Government Smears Journalists Who Investigate Government Corruption
Government agencies are monitoring social media for criticism.
They are also spying on U.S. journalists. See this, this, this and this:
(
(If the draconian Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) bill passes, the spying on journalists will only increase.)
They are also actively manipulating social media for propaganda purposes, to crush dissent (and see this), to help the too big to fail businesses compete against smaller businesses (and here), and to promote viewpoints which have nothing to do with keeping us safe.
We noted in 2009:
The U.S. government long ago announced its intention to “fight the net”.
As revealed by an official Pentagon report signed by Rumsfeld called “Information Operations Roadmap”:
The roadmap [contains an] acknowledgement that
information put out as part of the military’s psychological
operations, or Psyops, is finding its way onto the computer and
television screens of ordinary Americans.“Information intended for foreign audiences, including public
diplomacy and Psyops, is increasingly consumed by our domestic
audience,” it reads.“Psyops messages will often be replayed by the news media for much
larger audiences, including the American public,” it goes on.***
“Strategy should be based on the premise that the Department [of
Defense] will ‘fight the net’ as it would an enemy weapons system”.Indeed, the Pentagon publicly announced years ago that it was considering using “black propaganda” – in other words, knowing lies.
That includes smear campaigns against virtually anyone – foreign or domestic – who criticizes the government or threatens to report on illegal government activity.
Many popular bloggers – including Americans – who criticize the government have experienced such smear campaigns.
Even more interestingly, the Pentagon has apparently launched a massive smear campaign against USA Today reporters investigating … wait for it … unlawful domestic propaganda by the Pentagon:
A USA Today reporter and editor investigating Pentagon propaganda contractors have themselves been subjected to a propaganda campaign of sorts, waged on the Internet through a series of bogus websites.
Fake Twitter and Facebook accounts have been created in their names, along with a Wikipedia entry and dozens of message board postings and blog comments. Websites were registered in their names.
The timeline of the activity tracks USA Today’s reporting on the military’s “information operations” program ….
For example, Internet domain registries show the website
TomVandenBrook.com was created Jan. 7 — just days after Pentagon reporter Tom Vanden Brook first contacted Pentagon contractors involved in the program. Two weeks after his editor Ray Locker’s byline appeared on a story, someone created a similar site, RayLocker.com, through the same company.If the websites were created using federal funds, it could violate federal law prohibiting the production of propaganda for domestic consumption.
***
“I find it creepy and cowardly that somebody would hide behind my name and presumably make up other names in an attempt to undermine my credibility,” Vanden Brook said.
The activity is the work of what online reputation expert Andy Beal calls a “determined detractor.”
“It’s like a machine gun approach. They’re trying to generate as much online content as they can,” he said. “The person who’s behind this, we can give them a lot of credit here and assume they’re very sophisticated
about reputation attacks.”
***
“This is the work of somebody who knows what they’re doing. They have some experience of covering their tracks. This is probably not the first time they’ve done something like this,” said Beal, CEO of Trackur, an online reputation tracking service.
Some postings merely copied Vanden Brook’s and Locker’s previous reporting. Others accused them of being sponsored by the Taliban. “They disputed nothing factual in the story about information operations,” Vanden Brook said.
On Feb. 8, as Vanden Brook continued to ask questions of contractors, a new Wikipedia user attempted to create an entry on him, alleging he “gained worldwide notoriety” for his “misreporting” of the 2006 Sago Mine disaster in West Virginia.
Early reports from the scene, relying on faulty information from the governor and mine operators — said 12 of 13 miners were found alive, when in fact only one was. Many news outlets, including the Associated Press, the New York Times and USA Today, conveyed the inaccurate reports in early editions.
[S]imilar comments started populating Internet message boards and blogs. In one case, the fake @Tomvandenbrook Twitter account defended his Sago reporting to another apparently fake account.
Vanden Brook said he’s continuing to pursue the story. “If they thought it would deter me from writing about this, they’re wrong.”
“This is a clear attempt at intimidation that has failed,” Locker said.
Relax just pandering to his audience of mentally challenged malcontents.
While as usual there is largely nothing new here,
the Iranian government hacked into GMAIL for the sole purpose of locating and exterminating dissidents-an incident that not even the most mentally challenged islamic ball licker can attribute to anything or anyone but the Iranian government.
meanwhile,
the problem in the US is largely the direct opposite of what George posted-no surprises there,
The right to a free press was in part designed for the press to keep an eye on government corruption.
