WAKE UP, SHEEPLE!!!
WAKE UP, SHEEPLE!!! I saw the man behind the curtain see how the sausage gets made! Watch out or they’ll chuck all your metaphors into a blender, just like they did with me!!!
Sorry I can’t help with your job search [1], but in the Fox News case the multi-account shills appeared to be paid on-site employees of News Corp. In the PR department.
– — …- -. --. — -.
Incidentally those desiring an example of foot-stamping and table pounding should view the SFP missive 2 posts preceding.
[1] Snark! I kid!
That is the topic of this thread: what’s the prevalence of directly paid shills on this message board?
For someone with Paranoid in their name, you certainly fit the bill.
Ok, think about this for a moment. Because it’s clear that the vast majority of “big thinkers”, and pseudo-intellectuals on this board have no practical, real life experience.
Are you a Democrat or a Republican? If not either, pick your favorite party affiliation. Then, do something, like get off your ass and run for an office. I’m not talking about a Mickey Mouse position in a Mickey Mouse town. If you live in rural america, and the population of your town is say, 5000 people, guess what? Running for school board isn’t exactly going to cause the 50,000 watt radio station in your closest Big City USA to care. But it still has its perks.
However, if you live somewhere with a decent population, run foor something that matters. County Commissioners are good to run for in lower population areas because they have more power than you can imagine. I know, i know, you want a cite. My life is my cite. If i write a book, i’ll quote that. Meantime, get involved in something. Figure out some shit for yourself.
Ok, you don’t want to run? Fine. Volunteer for your favorite party and do work for them during the political season. Guess what you do? Everything. From stuffing envelopes to going door to door to, yes you guessed it, calling into radio shows when a political topic is being discussed.
Do the numbers. A call in radio program estimates that only 1% of their listening audience ever calls in. That is not exactly a lot of people. When you hear a caller discussing an issue and they sound like they know what they are talking about? That is not your average knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing sheeple thst you refer to. No, they are part of the democratic or republican organization that is well versed on the issue being discussed, and can articulate it to the listeners. I admit, it’s not a perfect system, because most people are so blinded by their own predjudices, biases, economic envy, or whatever that they don’t give a shit. They will vote the way they’ve always voted, which is usually how their parents voted. Jesus Christ, do you honestly think that people actually take the time to understand an issue? If you do, you are naive. I won’t call you an idiot, because I don’t know you. But you are clearly not paying attention to what is going on around you, and you don’t know how the real world of US politics works.
The SD fancies itself as a place where intelligent people exchange ideas, but that’s not the case at all. There are very few people that actually have an open mind out here. If I want to get people to pat me on the back. All I have to do is come to the Pit and start a “stupid republican idea of the day” thread, or something along those lines. If I want to be called names, i can start a “stupid democrat idea of the day” thread. There are precious few people that think that the problems in this country (the US) are the cause of BOTH parties, and the driver is money. That’s it. No no, left-wingers like to talk about those “mean-spirited republicans” and the “one-percenters”. Right-wingers like to twlk about tree-huggers and socialists, an the desire to transfer the wealth to the poor from the rich.
Run for a county commissioner. Find out just how sleazy the game is. See if you can stick to your principles when someone whispers in your ear how you can make some very good money if you would just vote on one thing the way they need you to. I’ve seen schoool board members vote to sell a piece of land that the school owns to generate revenue and to keep a potential tax raise off the table for a year. And guess what? That very same school board member has a beother in law who bought the property for a song, and sold it for a 10 fold profit because, well… Gee… I don’t know. You think it had anything to do with money? And here’s the bigger nugget of news… Do you honestly think party affiliation had anything to do with it?
There is money to be had all over the place. Stick yourhead in a budget and you will see it. Or, just come out here and say that I’m calling you all sheeple. That will make you feel bette, but it won’t tell you how things really work.
And you know what? You don’t want to know. If you did, you would know what I said is true because you would get involved in the political process and you would see how people manipulate. If you are a good speaker, guess what you can do? Go out on the road, with the party of your choice’s blessings, and spew your nonsense at political rallies where the candidate who is running can’t make it. You also get to man the phones when your candidate is being interviewed on a station… And you dial in. For two reasons… You try to keep the opposition blocked out of the switchboard, while at the same time, you get to share your own righteous views. do you honestly not think that this is how it really works?
How about you telling us how it works, then. Please, share your real world experiences with us.
You tell us, M4M!!! FOX News is EEEEVVVVVVIIIIILLLLL!!! The boogieman!
