Joseph Mailander of the Martini Republic weblog has an extremely important posting on Sunday about the dangers of "blog trolling." To "troll" in the world of the internet is to lurk on a discussion board and make deliberately false and inflammatory comments, to which all the other posters feel they must reply, so that it roils the list. There is also a connotation of dishonesty about the troll's real identity.

A related practice has been called by Josh Marshall "astroturfing," where a "grass roots" campaign turns out actually to be sponsored by a think tank or corporation. Astroturf is fake grass used in US football arenas. What Mailander is talking about is not really astroturfing, but rather the granting of some individuals a big megaphone.

The MR posting brings up questions about the Iraqi brothers who run the IraqTheModel site. It points out that the views of the brothers are celebrated in the right-leaning weblogging world of the US, even though opinion polling shows that their views are far out of the mainstream of Iraqi opinion. It notes that their choice of internet service provider, in Abilene, Texas, is rather suspicious, and wonders whether they are getting some extra support from certain quarters.

Contrast all this to the young woman computer systems analyst in Baghdad, Riverbend, who is in her views closer to the Iraqi opinion polls, especially with regard to Sunni Arabs, but who is not being feted in Washington, DC.

The phenomenon of blog trolling, and frankly of blog agents provocateurs secretly working for a particular group or goal and deliberately attempting to spread disinformation, is likely to grow in importance. It is a technique made for the well-funded Neoconservatives, for instance, and I have my suspicions about one or two sites out there already.

The manipulation of public information by rightwing think tanks in collusion with corporate media is already well advanced. Kevin Drum points out that supposedly "liberal" CBS News interviewed a think tank author on the need to "privatize" (in other words, get rid of) Social Security, portraying him as an ordinary 28 year old citizen who "doesn't expect the program to be there" when he retires. I guess not, since he is working so hard to destroy it. Journalistic ethics should have required CBS to identify the interviewee as a principal with an axe to grind.

Will the blogging world go the same way? So far, if you look at the top hundred sites at technorati.com with regard to incoming links, what is striking is how above-board they are. Is the collective wisdom of the blogging world such as to reduce the dangers here? Is the blogging world actually less open to manipulation than corporate media? Stay tuned.


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Today's CCNWON Headlines:

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13 December 2004
Rights group alleges new deaths in US custody in Afghanistan, ECONOMIC APOCALYPSE: When Will Bush Come To His Senses?, Afghaniscam & More
± Monday, 13 December 2004 07:01 PM


Semites and anti-Semites, that is the question
± Monday, 13 December 2004 05:54 PM


Seeing Through Government-Media Lies
± Monday, 13 December 2004 04:46 PM


Text of Kerry's letter on the recount in Ohio, Video: A Message From The Iraq Resistance, Gary Webb: suicide my ass & more
± Monday, 13 December 2004 04:39 PM


Vietnam Redux: US B-52's Bomb Fallujah!
± Monday, 13 December 2004 03:30 PM :: Comments/Trackback (6-0)


Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Thursday, 9 December 2004 through Sunday, 12 December 2004
± Monday, 13 December 2004 03:23 PM


Ohio electors vote despite challenge, Groups ask Ohio Supreme Court to review presidential results, US made big mistake: Iraqi President & More
± Monday, 13 December 2004 02:26 PM


Ignoring Reality in Iraq: US Congressman Ron Paul
± Monday, 13 December 2004 01:37 PM


Will Kerry Fund Real Vote Probe?, US accused of Afghan jail deaths, Victory will not be won until U.S. leaves Iraq, Iraq Mess Is Part Of Bush's "Lives For Lies" Program & More
± Monday, 13 December 2004 01:03 PM


Manuel García, Jr.: The Year Of Disillusion
± Monday, 13 December 2004 12:47 PM


U.S. Military Obstructing Medical Care
± Monday, 13 December 2004 12:24 PM


The War is the War Crime
± Monday, 13 December 2004 11:59 AM


Bush admin: Four more years of decline, Fallujah to become concentration camp, New Ohio voter fraud transcripts & more
± Monday, 13 December 2004 11:38 AM


Neo-Con Spying on El Baradei, Targeting Iran
± Monday, 13 December 2004 11:12 AM :: Comments/Trackback (1-0)


Manipulation of the Blogging World on Iraq?
± Monday, 13 December 2004 10:58 AM


A Press Release Issued by the Spokesman of “President Saddam Hussien Defence Lawyers’ Committee”
± Monday, 13 December 2004 10:33 AM


Controversial U.S. Groups Operate Behind Scenes on Iraq Vote
± Monday, 13 December 2004 09:30 AM


George W. Bush's America: A National Nightmare?, Smoking Gun of Election Fraud is in Ken Blackwell’s Hand, America's Debt to Journalist Gary Webb & More
± Monday, 13 December 2004 09:21 AM


Diebold vs. Porta-Johns
± Monday, 13 December 2004 08:28 AM


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Yesterday's Headlines:

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