They have failed miserably in that pursuit for the opposite George cited,
not out of fear of governmental retribution but because they are willing co conspirators in the corruption. In addition to endless obvious examples, the Iraq war showed they would clearly turn a blind eye to sell more news, afterall a new war is a press bonanza.
BTW headed to the Gulf this summer for vacation, a place I have never been before,
can't wait to see the eyeless shrimp. In fact I printed out a copy of your latest expose via largely Al Jazeera so I can ask people where to find them or any other obvious mutations thanks to the oil spill-I will offer money if necessary. I put the odds of finding one single shred of evidence supporting that article to be true at near zero percent.
Gee, for a minute there I thought you were using a euphamism for a deployment in the Persian Gulf, and I was going to give you props, but reading forward, I have to conclude you are merely a tool.
Go fuck yourself you piece of shit. Wow, real thoughful answer, go to Iran or NK. How long did it take you to come up with that one? Jackoff.
You probably dream of sucking Barry-O's cock, huh. You want him to fuck you in your ass too I'm sure. You're just another- useless as two tits on a bulls ass, scumbag who obvisouly cannot see past your fucking turd nose you ignorant douchebag.
dataaanalytics,
Get an X-ray machine and scan your belly so that you can ANALYZE the DATA off the loaves of my shit that you digested after greedily reaming my glory hole and swallowing your lunch.
Respectfully, Smokey
Smokey,
You are almost like a caricature of the unthinking, pro-authority, blindly-follow-orders sheep that so many of us here rail against, and for good reason. In your specious equation of patriotism = blind obedience, you prove yourself unworthy of being called a human being. Totalitarian regimes of all stripes were made by, and enabled by, such spineless goose-stepping lemmings as you.
akak,
I have read hundreds of thousands of comments spread across several blogs over the past few years. I can state unequivically that you are without question the shallowest, most crass imbecile I have ever come across.
Virtually every comment you post is a fucking plagiarism from someone else you ripped off. You have no original comments and you repeat the same tired shit that dominates boards like this one.
Maybe if you would pay someone to transplant a brain inside your head where shit currently resides, you might have a chance of functioning as something other than what you apparently are---a retarded simian that eats his own shit.
"you are without question the shallowest, most crass imbecile I have ever come across."
VEry disappointed to hear this as anyone knows with somewhere between 300K and 400K posts on the internet I have been striving for the crassest imbecile since day one.
Always found it entertaining that a total moronic imbecile like me can possibly understand even a remote part of the world while the highly educated rocket surgeons and brain scientists struggle with the simplest material.
Ironically enough, every one of your posts that I've had to suffer through is a string of ad homs that adds nothing to the discussion. I'd be happy to debate you on facts, but you never state any. It's posters like you that make me wish for an ignore button.
Ad homs? Like no one in the military gives a shit about the constitution?
or is that just obvioius projection like suddenly the people running the country are domestic terrorists as if they weren't in the past?
I think smokey is example of what our military is about today.
Product of wars of convenience.
Probably not really his fault.
They will put a gun in pretty much anyone's hand.
but then again the self loathing woe is me delusional moonbat conspiracy posts are not really the fault of the owners either.
Product of crappy education system filled with statist shills and neo marxist wannabees.
Probably not really their fault, they'll certify pretty much anyone to become a teacher. The fact that those who can't- end up teaching and are unionized for life probably has no bearing.
geekgrrl,
I have read a few of your posts. You are a stupid bitch trying to pass yourself off to the guys as some sort of intelligent observer who belongs in the discussion. You don't know shit, and I can guarantee you that I have you covered by a minimum of thirty IQ points. I am the LAST person you want to debate on facts.
LOL. yea right! OMFG I cant stop laughing..
Get Off your knees Smokey1
And wipe that cum off your chin,it looks redickyouless.
You fucking loser.
I'll get off my knees right after I finish reaming your mother. She told me that she is so proud of you because you also suck dick like a champ, just as she taught you.
No, stay on your knees. You're a loser.
Bring it on, big shot.
.
Undoubtedly, particularly inasmuch as you never present any facts to debate in the first place, merely vulgar and puerile slurs and ad hominem attacks. But thank you for providing a fine example of the kind of low-life filth that I so rarely get to encounter otherwise.
As for your bluster and bullying attempt at intimidation (quite a feeble one, at that), it is obvious that you know absolutely nothing about me, nor my online posting record, and even attempting to imply that you do just further highlights what a liar and imbecile you really are.
It is a good thing that online computer time is strictly limited to inmates, otherwise we might be forced to suffer much more of your bilge here --- thank God for small favors.
