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2004-06-17 Home Front: Culture Wars
Hugh Hewitt: Black Blog Ops
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Posted by .com 2004-06-17 5:54:44 AM|| || Front Page|| [3 views since 2007-05-07]  Top

#1 Black flag ops? People who do that ought to be castigated.
Posted by Juneifer 2004-06-17 7:02:54 AM||   2004-06-17 7:02:54 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 meh the costs are not low,
direct finanical maybe, but it takes a serious human effort with a large helping of TLC to make a blog become popular enough for it to make a difference...
I think the odds of someone pulling that off, while professing the opposite of what they really believe, are nil
Posted by dcreeper 2004-06-17 7:51:57 AM||   2004-06-17 7:51:57 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 I think you meant "castrated".

I have to go with dcreeper, here. Journalistic false flag operations strike me as highly imaginative. Look at Allahpundit, as an example. His entire schtick is that he's the deranged Jew-hating Islamofascist's version of the All-Mighty. It's not a subtle impersonation, and yet the author had difficulty maintaining a constant tone over a sustained period of time, and tended to drop out of character in the face of particularly harsh news. The last few weeks, he's just been goofing around with photos.

It's hard to lie in a daily publication without believing the lie in some fashion. You either become the lie, or reveal yourself.
Posted by Mitch H.  2004-06-17 8:04:14 AM|| [http://blogfonte.blogspot.com/]  2004-06-17 8:04:14 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 Looks like Sullivan was running one (see also here).
Posted by someone 2004-06-17 8:45:45 AM||   2004-06-17 8:45:45 AM|| Front Page Top

#5 Hewitt is talking about something that is already happening. Andrew Sullivan is a perfect example.

And that something is specific to these times: A blogger with little poltitical passion gets blindsided by 911 and suddenly becomes the right's darling. As months roll by and the blogger starts to realize what it really means to be a part of the right, they become less enthusiastic about their newfound alliances, but they keep to their views shaped by 911.

Then one day, in their mind, the right does something stupid: endorses the defense of marriage act, or trivializes the Abu Ghraib prison event; then they start to drift back to the left.

Suddenly its not so much fun to be against Islamofascism as it once was. In fact their former friends of the left are starting to look pretty good and then writings start to come out in support of some element of the left's views on terrorism. In time, the writings look like anathema to the positions they took before.

I can't tell you it will happen because it already has, but I am pretty certain it will happen to more and more blogs considered of the right, not a lot of them, but some of them for sure.
Posted by badanov  2004-06-17 8:51:44 AM|| [http://www.rkka.org]  2004-06-17 8:51:44 AM|| Front Page Top

#6 If you have anything of value, someone will try to either steal or co-opt it for their own purposes. However, try as you might, propaganda is a lot easier to pull off in theory than in practice.
First of all, you have to disseminate your lie--not an easy thing to do, if you consider how much money is spent in advertising for such tiny returns. Textually, an urban legend-type story would give you the best results. (see snopes.com)
Second, your lie has to have "legs", more than just a "how about that?" and "who cares". It should have a purpose that elicits something. "Crisis fatigue" is as much an enemy of lies as it is the truth.
And then there are those who live to suppress both truth and lies, the spin doctors and disinformationists. They have a 30-step program to "neutralize" information that is damaging, and so effective that it can neutralize *anything*.

(The candidate yelled that he is the anti-christ and began to vigorously masturbate on network television.)
"He didn't do that. You are misinterpreting what really happened. Why do you focus on the negative? Every candidate does that. His opponents are doing far worse things. Let us move on with the people's business. He does so many good things. That is the sort of accusation Nazis make. The videotape has been altered, there is no real proof. Someone drugged his pure spring water. It is just a distraction from his policies concerning education and the economy. Are we in the media covering this story too much?"
Posted by Anonymoose 2004-06-17 10:36:13 AM||   2004-06-17 10:36:13 AM|| Front Page Top

#7 Fifteen years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, we are a much less suspicious people when it comes to disinformation.

Rubbish Hugh, we never stopped being suspicious. Do you really think we took the NY Times at face value all these years? What do you take us for? My Gosh, what you are really admitting is that you took the NY Times seriously all these years. You poor dumb schmuck. Suckered again.

So we should be asking about the potential for deception in the format.

What arrogance. As if deception does not exist among mainstream reporters now. Journalists would never lay down false info would they Mr. Blair? You don't get it Hugh, the reason we turn to blogs is becuase we are tired of being lied to.

How long before our intelligence services or those of our allies begin to turn that technology back upon the terrorists.

God I hope so. If not, I think I'll get started on a homeypot Jihadi website myself. I better start brushing up on my Jihadi ideology. Anybody up for a free lance http black op?
Posted by Zpaz  2004-06-17 11:19:16 AM||   2004-06-17 11:19:16 AM|| Front Page Top

#8 Actually, Zpaz, I've heard of a woman who acting as a "friend" to online jihadis and then turned them over to the CIA ...
Posted by Edward Yee  2004-06-17 1:10:04 PM|| [http://edwardyee.fanworks.net]  2004-06-17 1:10:04 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 Anybody up for a free lance http black op?

