Deception Watch: AstroTurf, Lobbying, and Dirty Politics
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-03-01 13:42:51 UTC
- Modified: 2014-03-01 13:42:51 UTC
Media Bias
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The BBC has been accused of yielding to political pressure since the last election and allowing a right-wing bias to emerge in its journalism.
The serious criticism by a distinguished media professor suggests that the BBC has compromised its impartiality by depending too heavily on sources from business, the media, law and order and politics.
Covert Marketing
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Two-time "Worst Company In America" winner Electronic Arts isn't doing its publicity department any favors. The company's new freemium game Dungeon Keeper tricks frustrated players into leaving bad reviews on its own site, instead of on the Google Play Store, Gamasutra reports.
Politics
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Rep. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y., is defending his actions after he physically threatened a reporter at the Capitol after President Barack Obama's State of the Union address.
The confrontation began Tuesday when Michael Scotto, a reporter for New York cable news station NY1, asked Grimm about a Justice Department investigation into his campaign finances.
After cutting the interview short, Grimm told Scotto, "You ever do that to me again I'll throw you off this (expletive) balcony." He also threatened to "break (Scotto) in half."
NY1 posted video of the incident on its website.
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The Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity (through its Wisconsin Reporter and Watchdog.org websites) has aggressively attacked the "John Doe" probe into possible campaign finance violations during Wisconsin's 2011 and 2012 recall elections. Its outlets have also published new information about the apparent targets of the investigation, but they have omitted an important detail: Franklin Center has close ties to individuals and groups that may be caught up in the John Doe.
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Google, the tech giant supposedly guided by its “don’t be evil” motto, has been funding a growing list of groups advancing the agenda of the Koch brothers.
Organizations that received “substantial” funding from Google for the first time over the past year include Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform, the Federalist Society, the American Conservative Union (best known for its CPAC conference) and the political arm of the Heritage Foundation that led the charge to shut down the government over the Affordable Care Act: Heritage Action.
South Korea
Revisionism
Consumerism and Distraction
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This ad strongly promotes the values of consumerism, and implies that consumerism leads directly to happiness. In the ad, the girls bought these shoes, are wearing them, and are now fashionable, popular, and happy. This message encourages the belief that spending money and obtaining material goods is the only path to happiness for girls. This big lie will lower girls’ self-esteem and perhaps cause them to purchase unnecessary goods in their quest to appear cool and likeable.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 80 Out of 200: Having Run Out of Time to Meet a Judge's Deadline, Microsoft's Graveley Had Garrett's Lawyers Argued My ~190-Page Defence and CounterClaim (DCC) Was Unclear About My Position
- Nothing could be further from the truth
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- Head of GitHub Recently Left, Microsoft Need No Longer Report Mass Layoffs There (User Activity is Declining)
- We've long said that LinkedIn and GitHub, which Microsoft bought, would likely end up like Skype
- The Slop Bubble is Already Bursting
- Slop is not desirable and the general public is growingly impatient, seeing that slop has improved nothing for them
- Gemini Links 19/05/2026: Reliable Old Tech, Collection of Essays
- Links for the day
- The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part XXVII - European Patent Office (EPO) Became a "Toxic Work Environment" When Cocaine Addicts Put in Charge
- They are putting at risk colleagues by abusing them
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, May 18, 2026
- IRC logs for Monday, May 18, 2026
- Links 18/05/2026: Slop-induced Shortages, Solicitors Regulation Authority Says It's Unable to Deal With Complaints Load (So Regulation Does Not Really Exist)
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 18/05/2026: Ghost Essay and World Wide Web Considered Broken
- Links for the day
- Cooperation and Collaboration, on a More Personal Level
- Rianne, to me, isn't just a wife; she is also my best friend
- IBM Has Payroll Problems (Just Like Microsoft)
- It's a good thing that many nations around the world are, accordingly if not proactively, divesting from GAFAM
- Links 18/05/2026: 25 Years of OLDaily and Dangers of "Living With Too Much Tech"
- Links for the day
- Trips to London
- London isn't a bad place, but it's a long journey and we'd rather stay in Manchester and write about technology
- Working in the Shell (and Fish)
- Yesterday we spent about 5 hours on the shells and fish
- The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part XXVI - Campinos Has Put Unfit-for-Employment Drug Addicts in Charge of the European Patent Office (EPO)
- How many months has Campinos got left before the delegates show him the door?
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, May 17, 2026
- IRC logs for Sunday, May 17, 2026
- Gemini Links 18/05/2026: Poetry, Sauna, and GNU Taler
- Links for the day
- "The Society of Media Lawyers" (UK) is a Truly Malicious Anti-Media Lobby Which Helps Rich/Abusive Americans and Hostile Countries Attack Actual Media Workers in the UK
- They typically source their money from aboard to besiege domestic actors (like honest journalists or independent outlets that document suppressed beats/topics)
- Slop Still Waning, Its Momentum is Driven by Companies That Stand to Lose a Lot (or Everything) When the Bubble Pops
- When it comes to LLM slop disguised as news, it's just not working out
- Gemini Links 17/05/2026: arXiv Brings Down the Hammer, UnderPOWERed, and Slopping With Tcl/Tk
- Links for the day
- Links 17/05/2026: Amazon Employees Herded Into Slop, Taiwan Sold Down the River by Cheeto
- Links for the day
- Links 17/05/2026: Society of Media Lawyers (Brett Wilson LLP et al) Lobby for More SLAPPs in the UK, “Courage in Journalism Award” Given in Oppressive Country
- Links for the day
- Finland Needs to Dump Microsoft (Microslop) for National Security Reasons and the Same is True for Hundreds of Countries
- "I don't see why Ryssäs would want Finns to use microslop products..."
- Cyber Show UK is Already Available Over Gemini Protocol
- This past week the total number of active Gemini capsules hit all-time records several times
- Fight Til the End
- This comes to show that persistence pays off
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 79 Out of 200: They Will Soon Reach the 100 KG (Kilograms) Milestone; Wheelbarrows, Not Justice (Quantity of Legal Papers Sent to Us)
- It's about the quality, not quantity (unless your sole aim is to drown out or "flood the zone")
- The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part XXV - Not Bringing Intelligence to the EPO, Not 'Artificial Intelligence' Either (But Intelligence-Eroding Drugs)
- The EPO was meant to be about science and law. In practice, however, it's about breaking the law and being stoned.
- The Cyber Show on Why Coding is Important and Slop Cannot Change or Replace That
- Hand-crafting one's site has plenty of advantages
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 16, 2026
- IRC logs for Saturday, May 16, 2026
- Gemini Links 17/05/2026: Music Theory, Reticulum Git Repos, and Releasing Kiln
- Links for the day