As usual, when Rightwingers can’t win outright, they cheat. Such is the case on the very popular social aggregator website DIGG, as documented today at Alternet.
We’ve suspected for quite some time that links to The BRAD BLOG’s articles as posted on DIGG have been quickly “buried” by Rightwingers hoping to keep our stories from reaching the front page — or even the “upcoming” page, where others might see the story rising in DIGG “votes,” so that it might then be propelled to the front page, where millions more would then see the link to the article.
The AlterNet piece details a “massive” Rightwing cabal which has been doing exactly that, and we weren’t particularly surprised when we found The BRAD BLOG named in the piece as one of several non-wingnut websites that have been targeted for “burial” by a Rightwing group of Internet hacks calling themselves “Digg Patriots”…
“The more liberal stories that were buried the better chance conservative stories have to get to the front page. I’ll continue to bury their submissions until they change their ways and become conservatives.”
-phoenixtx (aka vrayz)
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One bury brigade in particular is a conservative group that has become so organized and influential that they are able to bury over 90% of the articles by certain users and websites submitted within 1-3 hours, regardless of subject material. Literally thousands of stories have already been artificially removed from Digg due to this group. When a story is buried, it is removed from the upcoming section (where it is usually at for ~24 hours) and cannot reach the front page, so by doing this, this one group is removing the ability of the community as a whole to judge the merits or interest of these stories on their own (in essence: censoring content). This group is known as the Digg “Patriots”.
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This group is the heart of a complicated web on various networks, including Twitter, Propeller, StumbleUpon, YouTube, and Facebook, all dedicated to ramming an extreme right wing viewpoint down the throats of those communities and censoring opposing viewpoints.
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The DP group searches Digg for any articles from websites they want to drown out, sites such as Salon, News Junkie Post, Talking Points Memo, FreakOutNation, Five Thirty Eight, ThePublicRecord, Rawstory, The Nation, Media Matters for America, PoliticusUSA, Alternet, Fire Dog Lake, Political Carnival, TruthOut, DailyKos, The Joshua Blog, The Brad Blog, Huffington Post, Science Blogs, Smirking Chimp, Down With Tyranny, Crooks and Liars, MarioPiperni, Buzzflash, Bob Cesca’s REALLY AWESOME Blog, and The New York Times.
Though REDDIT isn’t mentioned in the article, we’d suspect the same concerted effort to “downvote” non-wingnut articles on that similar site is going on as well. Where The BRAD BLOG’s stories were once voted up to the front page of both DIGG and REDDIT with some regularity — where our stories would then be picked up by many other websites in the bargain — it’s been a long time since that has happened. Now we have an explanation as to why that may be. How pathetic.
See Oleoleolson’s full article at AlterNet. He deserves much credit for his well-documented and detailed work on this piece.
UPDATE 8/7/10: I was interviewed about this story on Friday by WBAI Evening News in New York. Audio of that interview, along with a few additional thoughts on all of this, is now posted here…
How thoroughly, despicably typical of the right. Another story for them to bury, and MSM to ignore. Cowards.
Completely unsurprising. Imagine how upset the right wingers would be if this blog took on more important issues than election fraud like 9/11 being a transparently obvious false flag attack, the biggest issue of our time considering the entire U.S. foreign policy and the domestic repression ever since then has used the spectre of 9/11 as its “justification”. Not that election fraud isn’t an issue that should be discussed but in the grand scheme of things it really matters little when one thinks about how phony the American political process is anyway.
In other words if I could snap my fingers and somehow magically make this country adopt paper ballots that are each hand counted guess what? It still wouldn’t do a damn bit of good since the entire process is so thoroughly fake anyway with no real choice for the voter. Consider: The voter can choose a Republican if they want an openly pro-bourgeois candidate or they can choose a Democrat if they want the same exact thing but in a thin and unconvincing disguise. A closeted conservative. This is achieved by the ruling elite buying out all the candidates that stand a fair chance of getting elected then let their handpicked marionettes tear each other’s guts out to see which one will be the best puppet of the elite. They don’t really care who wins ultimately because they already know it is going to be someone who is already in their pocket. What difference does it really make if American elections are so rigged that one candidate gets 99% of the vote when even if it wasn’t rigged outright it may as well be since there’s no real choice for the voter as there is no political party that represents any American who isn’t wealthy? Most of the rigging that exists is likely done at the local and state level by operatives too dense and rabidly partisan to realize that the whole process is nothing but an elaborate dog and pony show to lend a bit of (false) legitimacy to the succession process, to make the average American feel like they have some kind of say in who governs them. And what rigging is done is allowed by their party leadership as long as it can’t be connected to them because by someone making the effort to rig it makes it (falsely) appear that it actually matters who wins. When it obviously doesn’t. Just ask Barack O’Bilderberg, the “change agent” who plays golf with the chairman of United Bank of Scotland.
This country sucks.
At last, some proof! I have been suspecting this same thing for a while. It really started to dawn on me when I would see certain people posting very similar rhetoric and not let up for days. Look at any of the comments from stories on most major news websites (and even minor ones) and you will see the pattern of those type of posters. They spout nothing GOP talking points with back handed insults thrown in (usually done without violating the TOS/UA of a website so they don’t get banned) to inflame those on the other side, rarely actually engage in the topic at hand, and will say anything they have to in order to move and keep the subject off topic at hand.
I have seen a few try it here, but thankfully Brad and Co. have nipped them in the bud (Thank you).
When I see them start their shtick, I call them out as paid GOP plants and point out their tactics. Strangely enough, it seems to be point of pride with them. I believe they have a sickness… They are incapable of understanding that what they are doing is wrong.
giyus.org does the same thing for stories detrimental to Israels agenda .
wow. just wow
I KNEW it!
