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BROCKPUPPETS
April 3, 2019
During the 2016 primary, the Hillary
Clinton campaign hired on-line shills to This was handled by an
engage in an internet astroturf campaign. ex-Republican operative,
David Brock, who used his
I bring this up again because it appears group "Correct The Record"
to be going down the memory hole to hire the shills.
(if you don't hear it on CNN a hundred
times a day, it fades from the consensus This was evidently part of
reality): a gimmick here to evade
election spending restrictions.
A news story by Evan Halper
from the LA Times, May 9, 2016:
"Be nice to Hillary Clinton online-- https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-clinton-digital-trolling-20160506-snap-htmlstory.html
or risk a confrontation with her super PAC"
"When the Internet's legions of Hillary hecklers steal away to
chat rooms and Facebook pages to vent grievances about Clinton,
express revulsion toward Clinton and launch attacks on Clinton,
they now may find themselves in a surprising place-- confronted
by a multimillion dollar super PAC working with Clinton."
"Hillary Clinton's well-heeled backers have opened a new
frontier in digital campaigning, one that seems to have been
inspired by some of the Internet's worst instincts. Correct the
Record, a super PAC coordinating with Clinton's campaign, is
spending some $1 million to find and confront social media
users who post unflattering messages about the Democratic
front-runner."
"In effect, the effort aims to spend a large sum of money to
increase the amount of trolling that already exists online."
"The plan comes as Clinton operatives grapple with the reality
that her supporters just aren't as engaged and aggressive
online as are her detractors inside and outside the Democratic
Party."
"The lack of engagement is one of Clinton's bigger tactical
vulnerabilities, particularly when compared with rivals like
Donald Trump, whose viral social media attacks are legion, and
Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is backed by a passionate army of
media-savvy millennials."
...
"At the same time, however, using a super PAC to create a
counterweight to movements that have sprung up organically is
another reflection of the campaign's awkwardness with engaging
online, digital pros said."
"'It is meant to appear to be coming organically from people and
their social media networks in a groundswell of activism, when
in fact it is highly paid and highly tactical,' said Brian
Donahue, chief executive of the consulting firm Craft
Media/Digital.
"'That is what the Clinton campaign has always been about,' he
said. 'It runs the risk of being exactly what their opponents
accuse them of being: a campaign that appears to be populist
but is a smokescreen that is paid and brought to you by
lifetime political operatives and high-level consultants.'"
"The mere mention of Correct the Record makes some critics
seethe. Super PACs are typically prohibited from working in
tandem with candidates, but Correct the Record is doing just
that by exploiting a loophole in campaign finance law that it
says permits such coordination with digital campaigns."
https://www.thedailybeast.com/hillary-pac-spends-dollar1-million-to-correct-commenters-on-reddit-and-facebook?source=twitter&via=mobile
Ben Collins at the Daily Beast, April 21, 2016:
"FEC loopholes mean Correct the Record can openly coordinate
with Clinton's campaign"
"Some Bernie Sanders-supporting users on Reddit already
started to notice the changes on Thursday afternoon."
"'This explains why my inbox turned to cancer on Tuesday,'
wrote user OKarizee. 'Been a member of reddit for almost 4
years and never experienced anything like it. In fact, in
all my years on the internet I've never experienced anything
like it.'"
"Correct the Record, which has received $5 million this
campaign season and has spent almost $4.5 million of it,
according to OpenSecrets.org, outlined its strategy against
'swarms of anonymous attackers' in a press release."
And at the dailykos:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/4/21/1518537/-Clinton-SuperPac-Admits-to-Paying-Internet-Trolls
"Couple quick things: first, there have been a number
of diaries claiming to 'have switched from Bernie to
Hillary' lately, and some of them have been from
recently created accounts with no record of pro-Sanders
remarks or diaries. More such people have populated the
comment sections of such diaries, and someone is
reccing them despite what I judge to be their
incredible lack of helpful information. That is just a
fact, and my opinion about said fact. Second, if one
wanted to make the case that there were a vast
Clintonian conspiracy behind that rash of new accounts
and diaries, this is certainly what one might consider
corroborating evidence. Note the SuperPac has already
spent $4.5 million on God knows what."
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