I am shocked to see that FOX is the first to ever employ this type of tactic. Good thing you are on top of the news, to make sure we are all aware of what those evil, mean-spirited republicans are doing. Who reported this, by the way? What would you say their political leanings are?
And by the way, you never answered the question. Would you have posted this if it was about your favorite News Source, say CNN or MSNBC? Or, as reported in your story by NPR, the king (or queen) of the left news outlets? Yeah, no agenda there. And note the word in the title of the article. Alleged. Which to a liberal means GUILTY!
God, the holier-than-though hypocrisy of the left is laughable. And sad, all at the same time.
Missed the edit window:
By the way M4M, when you give a cite, it would be much more impressive if one wasn’t just a summary of the other.
And the sources were supposedly. Four former Fox employees. No names. That’s not exactly proof. Which is why the word “alleged” is used.
Personally, I have no problem believing it, but this would carry a bit more weight if it wasn’t a tory from NPR based on unnamed sources.
So, no, ya fuckin moron. About what I thought.
Obviously wasn’t when I posted that, or else I would’ve had stronger words than “cite?” for such a dumbshit claim.
Wow… Let me guess. You are a liberal who detests all things FOX News.
Seriously, i don’t care if you believe me or not. Quite frankly, I didn’t expect everyone to. Even if I gave a cite, it would be ripped apart as some right-wing FOX News shill cite, who just madeo up the info I posted anyway, right?
“Fuckin’ moron?” Man that hurts. Name calling from the Left Hand of Dorkness. “About what you thought?” Well, that doesn’t surprise me. Anyone who refuses to do your legwork must be lying (and for what purpose would I be making this up, by the way?). And since we are talking about FOX news, obviously I must be one of those evil right wingers that blindly stick up for FOX right? The truth is, I am not and don’t defend FOX, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, or CBS. They are not non-profit organizations that deliver “fair and balanced” news. NONE of them do. They have shareholders, and they are required to make money for those shareholders. And those shareholders, as well as the people who write copy, the talking heads, the producers AND the person who has to decide what news goes into a broadcast ALL have their own agendas. If you work there, you either fall into line with the group think, or you find another job.
Don’t believe me. Here’s the thing though. Because you didn’t get a cite doesn’t make it any less true. Like I said, if you bothered to read my posts, my life experiences in this area is my cite. What exactly would you believe, anyway? You wouldn’t believe what I’m telling you unless you saw it for yourself. Which is fine by me, btw. I would love it if you got involved with your local democratic or republican machine and got exposed to the behind-the-scenes world of politics. But you won’t. It’s much easier to just tell me I’m full of shit. And much more rewarding too, I’m sure. And that costs you virtually no time, no effort, and no personal commitment.
There is nothing I could cite, written by any author, that you would find acceptable. Because to accept what I’m telling you is to admit that the left is just as bad as the right, and the lefties just can’t do it. If i posted that “republicans organize and call in to talk shows” without mentioning democrats, not only would you have not asked or a cite, you would have eaten it up as gospel, because it fits what you believe to your core.
P
Why do they even need to hire anyone? Freeptards post for free.
:eek: Noooooo . . .
Dear boy, there is no Freep. It’s just Rupert Murdock posting to answer to Fox News shills and vice versa over and over again under different aliases, and none of them realizing it.
Real life intruded but I’m back now.
- I actually didn’t intend to pit Fox News per se when I banged out the OP. What animus I felt came from thinking about past encounters with actual and suspected shills on the board. I concede however that what I wrote was a Fox News pitting: it just wasn’t my primary intent. Oh well. At least the unintended target was a richly deserving one.
Well if it’s important to you Stink Fish, the answer is “It depends”. Are we discussing a nutbag wingnut similarity between two stories? Or is it a real parallel? Because if NPR had the same news standards as Fox News, I wouldn’t listen to them. Go to Media Matters and you see they have 2 standard complaints about the conservative media. Number 1 is bigotry and number 2 is screwed up facts. Go to Accuracy in Media, the right wing counterpart, and they emphasize bias. The translation of which is, “You hurt our modern conservative feelings.”
Seriously, I don’t treat Michael Moore as a reliable source because of his track record. I have a sufficiently strong disposition that I don’t need my preconceptions to be constantly stroked. And if you are person who cares about getting their facts straight and you happen to be conservative (like eg Posner or Bartlett) you will get a respectful hearing from me.
It is based on reporting from David Folkenflick, who confirmed his account with 4 Fox News employees. That sounds like pretty decent reporting, unless you can provide an example of shoddy reporting on his part, where he doesn’t correct his nonsense. For an example of that from the past freaking week see this post about Sean Hannity.
