I have two mutually contradictory questions: (1) If it’s all part of a furtive faux-grassroots astroturf campaign designed to scrub Winner’s (and, by extension, Axelrod’s) fingerprints from the ad, what was this moron doing uploading it to a YouTube account named “eswinner”? And (2) If it’s not all part of a furtive faux-grassroots astroturf campaign, why wouldn’t Winner avail himself of the professional PR apparatus at his fingerprints to circulate the spot? He’s obviously untroubled by the fact that the clip smears Palin or else he wouldn’t be standing by it now. Why the whispers-and-sockpuppets approach when he could have blasted out press releases and e-mailed the clip to people like Marc Ambinder, Jake Tapper, and Politico to inject it into the media’s bloodstream?
So, Eswinner states it was him and not Obama Camp. Do I believe them? Not really. I think this is a direct result of the “get in their faces” campaigning which Chief Axelrod approves of. Tacit approval, but not the less it is approval.
Scroll down for the response from eswinner who produced the video and then pulled it.
Obama Connected PR Firm Uploads,
Publicizes Lying Anti-Palin Ad on YouTube,
Pushes it Virally as “Grassroots” Effort; PR Exec Sockpuppets Praise Video for “Getting the Truth Out;”
Company Employee Uploads it to Obama Smear Clearinghouse Daily Kos and Urges Readers to Send it Out to Ten People Each
Update: Is this against FEC Rules? No. It is nasty but not illegal.
The answer is no. If I pay a friend to make an entertaining video to post on the Internets the FEC has no right to know how much I paid my friend to make the video. Even if I am Barack “Call the shit in” Obama and I call you and tell you that my friends will buy 100,000 copies of your boring book if you drop into your next stand-up act some “funny” comments about rape, or you discuss my opponent’s daughter’s hairy pu–y on your HBO show, I do not have to report how much I paid you to do me this personal favor.
Nor do you have to disclose that I asked you to say it. Although I did slip a note into a crack in the wall that said please forgive my funny token jews. Be sure to put Bill M. and Sandra B. on the right side of town when we split this place up.
If we put in writing an agreement that states I am paying you to produce an Ad for my campaign, then disclosure is required. Otherwise, you are just expressing yourself, and I am just expressing to you how much I really love your “work.
“http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/09/22/call-the-shit-in/#more-4959
Rusty Shackleford at The Jawa Report gathered circumstantial evidence that a supposedly grassroots video campaign designed to smear Sarah Palin as a member of an Alaskan secessionist party was created and orchestrated by a major PR firm associated with the Obama campaign: Hope, Change, & Lies.
Our research suggests that a subdivision of one of the largest public relations firms in the world most likely started and promulgated rumors about Sarah Palin that were known to be false. These rumors were spread in a surreptitious manner to avoid exposure.
It is also likely that the PR firm was paid by outside sources to run the smear campaign. While not conclusive, evidence suggests a link to the Barack Obama campaign. Namely:
- Evidence suggests that a YouTube video with false claims about Palin was uploaded and promoted by members of a professional PR firm.
- The family that runs the PR firm has extensive ties to the Democratic Party, the netroots, and are staunch Obama supporters.
- Evidence suggests that the firm engaged in a concerted effort to distribute the video in such a way that it would appear to have gone viral on its own. Yet this effort took place on company time.
- Evidence suggests that these distribution efforts included actions by at least one employee of the firm who is unconnected with the family running the company.
- The voice-over artist used in this supposedly amateur video is a professional.
- This same voice-over artist has worked extensively with David Axelrod’s firm, which has a history of engaging in phony grassroots efforts, otherwise known as “astroturfing.”
- David Axelrod is Barack Obama’s chief media strategist.
- The same voice-over artist has worked directly for the Barack Obama campaign.
This suggests that false rumors and outright lies about Sarah Palin and John McCain being spread on the internet are being orchestrated by political partisans and are not an organic grassroots phenomenon led by the left wing fringe.
