Exposed: A Spammer Fooled MSM & America with Edited NDAA Video
December 20, 2011
By Sarah Jones <http://www.politicususa.com/en/author/sarah-jones>
http://www.politicususa.com/en/edited-ndaa-video
So this is rather embarrassing.
It turns out that the edited NDAA video of Carl Levin that was
inaccurately cited in the mainstream media as proof that Obama wanted to
detain US citizens was originally posted by a spammer. As we know, the
President did not ask for language giving him the right to detain US
citizens, he asked for the opposite.
<http://www.politicususa.com/en/ndaa-breitbarted> But that story
wouldn’t get very many clicks for a spammer…..
Thanks to the hard work of several writers, we now know the truth behind
the tin foil hat insanity trip of the edited Levin NDAA video
<http://www.politicususa.com/en/ndaa-breitbarted>that went viral.
Congratulations, mainstream media – you got PWNED by a spammer.
Matt Osborne of Osborne Ink
<http://www.osborneink.com/2011/12/blogosphere-breitbarted-spammed-and-hacked.html>uncovered
that spammers were behind the edited video:
On December 10th an unknown spammer posted a selectively-edited
video of Senator Carl Levin at YouTube and proceeded to tweet the
link 45 times over 24 hours. The link is now dead (video deleted by
user), but it has already been copied to accounts on various video
sites. To find out what Senator Levin actually said, you can go
watch the full C-SPAN clip atPoliticusUSA
<http://www.politicususa.com/en/ndaa-breitbarted>.
The video set off an online freakout of epic proportions. Recipients
of this ‘reply message spam’ included a Bradley Manning account,
Occupy accounts, and assorted hacktivist accounts. It was like
squirting lighter fluid onto a smoldering flame, feeding paranoid
memes of right and left. Indeed, “Joe Fangorico” was nonpartisan,
including FOX News’ own Joe Napolitano and Ron Paulites on his or
her list.
Matt points out, “Video evidence that President Obama has evil designs
on habeas corpus? That’s traffic gold, which is why so many different
sites featured the video.”
The fact that the President took on the SASC in a defense spending bill
should have been the news, but it wasn’t. It also should have been news
that the original language left the door open for the Senate to run end
games around Obama’s executive order to close Gitmo, which the Senate
refused to fund, but there was nary a peep about that.
Allan at Angry Black Lady
<http://www.angryblacklady.com/2011/12/19/california-libertaria-politician-calls-for-assassination-of-president-obama-and-his-children/> followed
up by pointing out that viral misinformation has additional
consequences. The California Libertarian “constitutional conservative”
who called for the assassination of the President and his children did
so precisely because he believed this lie, “Jules Manson of Carson,
California, an unsuccessful recent candidate for their city council,
posted a rant on his Facebook page motivated by the passage of the NDAA.”
Mr. Manson posted this with a link to an article at “Unelected.org”,
which Allan points out was originally *falsely attributed* to Josh
Harkinson of Mother Jones, who is apparently another victim of this
specious rumor fest re NDAA. Unelected.org has since changed the name on
the article from Josh Harkinson to “Thomas Paine” and removed their
“about us” information.
As an aside, there are a spate of these “dot orgs” popping up that steal
people’s identities and/or articles or falsely attribute articles in a
manner meant to suggest that the writer is affiliated with their site.
Readers beware — as we head into an election year, the scammers and
spammers are everywhere.
Allan
<http://www.angryblacklady.com/2011/12/19/california-libertaria-politician-calls-for-assassination-of-president-obama-and-his-children/> quotes
from Mr. Manson’s Facebook page:
If the government is allowed to use force on us while it erodes our
constitutional protections, it MUST be countered with assassinations
onto them and their children, and onto all others in uniform who
directly protect the state. This is because such pyschopaths cannot
be reasoned with. They are actually protecting their privileged
positions in society, not our rights or security. We must
demonstrate that such treason will become too expensive for them to
support. This is the only way.
Followed up by, “Assassinate the fucken nigger and his monkey children.”
If you are a person who values facts, reason and accountability, you
might be very concerned if you even unintentionally helped carry water
for spammers seeking hits. Especially since this Breitbarted video has
created a hothouse of paranoia and hatred that all too predictably
nurtured the fecund underbelly of far right racism until it exploded in
all of its pungent darkness in death threats against children.
Just yesterday, “Bon Jovi is dead!” was making the rounds. The spammer’s
edited Levin video is on par with that hoax, only it also served the
confirmation bias of certain political agendas and hence was used in
order to deliberately stoke fires and incite rage.
It’s truly sad that people’s justified fears of the militarization of
our police force as seen in action against Occupy movements across the
country were manipulated and hijacked for clicks by spammers, and even
worse that this lie has caused such panic that it led to death threats
against the President and his children. This grossly distorted and
inaccurate narrative is still going strong, and even when faced with the
empirical evidence of its inaccuracies, true believers forge on,
spamming all and sundry with the video and hysterical claims of Obama
coming for us all.
It raises the question: Do the folks amplifying the misinformation
really care about civilian trials and torture? If so, why are they
ignoring the real threat posed by the Senate? The Senate Armed Services
Committee is responsible for the hard push toward Bushian national
defense policies. All of this hysteria aimed in the wrong direction has
successfully distracted the nation from holding those folks accountable.
As you have probably found out by now, there is no reasoning with some
of these folks. They believe the lie of a spammer because it confirms
their beliefs. Even after watching the full video, they will rant on
about Obama coming for us all.
It’s time for people to man up and face the truth. If they refuse to do
so, they are as illogical as a Tea Partier shouting about Socialism in a
public park. Americans got PWNED by a spammer looking for hits with the
deliberately edited video meant to jack us all up before we managed to
factcheck it.
The mainstream media even fell for it, calling NDAA “Obama’s detention
bill” and claiming the President demanded the right to detain us all,
citing the spammer’s video. The American people then went into a near
meltdown of hysteria. Now the President and his children are getting
death threats over it, a wily spammer is much richer, the media got
their clicks and the nation is none the wiser.
Mission accomplished.
/See full C-Span video of Levin here
<http://www.politicususa.com/en/ndaa-breitbarted>.
/
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