, Advertising Revenue is based on traffic. If,as it appears, that the results are manipulated so that Huff Po, never have to pay out money to independent designers, isn`t this an outrageous fraud, obtaining advertising revenues through deception? Would the so called list of celebrities who "judge" the final result, allow their names to be used for such fraudulent purposes?
Dr Rost has opened a can of worms, the dishonesty surrounding the Contagious Festival could really take the lid off.
Regards
FYI: The JWT ads are still alive and well on the Huffington site http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jwt/. Try and find a negative comment.
I wonder what the numbers are for Huffingpost now?
As well, I'm still interested in finding out how many people actually see ads.
Further, I do believe in Arianna's conversion. I was at her Shadow Convention in L.A. and it made me her fan for life, until this anyway. WHICH is why I don't think she knows or completely understands what has happened. She may be polticially savvy and know how to work a crowd, but that doesn't mean she has a clue when it comes to how the site and advertising and viral ads and all the tech stuff works.
I am willing to give her, AND ONLY HER, the benefit of the doubt until such time as she either actually proves she understands what happened and still stands by one of the worst staffs currently working or fires everyone involved, apologizes to the Dr. and has him back.
This would require her to make a very publi apology and one that is detailed in admitting she really didn't understand the problem and asking for readers to make sure she knows when things start to get a little hinky on her site.
That and getting rid of any obvious inhouse trollz.
But Jonah is a snake and keeping Yakko the Wakko on may well be for the reasons mentioned by the above poster Reaniel that they couldn't afford to have him say he was deliberately being trollish in order to get rid of him in order to put up Pfizer or other pharma ads.
One can only wonder what the true reason is but most probably it comes down TO MONEY!!
James Love is defending Yaco-Mink again in his latest blog post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-love/free-andy-yacomink_b_23805
I tried posting the following innocuous comment around three hours ago and it hasn't appeared yet and probably won't ever:
I have less of a problem with an employee expressing his/her opinion as a comment on a blog post than with HuffPo's obvious noncompliance with their comment policy. Since the Rost fest started I've had numerous comments either never posted or deleted that respectfully just disagreed with HuffPo's stated position about Dr. Rost.
It has made me wonder what is going on with other blog posts when my comments have not appeared. I had naievely assumed that HuffPo was having technical problems not that they were manipulating comments. Don't manipulate your comments please, it destroys your credibility entirely.
Let me try that link to Love's blog post again:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-love/free-andy-yacomink_b_23805.html
thebronxzoo,
don't bother trying to wait for your comments to appear... I've already made two comments, and none of them are appearing.
Here they are:
"Please, HuffPo - let it go. Both sides have now had their say (and then some). Stop the self-important navel gazing. It is time to move on. The never-ending melodrama of the Peter Rost situation is what's dragging this site down, not the conspiracy theory. "
By: GMoney on June 26, 2006 at 01:05pm
----------------------------------
Yeah, let's do that! While we're at it, let's stop all investigation into the Abramoff affair!! We've already caught and convicted the bastard now, havn't we?
And let's stop trying to figure out the Judy Miller fiasco now! She's gone from the NYT already, hasn't she?
------------------------------
To James:
Read this article about what else Andy's IP address has done around the Internet:
http://www.maxpower.ca/huffington-post-astroturfs-for-dollars-trolls-and-loses-credibility-loses-rost/2006/06/26/
And then tell me with a straight face that we should drop it right here.
----------------------
Oh, and James, since when did you start working for the ACLU...
Ah, that's right, you didn't!
Well, according to the "Arianna's Law", bloggers aren't suppose to blog on stuff that isn't their area of expertise...
Who knows, you might be next! Better watch out!
This isn't rocket science.
It's real simple -
Rost - Pfizer
Pfizer - JWT
Rost - THP
THP - JWT
Do you think JWT values it's relationship with Pfizer? Which relationship do you think THP values as more profitable from a purely monetary standpoint??