If we are correct, that means that someone paid for the ad and for the talent behind it. Yet no one identifies themselves as being behind the video. Using techniques that we’ve used in the past to find the identity of online terrorist supporters, the Jawa team went to work trying to figure out who was behind what appeared, in our opinion, to be a professionally orchestrated smear campaign aimed at Sarah Palin with the ultimate goal of electing Barack Obama.
VIOLATION OF FEC RULES? We assume that if some group paid for the production of the video, that it would be reported to the FEC. Not doing so, we believe, would constitute a breach of federal campaign law. All of those postings seem to fit the profile of Ethan S. Winner and suggest that eswinner and Ethan Winner are one and the same. The company he works for, Winner & Associates, is one of the largest PR firms in the country and part of an even larger international conglomerate Publicis Groupe, which is, “one the world’s top 10 advertising and communications firms.”
GETTING THE LIE TO SPREAD WITHOUT DETECTION
And their efforts didn’t stop there. Someone emailed the video to a forum administrator at the Democratic Underground–a message board considerably to the left and far nuttier than even the far left wing bloggers. Says “EarlG” about the video he posted on the very day after it was created (and the same day that this particular version was uploaded):
Nice independent YouTube attack ad. I don’t know who made this, it arrived in my email inbox this morning from “A Group Of Concerned Americans.” [emphasis added]
As previously noted “A Group of Concerned Americans” just happens to be the name of the YouTube channel created by a person who we have reason to believe is Ethan S. Winner (aka, “eswinner”) of the W&A PR firm.
FERTILIZING THE ASTROTURF But it wasn’t just dKos and the DU that appear to have been contacted. Also posting the video on the very day it was created is noted gay-rights activist Pam Spaulding. Another person interested in helping the smear go viral is David “Ben” Burch whose White Rose Society is dedicated to “fighting the new fascism” by…. lying about a VP candidate? A dedicated fan of Cindy Sheehan, of left wing radio, and of harassing Wikipedia users who don’t see eye to eye with him. Burch also doesn’t appear to have a problem spreading lies about Sarah Palin. It’s for the greater good, you see. Nothing fascist about that!
DEEP THROAT SAYS “FOLLOW THE MONEY” So, the million dollar question is who, if any one, paid Winner & Associates to produce this ad?
If this contribution was from the Winner Company, that is a forbidden contribution that Obama probably would have to pay for and show on their September expense report. If from the individuals (all volunteering in your hypo), then every single one of them, from the voice actor to the script writer to the idiots who posted this trash, have to be named as contributors.
LINKS TO THE “KING OF ASTROTURFING” — DAVID AXELROD We believe the voice can also be heard on these AKP&D Message and Media produced videos. In fact, all of the female voice overs showcased on the AKP&D website seem to belong to the same woman. That’s right, all of them. The same voice heard in some Barack Obama ads, and which was used for the “eswinner” slime campaign. More importantly, though, what is AKP&D? It’s the Chicago based political consulting firm headed by David Axelrod. Yes, that David Axelrod. As in the David Axelrod who is Barack Obama’s chief media strategist.
While there is no direct evidence, the cumulative weight of the circumstantial evidence (including the scrubbing of the YouTube accounts soon after Shackleford’s post went up – real subtle there, guys) is strongly suggestive of a professional “sliming” campaign designed to look as if it were “up from the people.”
http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/194057.php
The connection to the Winners and their PR firm is solid. The evidence tying in Axelrod and Obama is circumstantial but suggestive. The lightning-quick cover-up goes a long way towards convincing me. Now the baton needs to be passed to a media organization that can demand answers from the parties involved, who are unlikely to respond to a bunch of bloggers.
http://patterico.com/2008/09/22/the-cover-up-begins/
From Ace of Spade HQ who does not mince words:
Barack Obama and the DNC watch this blog. And I’ve put them on notice since this afternoon that a story about them was coming. Within an hour of the story being posted, the videos began coming down. Within 90 minutes they were all down. That’s a pretty fast response time. I didn’t mention Winner & Associates in my hints. So why would they be on notice?
