GOP on the Move Against Leftie Internet Sites

[NashVegas]

First we have Rush directing all of his people here.

Then we have the MoveOn bullshit.

Today it was Drudge on Symbol Man.

And now the Weekly Standard is going after IndyMedia.org

http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh010704.shtml

Daily Howler talks about Brooks column condemning the Cheney "human hunt" story. Turns out the satire that spawned it came from Portland Indymedia.

Indymedia has its share of crackers, but it's most important feature is its openness.

It's sites like DU, MoveOn, TBTM and Indy where the left and independents are given voice - and lots of it - that the big boys can't control, and they don't like it.

These people are what James Carse would call "Finite" players, and the internet is the ultimate "infinite" tool to use against them. On the old forum there was a discussion about a possible future clampdown on the net, and in it I posted more explaining that theory (too tired to go into the whole thing right now), to demonstrate why the elites would eventally freak out over the net, but with no search function finding it would be a needle in a haystack scenario.

[cprise]

1. And then Dean surges against Bush and CNN has to hide it

I can't say I hold the GOP's judgement in very high esteem. They are sabotaging themselves.

[styersc]

2. Bush said that the consistent attacks against our troops was the result

of our successes and their fear we would triumph.

Same thing.

[trumad]

3. And Brooks fails to mention in his Cheney Hunt piece

that the satirist includes Clinton in the Hunt...

[NashVegas]

4. Ayep

The post itself was just bizarre.

[liberalhistorian]

5. Jeebus, you'd think they'd be content

controlling everything else in this country!

[T Bone]

7. The neo-con PNACers are Control Freaks

Control Freaks with the world's largest army, spy agencies, you name it. Read the PNAC agenda. Don't think they won't apply it to domestic politics.

[GOPEC]

6. I would include the Byron York "Bush-haters" theme...

I would include the Byron York "Bush-haters" theme (Roll Call, The National Review, Brit Hume interview, etc.) in the list. TooStupidToBePresident.com never had so much significance.

[Mike Niendorff]

8. They've been on the move for a *long* time

but this time they're getting *much* more coordinated, with a smear-message aimed squarely at scaring newcomers away, rather than simply interfering with the day-to-day operations of websites (as they've always done before).

Some background:

For a couple of years now, indymedia has had *major* problems with RW disruptors logging onto the site and posting tons of hate-spam onto their "open" newswire (for those unfamiliar with indymedia, this is basically a worldwide "bulletin board", where anyone can post stories and anyone can add comments). Indymedia ultimately had to remove this "open" newswire from its main page because of this severe hate-spam problem, but, unfortunately, they still refuse to engage in any sort of content-based moderation (apparantly because they feel that this would amount to political "censorship" which would undercut the concept of an "open" newswire). Thus, the neo-nazi and anti-Semitic vandalism posts continue to flood their site, and indymedia gets attacked for, in essence, acting as a webhost for hate-spam. I have very little sympathy for them on this, because it has been obvious (for at least *two years*) that this problem is not "ideological" in nature, but is, instead, a form of deliberate right-wing vandalism designed to disrupt the site and to drive away the site's potential viewers by flooding their wires with the most offensive material they can get away with posting there.

Fortunately for all of us here, DU uses a moderation approach that cuts off this kind of vandalism at the source (ie: posters who post that kind of racist nonsense get banned in a heartbeat, and rightly so). However, if you went to alexa.com in the past month or two, you've probably noticed that right around early-December RWers suddenly got *very* busy spamming alexa's "reviews" section with posts claiming DU was a "neo-nazi hate-site", a place where posters get attacked for being "too Jewish", etc, etc, etc. Alexa finally pulled *all* recent reviews of DU, and I suspect that this is no small part of why they did it.

Now comes word of a round of high-profile RW op-eds trying to promote the ridiculous idea that the word "neo-conservative" is a really some sort of top-secret left-wing code-word for "Jew". Thus (goes the implication), anyone who posts something even remotely critical of George W. Bush -- or of "neo-conservatives" in general -- is really some sort of American Nazi trying to secretly promote anti-Semitism.

The moral here: don't think that the absurdity of the attack will prevent it from working. This sort of attack is transparently ridiculous to anyone with even a passing familiarity with the issues and websites in question. BUT: that isn't the target audience for these smears. The target audience is, specifically, those people who aren't yet familiar with the real agenda that the Bushies represent, but who could be swayed by exposure to the facts.

Toward that end, this serves as a pre-emptive PR strike, designed to impede discussion of truthful information before it rises to the level of common knowledge. The fact that the attack is clearly organized should at least give us fair warning as to what the RW has in store for us in the coming year(s). They will unite behind a Big Lie, as long as they think it will be politically useful. Furthermore, the fact that these "secret code" claims are so transparently false should also clue us in as to the pure hubris of the right-wing smear-machine that is promoting them. They simply don't expect our so-called "press" to call them on even the most obvious of lies.

So buckle up, people. It's going to be a rough road ahead.


MDN