I generally post comments on this forum once or twice a week. The comments typically receive only a reply or two. With thousands of people reading the comments and usually only a couple of replies, that could reasonably be called being ignored.
But somehow you regularly show up on my comments and spew your same worn-out, tired, populist shit which you know that all of the idiots love to hear. You think you are some kind of fucking intellectual and that you are providing deeply profound insight into why this country is at the brink.
Why not ignore my posts, if they bother you so fucking much ? You are always trying to start shit with me in your ceaseless quest to gain those sacred thumbs-up that you covet like a bitch in heat.
When have I ever singled you out, you degenerate deluded cocksucker?
Please don't get drool on your keyboard or wheelchair in your futile effort at a witty reply.
smoke 'em if yeah got 'em .. pff--ffft phffft phffffffffft .. ;)
“It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error”
– United States Supreme Court decision in American Communications Association v. Douds
“To stand in silence when they should be protesting makes cowards out of men.”
- Abraham Lincoln
“Those who give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
- Ben Franklin
“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”
- Thomas Jefferson
“Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.”
-Thomas Jefferson
“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
- Robert F . Kennedy
“It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds.”
- Samuel Adams
“Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country.”
– Teddy Roosevelt
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
– Teddy Roosevelt
“The citizen who sees his society’s democratic clothes being worn out and does not cry it out, is not a patriot, but a traitor.”
- Mark Twain
“Liberty has never come from government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of government. The history of liberty is a history of resistance. The history of liberty is a history of limitations of government power, not the increase of it.”
- Woodrow Wilson
“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent”
- Thomas Jefferson
“This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.”
- Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural
“In this point of the case the question is distinctly presented whether the people of the United States are to govern through representatives chosen by their unbiased suffrages or whether the money and power of a great corporation are to be secretly exerted to influence their judgment and control their decisions.”
- Andrew Jackson
“I am more than ever convinced of the dangers to which the free and unbiased exercise of political opinion — the only sure foundation and safeguard of republican government — would be exposed by any further increase of the already overgrown influence of corporate authorities.”
- Martin Van Buren, Eighth President of the United States
“As we view the achievements of aggregated capital, we discover the existence of trusts, combinations, and monopolies, while the citizen is struggling far in the rear or is trampled to death beneath an iron heel. Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people’s masters.”
- Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th President of the United States
“I again recommend a law prohibiting all corporations from contributing to the campaign expenses of any party.… Let individuals contribute as they desire; but let us prohibit in effective fashion all corporations from making contributions for any political purpose, directly or indirectly.” Teddy Roosevelt added, “The fortunes amassed through corporate organization are now so large, and vest such power in those that wield them, as to make it a matter of necessity to give to the sovereign — that is, to the Government, which represents the people as a whole — some effective power of supervision over their corporate use. In order to insure a healthy social and industrial life, every big corporation should be held responsible by, and be accountable to, some sovereign strong enough to control its conduct.”
- Theodore Roosevelt
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted.”
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
“It was natural and perhaps human that the privileged princes of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for power, reached out for control over government itself. They created a new despotism and wrapped it in the robes of legal sanction. …And as a result the average man once more confronts the problem that faced the Minute Man….
- Franklin Roosevelt
“A small group had concentrated into their own hands an almost complete control over other people’s property, other people’s money, other people’s labor — other people’s lives. For too many of us life was no longer free; liberty no longer real; men could no longer follow the pursuit of happiness.”
- Franklin Roosevelt
“These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power. In vain they seek to hide behind the flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the flag and the Constitution stand for.”
- Franklin Roosevelt
“Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.”
- Theodore Roosevelt
“We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
-Thomas Jefferson, American Declaration of Independence
You forgot ....
"If you see something, say something."
- Janet "Big Sister" Napolitano
that all men are created equal,
Shame you don't believe it.
Otherwise all men would be held to the same standards and those oppressing the shit out of half their populations would be called on it instead of others preaching tolerance.
Well, at the moment, they are oppressed by people who oppression is admitted.
Now, when moving to US citizen realm, their oppression will disappear as it is well known, US citizens do oppress nobody.
Men might be created equal in US citizenism creed, but US citizens are not created equal when it comes to be assessed by their own standards.Their own standards are worth only for the others.
Hey Douchebag, that's what stories like this are trying to prevent, The USA turning into North Korea or Iran you dumb motherfucker.
You're half right.
I'm not dumb, but I am a motherfucker. In fact, I bent your momma over last night and drilled her, right after she swallowed a pint of my throat yogurt. She begged for more, but when I refused, she said she'd head to the crackhouse and take it up the ass from all the brothers instead.