"JWT Puts a 'Roadblock' on Huffington Post"* (in more ways than one & gives new meaning to the term 'Roadblock')
*(source)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/16/business/media/16adco.html?ex=1308110400&en=6f47c4bf2adfb388&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
- must sign in to read
anonymous
Thanks, really interesting article. I just put the correct html into the link so readers could click on it and go there directly:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/16/business/media/16adco.html?ex=1308110400&en=6f47c4bf2adfb388&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
the bronxzoo,
I had the same experience with James Love's post. My first comment appeared and the second one never did and the post is retired even though it was getting a bunch of comments and was only posted at 11:30 this morning. None of my comments to Suzanne Nossel's post ever appeared since yesterday (I can't stand her and have commented on her cluelessness before).
The post has been dropping in viewership the last 3 months. I think the trend will now greatly accelerate.
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?&compare_sites=&y=p&q=&size=large&range=3m&url=huffingtonpost.com
I fucking knew it. In one of the Dr's earlier blogs I commented that it's probably the HuffPo staff doing the trolling to generate more traffic and that's why Andy can't be fired because he was just doing his job. I love being in a position to say I told you so!!!
HERE is the post I ATTEMPTED to post over at that sham blog about FREE YAKKO.
What a disgrace. Anyway, here is what I wrote:
----------------------------------
I agree, that until we know the full truth this isn't something that should be glossed over.
What isn't mentioned is that Yaco also followed the Dr. to other sites and trolled him there. He was almost a classic stalker. I don't know of to many people who make a point of following bloggers around to troll them.
As well there is the non answered questions of paid trollz and why certain trollz can be as abusive as they want with no worry of retrobution from Huffpost.
This site seems to have lost a great deal of credibility and coming here won't be the same until we are assured trollz and employees are not manipulating numbers, results, and editing or censoring comments.
That is the realm of the Neo Cons, and not or should be not, the realm of progresive/liberal news and commentary sites.
-----------------------
As well you might notice all of the readers favorite comments. 90 percent are against James.
Yee haw!
Ride 'em hard Doc.
It would be undoubtedly Pfizer and other pharma sites who don't want the Doc's blot posted there. It hurts their credibility.
IF that is the case, then Jonah is just as bad as Karl Rove. All being done in the name of money and power.
BUT I have no doubt that is exactly what happened. This was just so poorly handled as to be beyond belief. The stories rebutting the doctor sound like UFO denials by the government. NOT that I believe in UFO's, it just that the governments' stories make no sense when studied and this idiocy at Huffingpost sounds exactly the same. Swamp gas, weather balloons, and my favorite, MASS HALLUCINATIONS!
Huffingpost has done the same thing.
It unfortunately is still a good place to go see news. I think if Yahoo adapted the same format instead of their silly stuffy one, they would get the traffic. I think that is their one best advantage, ease of use and navigation.
I would still love to see Arianna, IN PUBLIC, and with a live audience, answer the questions this entire incident has raised.
"but it seems like a bit of a stretch to me that they would orchestrate this elaborate campaign to try to get him to leave, and then to discredit him, just for that reason."
Maybe they initially had no interest in discrediting him, ever consider?
That would explain why he was following Rost everywhere and making comments, some not so snide, some meant to boost his posts.
After all, the reason they hired these bloggers on was to talk about "Big Pharma" cases, corporate big-wigs, and celebrity court battles.
They did not hire them on to do idle gossip as you can tell, Jonah's agenda was really to effectively relay a marketing campaign.
These people were used in that marketing campaign. It turned hostile, if you study the posts, only after the dirty secrets and hidden hands of "Greedy, Astroturfing companies" started getting exposed.
This happened very blatantly at Huffington Post. Being attacked for exposing corruption, after a while you find it odd don't you?
Well, if its hurting someone's bottom line there is a reason to turn the tables. Read every posting very carefully, including the ones critical of Rost or his professional life.
You can automatically finger who is a paid troll, or company propagandaist profiler since they stick out like a sore thumb. This would allow anyone to "game" the place, so when a marketer has outlived their potential.....they are mysteriously vanished.
Clearly an agenda was afoot, in every post you find remarking on the research papers. When he put up research papers on Pfizer, many company people said it read like a "fourth grader".
