Uh...are they saying that online forums like FR turning people on to online polls is vote manipulation? Maybe some people vote more than once, but I only FReeps a poll I have a strong opinion on in order to express that opinion. Perhaps what they are saying is that FReepers hearing about liberal-biased polls and registering non-PC-approved viewpoints is bad, 'cause they don't get the biased results they want?
From
http://medienkritik.typepad.com/blog/2004/03/the_clumsy_goli.html This is such a comprehensive analysis of our conflict with SPIEGEL ONLINE, I have to post it right away. It was sent to me by mail from Douglas. Enjoy!
Congratulations, David. I've never been more proud of my German roots. May the long-departed Silberhorns of Esslingen and Nothsteins of the Pfalz smile down on your blog! Here are my comments on your latest battle with Goliath.
THE CLUMSY GOLIATH
SPIEGELs first mention of David’s blog “You need to click ‘Abstimmen’,” was a wonderful distillation of rage and paranoia, but you’ll have to check it quickly if you want to enjoy any of its original flavor. They’ve been frantically “improving” it even as we speak as they’ve become aware the world is laughing at them. Even the remnant still online is a classic example of their trademark combination of Stalinism and McCarthyism. Stalin was a master of the technique of destroying opponents by association. First he demonized Trotzky. Once he’d accomplished that, anyone who had ever had anything to do with Trotzky automatically became guilty of “Trotzkyism” by association. Now take a look at the SPIEGEL article. They begin with a long diatribe against FreeRepublic.com. I never visited the “Free Republic” website before its mention in Spiegel, but it’s obvious from a brief look that Spiegel’s “reporting” about them is typically slanted and misleading. SPON officiously informs us that “freeping” is a slang term that has been around since the late 90’s, commonly used to refer to the use of dirty tricks against political opponents. That’s news to me and, no doubt, to most Americans. I regularly read several political magazines, blogs, and newspapers, and it’s the first time I’ve ever seen the term. If you Google “freeping,” the links you get deal mostly with some kind of software that has nothing to do with politics. No matter, SPON has chosen “Free Republic” as their “Trotzky” for this episode, and, in keeping with the time-honored Stalinist MO, they rearrange reality as necessary to accommodate their needs.
Once they had invented their Trotzky/Free Republic, the trick for SPIEGEL was to link the new demon to Davids Medienkritik. That wasn’t going to be easy. SPIEGEL failed to produce even a shred of evidence that David was connected in any way with “Free Republic.” No matter, as usual in such cases, they resorted to a brazen lie, claiming that David had called on his readers to “freepen” the vote on SPIEGEL. Unfortunately, the link to the “Free Republic” they cite for this claim originated with someone with the handle “eabinga,” a resident of Brunswick, Georgia. Now, according to an online encyclopedia, Brunswick, Georgia, is a rather small city of about 16,000 souls with a population that is 59.81% African-American and 36.41% white. Unfortunately, the reference is silent regarding the percentage of Germans in the place, but I would be very pleasantly surprised to find there were any as articulate as David. If it can be proved that David actually lives there, I will cheerfully eat my hat. Undeterred by the facts as ever, SPON continues with more bogus claims that David appealed to his readers to manipulate the vote. You can read everything he has posted on his site since March 5 and see in a relatively short time that, unless encouraging his readers to vote counts as “manipulation,” this is just another blatant lie.
It’s all the same to the editors of SPON. Having “proved” the connection between David and “Free Republic” in the good old Stalinist tradition, they go on to pontificate for several more paragraphs about the dangers of “freeping” to Western civilization.
Of course, Stalin wasn’t SPIEGELs only tutor. The insinuation and innuendo we’ve become familiar with in SPIEGEL articles is the trademark technique of McCarthyism. Swinging wildly at his tiny tormenter, David, whose pebble has obviously found its mark, the SPIEGEL Goliath descends into a ludicrous paranoia. We read dark suggestions that he is but the minion of the dark and crafty forces of evil, invincible but for SPIEGELs noble battle, the embodiment of a dark conspiracy of “ultraconservative activists.”
SPIEGELs obsession with America-bashing has evidently left them singularly ill-informed about what’s been going on in the real world. They tell us that vote manipulation is “getragen von einer starken, bisher wenig wahrgenommenen konservativen Blogger-Szene.” Earth to SPIEGEL! The “Blogger-Szene” is big and growing. It includes not only conservatives, but a rich variety of articulate voices from every part of the political spectrum. In the USA it has combined with talk radio to smash the bland, left of center monopoly the mainstream media once enjoyed in interpreting the “reality” the American people would see on TV and in their newspapers every day. David is the vanguard of that “scene” in Germany, where he and many more like him are desperately needed. Get used to the pebbles, Goliath. There are more coming.
Douglas: thank you so much!
ROTFL!!! I missed the first thread, so I thought it would clear up the mystery! After clicking on the link, I found it didn't clear up anything! This is too funny!
I don't understand? I bet they wished they could force us to stop - ha ha ha damn liberal-commies.