...said the mighty inchworm.
Iran is freer than this, and North Korea less capable. We are turning into East Germany with a 50 year tech advantage in the field of being totalitarian assholes.
If the government is scared of USA Today, that is pretty sad. Not exactly an in-depth news organization with their News Nuggets and InfoBlorps and whatnot. Next they will probably launch a psy-ops attack against National Enquirer and Weekly World News. Finally we will know the truth about Bat Boy.
So... "journalists" don't like the taste of their own medicine then?
Why, just yesterday, lookie thar ...
http://www.examiner.com/article/usa-today-leaves-ron-paul-out-of-candida...
As ye sow, so shall ye reap
Seems like a favor. Why the hell would Ron Paul want Candida anyway? The itching and burning could sideline him during a critical point in his work!
And yes, Ron Paul is performing a very important service while continuing his campaign. That tiny glimmer of truth in the presidential erection is like a dab of exciting cayenne in really cheap chocolate.
.
Really! I mean, he gets far more than his share of the clap everywhere he goes as it is!
http://endthelie.com/2012/04/18/18-venn-diagrams-showing-how-corrupted-american-democracy-really-is/#ixzz1sRIieL1P
I love Venn diagrams but this page only showed Dems linked to Big Biz and not the same links when Republicans were in power. Pourquoi? And am not defending either party but whatever.
Absolutely positively encountered one of these people.
I posted about the black lesbian couples being the most violent couples in the US on a percentage basis including most couple permutations and I posted this on an extremely slow trafficked message board that has nothing to do with sex at all.
Two days later I get a private message from someone who signed up just to send me this private message never to post or be active at the site again.-three long paragraphs, citing endless statistics without ever concluding I was misinformed just that any future citings should include all of this exculpatory crap.
It was obvious government.
In other news-
WASHINGTON -- Rocker Ted Nugent's meeting with the US Secret Service was concluded Thursday and the "issue has been resolved," a spokesman for the US Secret Service told NewsCore.
"The US Secret Service does not anticipate any further action being taken," the spokesman said.
Nugent's meeting with the Secret Service took place after he made comments at an NRA conference over the weekend in St. Louis that were deemed to be threatening to President Barack Obama.
"If you can't go home and get everybody in your lives to clean house in this vile, evil America-hating administration, I don't even know what you're made out of," Nugent told a crowd, adding that Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder and Hillary Clinton were "criminals."
"If Barack Obama becomes the president in November, again, I will be either be dead or in jail by this time next year," he added.
What, did Ted bring along some Hookers and Blow to smooth things over?
Can You Smell What the Rock is Cooking?
This is something I can relate to albeit in a retrograde kind of a way,
F A K E S L E W I E
...and nothing to get hung about. Strawberry fields forever.
WASHINGTON – The tax problems of the military's top propaganda contractor in Afghanistan would not have prevented the Pentagon from awarding it multimillion-dollar contracts, a top official said in a letter to U.S. senators.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2012-04-15/carper-lionie-i...
Web Bot...never fear...The Roman Empire WAS the global super power and we all know where that went...not to mention all other empires. No one stays on top forever..no matter what IT is. Basic law of nature....
currency debasement does em in. It took the romans 400 years because they still used hard money. The US about 41 years using fiat.
This article is a smear campaign! Accusations with no proof.
This is so fricking reprehensible. It's lucky that Obama's president because he was, like, singing that old Al Green song to himself the other day, so he must like the things I like. That means he's cool and he's good. Not like those people on the other team! They're not cool. So, like, Obama will stop this, like, uncool stuff . . right?
The US government has been going after anyone who threatens the status quo:
Egan Jones downgraded the US on April 5, 2012 and are already in trouble with the SEC.
It did not take long for the SEC to act (4/19/2012):
"The SEC's decision to file charges came after commissioners voted in a closed-door meeting on Thursday.
The charges are linked to issues in the firm's 2008 application to rate asset-backed and government securities.
The issues include allegedly misrepresenting the firm's rating experience, conflict-of-interest policy issues, and a failure to keep certain books and records, people familiar with the matter said."
Deven Sharma lost his job after S&P downgraded the US
"Deven Sharma is stepping down as president of Standard & Poor’s only weeks after the rating agency issued an unprecedented downgrade of the credit of the US, according to people familiar with the matter."
Land of the free, home of the brave - have to smile when I hear that.
FUNNY? - I have to cry...
(land of the weak, home of the enslaved)
What did they expect?
The host on RT needs to shave.