Look, on the big things I am in agreement with the Fox News production staff: it’s the little things where we part company. Specifically, we know that Fox News isn’t remotely “Fair and Balanced” and furthermore they have a gullible audience. On that score, I agree with the Fox News Team. Source: Joe Muto. Confirmation: Claims by conservatives about Joe Muto that he isn’t saying anything new.
I gotta say though that Stink Fish faithfully represents the modern conservative mentality. MSNBC’s highest profile morning show is hosted by a former Republican congressman, and Stink Fish still provides a fine whine about bias. Basically he’s entirely driven by cognitive dissonance. It works like this. Any revelation about conservative misdeeds becomes an attack on liberals, because you know liberals do it too!! You don’t even need to provide substantiation about this: you see Stink Fish knows. The alternative is questioning his allegiances, looking in the mirror, etc. And that’s too painful to contemplate. So never mind GW Bush’s pointless adventure in Iraq or bad regulation leading to the worst financial crisis since WWII. These facts only show how bad liberals are. Because they do it too.
That is the topic of this thread: what’s the prevalence of directly paid shills on this message board?
Wow. Lucky us. :rolleyes:
Really? Then what was it intended to be? Certainly not recreational outrage. You try to strengthen your point by giving us two sources, one of which is basically a copy/quote of the first source. So, you have one source, which I took the time to read. And what bothers me is this: This is an alleged activity by 4 FORMER FOX employees. Not current, but former. That doesn’t strike you as a bit flimsy? Of course not, because you are convinced that you are on the side of all that is holy and correct. The liberal left. . If they are all former employees, why wouldn’t their names be available? This isn’t exactly a National Security level secret, is it? Hell, we know who leaked the NSA domestic surveilling program… his actual NAME. But we can’t identify one of the four former employees of FOX? Why? And better still, why are they all FORMER employees of FOX? Did they have a pang of conscious, or did they all work there to get information about the behind the scenes workings of FOX and leave to write about them? I don’t know who the author is of this, and what his reputation is. And I don’t care. It just seems to be a joke of a topic, and the outrage you profess to have is also a joke. If anything, if this is true, you’d be pleased as you could be, because it once again confirms your suspicions about the evil FOX news.
I’m not saying that the possibility doesn’t exist. In fact, I not be surprised. Which is what I said in my original post on this subject. But to act like FOX is the only company that monitors its own image on the web is naive. It’s also simply not true. FOX, IMO doesn’t really need to bother, because as someone said upthread, they will have their own fans to post positive stuff about them without FOX actually having to pay anyone.
are you aware at all about sites on the web that are basically bitch-fest about companies all over the country, aren’t you? Well, if you want some fun reading, do a search and find a couple. One website that used to be a conduit for company complaining and insider bitching was called www.vault.com. I looked at the page before sending this out, and it looks like they changed their format, primarily because they were probably getting sued by companies that didn’t like what was posted online for the world to see. There wasn’t any screening for validity, so you can see the problem inherent with a site like this. However, I do know for a fact that my company had people monitoring this site as well as others and were diligent in their efforts to get any negative info removed from the site. I also know that a large consulting firm monitored it closely, because at the time I discovered the site, I was working with that large consulting company. And there was information posted about a massive layoff upcoming for the consulting company which turned out to be dead on. Believe me, that info was not on-line for even 24 hours before someone got to the webmaster and had it removed… This wasn’t FOX News, and it wasn’t yesterday.
Companies have an interest in keeping their images clean. Fox is not doing anything that any other large public company likely does.
That’s YOUR translation of what is meant by bias. Do you not see how you have twisted your world to fit what you need it to? Your answer “It depends” is perfect. Because your real answer is “no”, but to say that would be to basically call yourself a hypocrite. But “it depends” gives you that wiggle room to act like you would do it “if it fit into your idea of what the truth is.” Your measuring stick of “nutbad wingnut similarity” (I’m not even sure what that means) would never be met by NPR or any other news outlet you listen to. It can’t. Because you believe everything you hear from those outlets because they already fit into your preconceived biases. If you don’t see that, you are blind. Everyone has biases. EVERYONE. Even you, and even the people that work at NPR. When a poll was done during W’s second election, it came out that approximately 90% of reporters, news persons, or whatever you want to call the mainstream media identified themselves as liberal and/or associated themselves with the democratic party. You don’t think that’s a problem? Of course not, not if you are one of them. They say what you want to hear, and that makes you happy. Anyone that listens to or watches FOX is just a nutbag, because they believe something different than you do.
