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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFox News Reportedly Used Fake Commenter Accounts To Rebut Critical Blog Posts
Fox News Reportedly Used Fake Commenter Accounts To Rebut Critical Blog PostsNew Book Details An Extensive Campaign By The Networks' PR Staffers
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NPR media reporter David Folkenflik writes in his forthcoming book Murdoch's World http://www.amazon.com/Murdochs-World-Last-Media-Empires/dp/161039089X 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 http://jimromenesko.com/2012/01/19/dealing-with-the-fox-news-pr-machine/ 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:
In the book's endnotes, Folkenflik explains that "four former Fox News employees told me of these practices." It's unclear whether these tactics are ongoing.
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/10/20/fox-news-reportedly-used-fake-commenter-account/196509
Raine1967
(11,589 posts)Thanks for this information. Trolls abound everywhere.
grahamhgreen
(15,741 posts)TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)Same shit, over and over again, on CNN, MSNBC, WaPo, etc. Sometimes they don't even bother to change their names between websites.
DURHAM D
(32,611 posts)intaglio
(8,170 posts)I am not exactly surprised.
There has long been a suspicion that certain unpopular industries do the same and may pay people to comment at places like HuffPo and on popular message boards.
Berlum
(7,044 posts)and, frankly, lying all the time smacks of dark-ass SATANIC (R) influences, as RepubliBaggers would say if they weren't blinded by their own fear and hate.
Curmudgeoness
(18,219 posts)I think that anyone who spends any time on the internet is aware that the comments posted are often generated by people who are being paid to post. You can usually tell which ones they are, since they have the same talking points over and over again and often are not on-topic. I am not surprised that Fox is doing this, and I have no doubt that "patriot" organizations and the party leadership do this as well.
But I am glad to see confirmation of what we all have known.