“The American people will never vote for Fascism. But, under the name of Conservatism they will adopt every fragment of the Fascist program.” Doorman Thomcist, 6 time presidential candidate for the US Fascist (Nazi) party, 1939.
How ironic that even after Clark Hoyt and The New York Times joined with Andrew Breitbart and the Faux “News” network in their McCarthy-like effort to smear a benevolent community organization — ACORN — that the Times would still find itself the target of the DP draw down list.
This has been going on for years. The right wing religious zealots are particularly well organized and very secretive about it. God’s work and all.
I used spend time in online chatrooms years ago and got to know a few folks who admitted they were paid to post right wing propaganda on AOL, Yahoo, and a few other domains starting with the 2002 midterms. Some were paid by the hour for time spent in chatrooms, some were paid by the number of posts they submitted. Blog-warriors they call themselves. Nevertheless, a GREAT article that needs to be read by everyone. I would like to see this story go mainstream commercial, on every network. Americans need to understand how the right thinks and behaves. It’s war to them, and all things are fair. It’s God’s work, after all.
getplaning is right and by the same token, stealing elections for right wing candidates espousing the Christian agenda would also be “God’s work” for these people. I have NO doubt they have already done this. Unfortunately, there in no chance the mainstream media will pick this up.
Pity whom ever runs “Digg” doesn’t just put every single one of those sites on the front pages regardless of votes.
In fact the more BS reich wing votes against it the higher on the front page it goes.
If I ran Digg that is exactly what I would do.
I was just thinking…this article needs to be on the front page of Digg, and every progressive in the country needs to go give it a thumbs up!
M’kay. I finally decided to create an account at Digg so I could uprate this and the Alternet posts.
In response, I get an “error on page” message and am unable to register.
Now, I am not normally paranoid…but being paranoid does NOT mean that “they” ARE out to get you.
TO THE CHILDREN/GRANDCHILDREN OF AVERAGE REPUBLICAN VOTERS – Blame them for ruining your future:
Paul Krugman’s article in the NY times “Addicted to Bush†supported my conclusions about the Conservative right wing… they’re MAD! Loony as a Warner Bros cartoon. Going back to Bush/Cheney policy so soon after the 8 year disaster proves their insanity. Over and over again expecting different results, RIGHT? But you want Democrats/Progressives to believe if only Conservatism had one more chance it can work?
MORE of the waste, fraud, abuse, scandal, sexual deviancy, corruption, lies, incompetence, job outsourcing, off-shore tax evasion, reckless economics, war profiteering, Constitutional violations AND a Corporate Crime Wave of epic proportions…. The WORST looting of a nation’s wealth and resources in the history of MANKIND!
Where was the Tea Party anger THEN?
Tax cuts for the rich stimulating the economy? How about we reward the that top 1% when they actually DO something for the USA? Yea, you get tax breaks after you bring factory jobs back to US soil. The American PEOPLE have spent the last 30 years paying for the top 1%’s tax cuts and what did we get? What ever “trickled down†rich people’s leg wasn’t economic stimulus. You Republican parents were suckers and fools!
NOTE: Congress goes after Rep. Charlie Rangel for tax evasion but ignored all the off-shore bank account scandals and federal revenue meddling that occurred during Bush/Cheney? Ohhhh and NOW Maxine Waters too? BS, the Black Caucus is being railroaded by the Tea Party Caucus! The Right Wing will punish Black PEOPLE (even Wesley Snipes) for not paying taxes but when Republicans turn around and WASTE our tax dollars… NO ONE IS HELD ACCOUNTABLE! Why is that?
Our tax dollars and hard work provided the silver spoon aristocrats with the infrastructure needed to make their fortunes and HOW DID THEY REPAY US? They bought off our government officials, lobbied so the game was rigged in their favor… expatriate clauses and insuring venture capital meant to make it easy to move our jobs to the greener pastures of Asian slave/child labor and unregulated toxic waste dumping. (thanks for nothing Tom Delay)
I can’t take it no more. “Borrow and Spend†Republicans have dragged all Americans down with their LOW GRADE THOUGHT PROCESSES, greed and incompetence. Made us into the “United Suckers of Americaâ€. THEY MUST BE STOPPED before they completely destroy the USA! See cyberbitchslap2.blogspot.com for more.
Given that they are interfering in “commerce” and affecting your income can you sue them?
I would think the FEDs should be investigating them for RICO violations!
While their behavior is reprehensible, you can also look at it like a badge of honor. Brad, you’ve got them running scared!
– Tom
#16 Right
I read Jason Linkins’s , HuffPo, rundown on the Sunday political shows every Sunday.Have been feeling like lately even that is boring. A commenter said there weren’t many comments yesterday for that post. THEN a moderator said 300 comments had been deleted.On a Sunday Show post! What if it had been a post on the Palestinian flotilla aide ship terrorism by the Israeli govt. Can you imagine?
Huff Po changed rather dramatically a while back. I was having comments deleted more than not.So childish character that I am…just had to write “9/11 was an inside job.” Banned from another site. Saw it coming but had to do it.
And have read that the WH contacts politico every morning. Fascism.
I’m afraid I don’t have time to participate in Digg, etc as much as I’d like and haven’t been back there for almost a year.
I tried to “Digg” this post and found my account no longer exists, and when I tried to rejoin, found a page sayin “The New Digg is Coming.”
They asked for my email and said they’d let me know when “The New Digg” is ready.
Does this mean they’re remodeling with safeguard against sleazeballs?
I think that the 9 / 11 it was a kind handlebars.
I always used to be!
Not respecting the victims!