I don’t fit into either camp. I don’t watch FOX news, and I don’t watch MSNBC. I don’t listen to NPR. The only news I watch with any regularly is PBS NewsHour.
Anyone that buys into one and only one side of every issue is a nutbag in my opinion. Which is to say just about everyone on this board. It amazes me how you and everyone that has read this thread thinks I’m a FOX supporter or a conservative. I am neither. I would say that both parties continually lie to their supporters, both parties are more similar than different, and both parties don’t care about anything other than getting elected, re-elected, and gaining, or maintaining control of the White House and Congress. That’s not to say there aren’t idealists in each party that truly believe in the rhetoric. But they aren’t in control. People who get elected to higher offices in this country are people who have one thing on their mind. How to get elected. You may start out like Jefferson Smith, but you soon realize that getting elected on ideals is one thing, but getting re-elected on those same ideals is quite another. You simply can’t ignore the money or the people that have it.
As I said, I don’t know David Folkenflick, or his reputation. But I can guess what his political affiliation is. And be honest… is this really a news story? Is it reporting? Or is it just a hack piece on FOX to feed the flames of hatred for all things conservative? The story has no value other than that. I’d say the same thing if he wrote the same article word for word except he substituted say, NPR. If you think I consider Sean Hannity a reliable source, well… HAHAHAHAHA does anyone? (I know the answer is yes, but I do not.) And tossing Michael Moore out there as a liberal source you don’t believe is no more impressive to a conservative than a conservative telling a liberal they don’t believe everything someone like Sean Hannity spews forth. Like Moore, he is an entertainer and he knows his core audience and plays to them constantly. It’s good for their pockets, but it’s not what I’d call real journalism.
FOX News is as “Fair and Balanced” as almost every news organization out there. The problem for you is they don’t share your view on life, so they are liars, and benders of the truth. If I were to describe to you a News Organization that gave total editorial control to one person, and that one person decided what stories went on the air, what each story was telling the viewers, and how much if any air time any story got, would you call that “Fair and Balanced”? Of course not. But you WOULD call that “The CBS Evening News With Dan Rather”.
Because you think that doesn’t make it so. The idea that you know me or my politics or what I believe based on anything in this thread proves that you, like everyone else in the world, has biases. There is no “fine whine”, although again, suggesting that because I disagree with you I must be part of the “vast right wing conspiracy” that makes you blather on. Your entire last paragraph is a strawman. And you know it. You seem to think that I would not be disgusted by actual republican misdeeds, as you call them… again, you are wrong. There is nothing but wrong in your entire last paragraph. That says more about you than it could ever say about me. Your basic theory of “cognitive dissonance” is laughable because it is EXACTLY what you are doing in your post. You are stuck in a childlike argument, saying “I know you are, but what am I?” after everything your adversary says. You prove that you are correct and an honest thinker, and yet you are doing exactly what you claim “conservatives” do. If you cannot see that simple point, there is no helping you.
I am not and have never been a fan of what Bush/Cheney did after 9-11, and I don’t like the direction the country is currently moving. I don’t like the idea that one man (or a small group of men) can decide when and where my country goes to war, and there is no real debate about it in Congress. We are all just along for the ride. I don’t like the fact that we’ve been in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001.
I don’t like all of the deregulation on Wall Street that permitted the 2008 recession, and I really don’t like that Obama took 3x the money from Wall Street banks to get elected vs. McCain, and has done virtually nothing in his time in office to re-regulate an industry completely out of control. I don’t like that Clinton signed NAFTA, putting 10’s of thousands of loyal, democratic, union voters out of work (my father being one of them) because he allowed jobs and industry to be moved to Mexico, with no penalty, but an almost limitless supply of cheap labor.
No, people only see what they want. and they turn a blind eye to the ugly that is on both sides of the political spectrum.
I’m just fine where and who I am. I’m not here to impress you or anyone else, and I’m certainly not trying to change anyone’s mind. That’s impossible anyway. Your mind has to be OPEN first, to allow new ideas in. Some ideas would stick, some would be tossed out. But at least you’d be informed.
We don’t (and won’t) agree on everything, but we should agree on a few things. Getting the story straight, making sure that a writer is not politically motivated or biased, permitting a dissenting view to be heard, and allowing open discussion are all good things. But we can’t even get this on a message board, how in the hell can you expect it to happen in Washington?
Can you not read? The post you quote:
From the OP
In other words, he was asking about people posting on the SDMB and if any of them were payed shills. For Fox or anyone else.