I be down wif dat.
Posted by badanov  2004-06-17 1:13:11 PM|| [http://www.rkka.org]  2004-06-17 1:13:11 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 Har, har. Its badanov you make jokes at a time like this, but journalistic integrity is at stake. Just for that, you take point on the op, bad. Shipman gets right flank. Bomb-a-rama, you take the left flank. Now, now, no whining. We can't all be right wingers. Mucky, you're in charge of grammar....ok, maybe not. Just bring your bong instead. We'll smoke out these Jihadis, dead or alive. Bring 'em on.
Posted by Zpaz  2004-06-17 1:55:42 PM||   2004-06-17 1:55:42 PM|| Front Page Top

#11 journalistic integrity??? ROFLMAO
Posted by Frank G  2004-06-17 2:17:29 PM||   2004-06-17 2:17:29 PM|| Front Page Top

#12 It's the latest oxymoron. Use it only in emergencies and small doses. For Andrew Giligan's sake, Frank, get off the floor, will ya?
Posted by Zpaz  2004-06-17 3:00:05 PM||   2004-06-17 3:00:05 PM|| Front Page Top

#13 ima bring a bong. :)
im pissed today ima just learn tommy chong in prison for selling bongs. thats just plane wrong!
Posted by muck4doo 2004-06-17 4:26:56 PM|| [http://meatismurder.blogspot.com/]  2004-06-17 4:26:56 PM|| Front Page Top

#14 Look at Allahpundit, as an example. His entire schtick is that he's the deranged Jew-hating Islamofascist's version of the All-Mighty

What's a schtick?
Posted by Juneifer 2004-06-17 4:39:53 PM||   2004-06-17 4:39:53 PM|| Front Page Top

#15 "What's a schtick?"

Juneifer - I'm sorry, but we don't know each other well enough...
Posted by .com 2004-06-17 4:42:21 PM||   2004-06-17 4:42:21 PM|| Front Page Top

#16 lol .com!
Posted by muck4doo 2004-06-17 4:46:19 PM|| [http://meatismurder.blogspot.com/]  2004-06-17 4:46:19 PM|| Front Page Top

#17 Mucky - I was warned by Jim...
Posted by .com 2004-06-17 4:52:46 PM||   2004-06-17 4:52:46 PM|| Front Page Top

#18 journalistic integrity is at stake

Journalistic integrity is a catch phrase now with little backing it up. It’s thrown around to numb guilty consciousnesses. Journalism today has a doctrine and an agenda to fulfill that doctrine.


Posted by Yosemite Sam 2004-06-17 5:43:15 PM||   2004-06-17 5:43:15 PM|| Front Page Top

#19 "But his success got me to thinking about the potential for the use of blogs to shape opinions by dressing partisans up as new and anonymous sources."

It figures, you right wingers planning to use the internet for propoganda. Blog all you want, but smart people will still know that Bush lies, Rush lies, . . .

Posted by Jennifer 2004-06-17 5:51:21 PM||   2004-06-17 5:51:21 PM|| Front Page Top

#20 Jennifer - at least back your arguement up with facts. What/how did they lie about? Give FACTS.

You know - Lefties always say GW isn't too bright but then in the same breath they say he masterfully crafted a lie to fool the entire world to attack Iraq. Don't those arguements contradict each other?? Sounds like they are just using the shotgun pattern hopping something hits.
Posted by Yosemite Sam 2004-06-17 6:05:59 PM||   2004-06-17 6:05:59 PM|| Front Page Top

#21 Bush lied about WMDs. He hyped the intelligence. He wasn't interested in security until after 9/11. He is in favor of torture. And he may or may not be in favor of castration - that one hasn't been proved, but the rest are known facts.
Posted by Jennifer 2004-06-17 6:14:50 PM||   2004-06-17 6:14:50 PM|| Front Page Top

#22 Seems like Ms. Burka-Wannabe is blathering again.
Posted by BigEd 2004-06-17 6:26:35 PM||   2004-06-17 6:26:35 PM|| Front Page Top

#23 Ad homonyms without end. Geez.

"Known Facts" - Taught by leftist totalitarian so-called professors who suck salaries like leeches out of the taxpayers while flatulating at public universities.

"may or may not be" - The term used by the "objective" mainstream to hide behind what they really believe.

"Rush lies" - The left always likes to pick on the handicapped. A deaf, recovering drug addict, is a slime because his views are "inauthentic" to anyone who is "enlightened"

"smart people" - Only people who have been indoctrinated the afforementioned leechy folks discussed in "known facts" above.

"propoganda" - Anything contrary to oracles of "wisdom" spoken by Rather, Brokaw, Jennings, etc.

"in favor of castration" - Fantasy of leftist women bloggers of what they want to do to all us unrepentent white heterosexual males.
Posted by BigEd 2004-06-17 6:49:37 PM||   2004-06-17 6:49:37 PM|| Front Page Top

#24 Kerry Lied Montenyards Died
Posted by Shipman 2004-06-17 8:23:11 PM||   2004-06-17 8:23:11 PM|| Front Page Top

05:46 The Dude
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04:56 .com
04:49 Capt America
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01:04 Mark Espinola









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