I only mentioned Axelrod and Obama. No, I do not believe that a random Winner & Associates employee just happened to be reading the Ace of Spades website and suddenly came across a link to a story about them and then decided to wake the bosses over it. I believe the Obama campaign and the DNC have been watching since this afternoon. And they put the call into “eswinner” to get those videos down and bury the evidence. And now “eswinner” has decided to end his short career on YouTube, despite the fact that this was his Best. Day. Eveehhhhh.
If he was just some ordinary schnook who wanted people to check out his rad smear-videos about Sarah Palin, shouldn’t he be happy he was getting so many hits all of a sudden? Isn’t that the dream of every basement-dwelling wannabe Murrow of the Internet? Attention? Fame? Hits? Why is he suddenly so shy to have his work seen? Why does he feel compelled now to delete his account entirely? To erase any and all evidence of his YouTube presence? Why, just a week ago, he was so psyched that “FINALLY THE TRUTH COMES OUT!” Doesn’t he want the truth to come out any longer? If none of this is shadowy, as they will all claim tomorrow, why did they so quickly retreat from sunlight?
They don’t even want you to see the video they were once so proud of anymore. What changed, exactly?
Questions, questions.
Why, you’d almost think that perhaps these videos were intended to fly completely under the radar or something. And that now that they’re very much above the radar, they’re embarrassing “eswinner.” Or the client who has hired “eswinner” to peddle vicious smears under the radar so that the client himself could pretend he doesn’t traffic in viciously dishonest advertisements.
If the media wants to know why this story is important:
1) It’s calculatedly dishonest to attempt to scam the public with videos by “concerned citizens” which are in fact professional electioneering communications put out at the behest of a supposedly new-politics politician. People trust average “neutral” and “independent” citizens more than someone known to be an interested party. It was a scandal when it was revealed that stockbrokers were pimping their own stocks on day-trader sites, pretending to be just average investors with hot tips. Same deal here.
2) Such ads don’t get fact-checked, as they’re supposedly from regular schnooks. No one fact-checks a regular schnook. So Axelrod and Obama can spread lies about Palin, completely refuted and debunked 11 days before the ad was posted, and not worry about media busy-bodies calling foul.
The plan in this case was to tap into the massive traffic of the Daily Kos and have each reader send the video, under the radar, to ten friends, and have them send it to ten friends, etc. The post in question was written by someone who just happens to share a name with a Winner & Associates employee. YouTube ads are big business — and this one was so stinking of outdated lies it had to be done under the table, in the shadows. Where no one would take much notice of it; certainly not the media’s fact-checkers. But, if successful, it would go viral and a huge number of people would end up seeing it.
And no one would know where this ad came from.
The plan didn’t quite work — the lies being pushed were already utterly rubbished, and there were new, exciting smears the netroots were more interested in. But it didn’t fail for lack of trying.
3) This is just the tip of the iceberg. David Axelrod is known as “the Master of Astroturfing,” and this is just his sloppiest and most brazen effort (thusfar detected). You know what also doesn’t get fact checked? The tens of thousands of coordinated comments smearing McCain and Palin posted every day on media and blog threads, many of which are being written by “concerned Christian conservative commenters” who are in fact agents of David Axelrod and the DNC — either directly, as in on-the-payroll sockpuppets, or indirectly, as in big internet groups determined to do “the dirty stuff Obama can’t do himsef.”
Obama can’t cast doubt on Palin’s fitness as a mother without risking electoral debacle. But his legions of busy, busy, busy internet sockpuppets can. He gets the benefit of the smear without having to accept any of the responsibility for it.
These are all election communications — and these in particular are putting out the most vile smears imaginable. But no one bothers checking their veracity — and, crucially, no one connects them with the “New Politics of Hope and Change” Obama — because they’re supposedly just the chatter of ordinary citizens in cyberspace. They are not.