YOU are the one making this about “Fox is evil!” You are the one screaming your head off. You are the one coming off like a closed-minded one-sided apologist. You are the one screaming about the “hypocrisy of the left”.
You come in spouting
and
and
and
And then you wonder why people accuse you of being a Republican and Fox apologist?
I can read. But I may have an interpretation problem.
If he was honestly asking if there were shills on this board, I didn’t get that from his OP. I thought he was joking, because I honestly can’t believe anyone out here is a shill for anything other than themselves.
If he is seriously asking that, then I did miss the point, and I can admit that. And I can also apologize.
I never thought anyone would actually believe something so off the wall, but ok. Maybe M4M does.
But if that’s truly his question, then what is the pitting for? He isn’t pitting imaginary shills, is he?
That’s where my confusion comes into play. I thought he was making a pit thread about the supposed fox shills, and then tongue in cheek asking about people on this board.
This doesn’t belong in the Pit if that’s the case. Maybe MPSIMS, but not the pit.
I’ll bow out now. Regardless of the real intent of the OP, M4M repeated what you said in his last post. I’ll have to believe it, even if it makes no sense to me as a Pitting.
Finding evidence to support your claims isn’t my job, idiot.
Nm
You aren’t worth my time.
I simply do not care if you believe me or not. You are irrelevant to me. You are a putz on a message board who thinks that they have accomplished something my calling a stranger an idiot.
My goal in this life isn’t to spend time finding cites that you will find a reason to dismiss anyway.
If your cites are as shitty as your reasoning, you betcha I’ll dismiss them. Find a good cite, though, and I’ll consider it.
Shit, when you first made that post, I thought there was a chance you were basing it SOMETHING, maybe something real or something you were misunderstanding, but SOMETHING. I was prepared to be educated; maybe it would turn out that politics was more organized than I suspected.
But no, that’s not it–it’s just that people are as stupid as I expected.
Your arrogance is pathetic. But not surprising. You are like most people. All of your “knowledge” comes from a book or from other people who think like you do. You have no real world experience. If you did, you would know what I said is true. But no. You don’t have a clue. So, you attack, while at the same time patting yourself on the back. “It’s just that people are as stupid as I expected.” Yes, people are stupid. But you are one of those people that you think you are above. The sad thing is that you really believe in your own intellect and superiority. You are a pseudo-intellectual with no real-world knowledge or experience. That’s all you are and all you will ever be. Think what you want about me, but at least I went up to bat. You are afraid to come out of the dugout.
How do I cite a Political campaign i was a part of? Send you a campaign button? How about a bumper sticker? No, i’m not going to give you my name to prove my point. Like i said, you wouldn’t believe it anyway, because being a part of something wouldn’t count to you. You would need the phone numbers of people who worked on the campaign trail. And even then, you would accuse them of lying because they must all think the same way I think.
You weren’t prepared to be educated. All you do, all you EVER do, is come off as a sanctimonious prick. You are a know-it-all, but a never-do-nothing. You are a legend in your own mind. You think quite highly of yourself, but what exactly have you done to prove your worth to anyone but yourself? What have you ever accomplished in the real world? What difference have you ever made? You are a gutless turd.
Take your time and think up a clever comeback. You’ll have one. You always have time to get the last word in. And you can have it. When i tell you my life experience is my cite, that isn’t good enough for you, so what’s the point of this? The point is to give you something to feel superior about, a smug little man sitting at home typing with one hand because the other hand is busy fwapping away in a one-man circle jerk. “Look at me! I have him on the run!” Yes, look at you. Pathetic. You are a sad, strange little man.
I know what I did and saw. I know how things work, at least in my little corner of the world. Take that and learn from it. Or throw it away. Either way, your mind isn’t changed, and you’ll always be able to say you “won” this little back and forth because I didn’t give you the “proof” you needed. Fuck what you need to be satisfied. This isn’t GD, and I’m not trying to win your vote.
You, on the other hand, are hilarious.
Because it’ll likely lead to more hilarity (You’re not worth my time! Many paragraphs of sputtering futile rage! Aaaah!), I’ma help you out.
Imagine your original post had been like this:
If that had been your original post, absolutely I would have accepted your “life experience” as an appropriate cite for it.
But putting things together, your argument is more like this:
You’re extrapolating your own hilariously inept “life experience” to be some sort of universal rule, with no evidence other than said inbred sheriff campaign. No wonder he lost.
If you want to claim it sometimes happens, sure, I’ll believe you. Want to claim it’s “almost exclusively” who the callers are? You’re an idiot.