Obviously it couldn't be used if it was too critical of the company being advertised. So they even edited all those comments, too! Now it makes alot more sense.
Conspiracy to fill the bottom line of the pocket-books and make it look innocent.
Dear Janine
It seems Ms Huffy got some ad $$$ from JWT. There clients include Citi, Kraft, and oh, looky here, Pfizer.
Well, it also seems Doc. Rost has a slight problem with Pfizer. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to guess that Ms Huffy wanted the good Doctor off her site as his posts were potentially contrary to her cash flow.
So it looks, to those of us who trustis no one, that perhaps the little Minky (Andy) was assigned to harass the good Doctor in an effort to move him along for christ's (cashes) sake.
Unfortunately for Ms huffy, Andy was found out, and loyal reader have been calling for the Minky's firing. That got us banned from posting comments. Ya see, if he was directed to be a Troll, they can't very well fire him for it.
To the Huffies at the Post, we are all just a bunch of pair-a-noid moonbats.
Doesn't mean it's not true, though.
Good day.
I was wondering what connection James Love had with Jonah for him to go out of his way to defend his ass so much. I googled both their names. This is the first weird thing I came up with. I'm looking for more:
http://www.youwhores.com/hate.html
"SPAM every whore
For $100 I will harvest all the email addresses on the youwhores.com website and send every whore a message of your choice. You can use this opportunity to sell viagra, herbalife, morgages, penis enlargement pills, or other useful products.
Jonah Peretti
peretti@media.mit.edu
United States of America - 03/07/04"
"GIVE ME £1 AND I'LL CALL YOU A PRICK.
GIVE.
ME.
A.
POUND.
AND.
I'LL.
CALL.
YOU.
A.
PRICK.
ANY LESS AND I'LL TELL YOU TO FUCK OFF.
NO REQUESTS.
James Love
heyjaylove@hotmail.com
United Kingdom - 01/07/04"
Not sure what it all means, but it doesn't sound cool.
anonymous,
Yes you will automatically get banned. The mere mention of "Jewish conspiracy", brings about every antisemite accusation in the book.
Call it a neocon conspiracy or zionist conspiracy, for most places to tolerate it. But at the PuffPost, even speaking loudly those ugly facts will get you blocked. Careful!
bebop
That's very strange the connection you found between Love and Perreti. When I have some time later, I'll search for more.
Dudes...
James Love posts about Pfizer on the HuffPO!!! Maybe he wants the Doc out so he can take over:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-love/terrorism-pfizer-style_b_18290.html
http://www.essentialinventions.org/media/pr-29jan04.html
As for that previous link with him and Peretti, I think it's meant to be a joke. And I think it's pretty dated (like Jonah is still in school). Still, Jonah's view then and his actions now are not that different. So was his post a joke or an epiphany?
Arianna isn't getting many comments on her blog posts lately. This last one has been up for a few hours and she's gotten only three. I'd say her readers are starting to pay her back for her mendacity. Probably everything else is too negative for HuffPo to post.
Fascinating discussion.
I don't really have a favorite website although I like reading the BBC website. They seem to give more honest news or at least news without the overview of what the Bushpigs would approve of, much like our cable news and even to a degree our network news outfits do.
That our news outfits are owned by corporations who have more business with the government or Pentagon says volumes about what we hear in the news. Nothing to upset the corporate trough being constantly filled.
Sort of how Arianna likes her trough filled all the time and if that means turing to Rovian tactics to descredited the messenger vs studying the message.
Very destressing for a former fan of Arianna'a and one who hopes to be again.
I started going back to portals for aggregrated news. I used to use Yahoo ages ago (before huffpo), but now I choose Google (news.google.com). They seem to cull from way more sources than anyone else. Yes, Google censors their China site, but unlike Yahoo, they haven't turned over any Journalists to the gov't to be tortured and killed yet.
I wonder is this is the same James Love. Do a find for "James Love" on the page. It's the anti Clinton stuff:
http://www.textfiles.com/digest/TELECOMDIGEST/vol13.iss0201-0250.txt
I'm trying to get a better idea of who this Love character is and why he would repeatedly risk looking like a stooge to defend these clowns. He can't be too stupid to understand the comments overwhelming opposed to his view. And he makes no effort to address any of the valid points in those comments.