Just like there really were not a lot of “regular concerned citizens” united in their urgent desire to see Chicago utilities raise their rates for gas and electricity. They were fictions created by David Axelrod to dishonestly manipulate public opinion. They were lies. It wasn’t just what they were saying were lies. They were also lying about who, in fact, was speaking those lies. Everything they said was a lie, including the “a’s” and “the’s.” And, as a new twist: including the “I’s.” Not only is this tactic dishonest, but it demonstrates a flagrant contempt for the intelligence of the average voter.
Here’s a story:
Obama thinks you’re fucking stupid. And furthermore, he thinks the only way he can win your vote is to lie to you.
All the Winners Have Left the Field… “cnwinner” has deleted his account too. They coordinated the beginning off this and they’ve coordinated the end of this, too. Well… not the end of this. But they did successfully remove their accounts.
Don’t you guys do crisis communication? I gotta tell you, you pulling the ads and your accounts down is, what is the phrase, consciousness of guilt. You realize you’ve pretty much scotched all the various “innocent mistake” defenses?
And how on earth are you going to credibly explain that you had no calls come in from the Obama campaign, that “eswinner” just happens to be a huge fan of Ace of Spades and Prof. Rusty Shackelford and just happened to catch the posts within minutes of their going up?
You guys are fans, huh? Really? I don’t remember any donations, guys. I guess I’m more popular with Democoratic media firm executives than I thought.
Screencaps: of the accounts, before Mr. Average Concerned Citizen “eswinner” erased them all.
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/273939.php
see also: http://hotair.com/archives/2008/09/22/corporate-sockpuppetry-for-team-obama/
September 22, 2008
1:30 pm PDT Statement of Ethan Winner
The following is in response to questions I have received regarding the post on the Jawa Report website. I produced and posted on the Internet the video entitled “Sarah Palin: A Heartbeat Away.” The idea for the video was mine. No one paid me to produce it. The only out-of-pocket cost will be the fee for the voice-over narrator, which I will pay personally when I receive an invoice. Contrary to the allegation in the Jawa Report, the voice-over artist has never done any work for the Obama campaign. I retained her through a talent agency based solely on the quality of her voice.
Neither the Obama campaign nor any independent political action committee has had a connection with the making and/or posting of this video. Just like the thousands of Americans who have posted videos on the Internet regarding the current Presidential campaign, I produced this video as an expression of my right to free speech, which is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
I believe the American people have a right and a need to know information about candidates for political office and their views. I made this video because I think it is important for the public to be aware of the association between Sarah and Todd Palin and the Alaskan Independence Party. The New York Times has reported that the Alaskan Independence Party website describes the party as seeking, in the words of the party, “a range of solutions to the conflicts between federal and local authority,” including “advocacy for state’s rights, through a return to territorial status, all the way to complete independence and nationhood status for Alaska.”
While a number of media outlets have said that reports that Sarah Palin was a member of the Alaskan Independence Party may have been erroneous, her attendance at the party’s 1994 convention, her video speech to the 2008 convention and her husband’s membership in the Alaskan Independence Party have not been called into question. Some people have asked why I have pulled the video from the Internet. The reason is simple. Following the posting of personal information about me by the Jawa Report, my family began to receive threatening and abusive phone calls and emails.
To which Rusty Shakleford responds:
Do I find his response hard to believe. Yes I do. I would especially note the carefully crafted future tense usage for when he will pay the voice over artist.
It’s almost …. Clintonesque.
So, he produces the video. He pays for the video production — out of his own pocket. He then posts it to YouTube using multiple phony identities.
Then he gets his friends at one of the largest PR firms in the world to post it on the internet, to suggest to others that they pass it on, and spend company time defending the outright lies in the video — all for free?
And the multimillionaire who is President of the firm also spends his free time defending the lies on his “homemade” — yet professionally voiced over — video?
Hey Ethan, with that business savvy no wonder you were forced to rent out the family yacht! Maybe it’s time to also get rid of those courtside seats.