Based on that same logic, we already outed Jonah. I'm guessing someone has Love by the nuts too.
I don't know what to make of this James Love cat. According to his background, he's an economist who specializes in intellectual property laws. But besides his clownish defense of the post, it looks like he is involved in issues related to pharma. He also wrote some paper with Nader regarding the Microsoft antitrust case. Maybe I don't know enough in this area to make an insightful observation. You wanna give it a crack Doc? Here's his site:
http://www.cptech.org/
Oh. I see now. One of the things cptech does is to act like some sort of watchdog agency against pharma. My guess is Love was mad that all the work he and his whole office did was minuscule in effect compared to what the doc singlehandedly did by whistleblowing. I can see how he might be bitter. This just might be a case of mad jealousy. Otherwise, he seems like a stand up guy.
http://www.cptech.org/ip/health/politics/revolvingdoor.html
An update to the article at MaxPower:
The second email example which was sent to the Courting Destiny blog was actually sent by an identified THP employee and not (as I had initially believed) an anonymous member of the public (unlike the email I received). The text of the MaxPower post has been changed to include this new information. There is still plenty of evidence to support my conclusion that THP was attempting to engage bloggers in a viral marketing campaign using emails from individuals that did not disclose the nature of their relationship to THP.
bebop
Do you have a sense, since this fellow evidently had a bit of a resume, why he did that juvenile post you put up earlier on http://www.youwhores.com/hate.html.
I stuck this below but I'll put it here too 'cause I don't feel like typing it again:
I was banned once from Huffpo and I'm a die-hard Democrat and liberal. Now I just use anonymizer but it's not cheap. (There are cheaper alternatives)
Nothing I've posted about the Dr's plight has been published either. Except the other day I did get a "best of" again - on a different topic altogether.
Anyhoo... things are pointing to what I've believed for a long time: Huffpo *encourages* trolls. Why? Traffic.
Think about it: No matter which side of the aisle you're on, left or right, if you read the posts sooner or later you'll see some total @$$hole post something that you have a snappy answer for.
It's tough to resist not popping in and, in my case, verbally smacking around a (not very bright) troll or two.
But the Jerry Springer analogy is apt. And after a point, no serious discussion occurs. The longer a topic is left up there the more it deteriorates into a pissing match.
Except each time someone pops in to pee, Arianna can point to greater and greater site statistics and more and more money from her advertisers.
If everyone agreed with each other, Arianna would go broke. Who knew that trolls lay golden eggs?
(What would be a *real* find is to learn that Huffpo is paying trolls to troll there... I'm not saying she is but I could see why she would - the revenue)
But in the end reading the posts people leave is like Worldwide Blog Wrestling and about as intelligent to watch as the regular kind on tee-vee and almost as genuine. If Arianna wants a liberal blog she shouldn't give trolls megaphones to be heard.
Well, that does it for once.
New York Times should make this front page news.
Celarly Arianna Huffington has been exposed as the glamorous, celbrity con artist she always was.
All of the money and special interests, have gotten her to say "Lets do this" and in doing so.....attempted to use a Doctor, and several others to play both sides to promote products.
Products that put money into their back pocket, the most obvious conflict of interest there is.
To think this all started with some one called Andy, and his trolling soundbytes.
We should thank Andy, for blowing open the biggest faux progressive scam in the ten or more years of the internet.
Now that they are "outed", no doubt the neocons are having a field day paying off another big progressive site!!!
So they can infiltrate and overtake everything with hotshot-propaganda!!!
That is what Viral marketing really is, marketing so addictive and obscene it really is a virus.
Out of sight out of mind, PuffPost.
trollzrevil:
You're onto something, check out this http://www.rentatroll.com/
And that came from only one google of "rentatroll".
I got banned yet again for posting what I did on page 1 of the comments at the following blog entry (as censorship is still very much alive at Huffingtonpost.com):
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/06/27/al-qaeda-jihadi-textbook_n_23892.html
bannedagain10
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