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Washington Times: DOJ denies existence of a "blog squad"
Washington Times ^ | 10/8/09 | Kerry Picket

Posted on 10/08/2009 12:04:19 PM PDT by mudblood

Various conservative blogs are talking about the existence of a "blog squad" at the U.S. Justice Department. The website, the Muffled Oar writes that a blogging unit formed within the Department of Justice to counter websites with posts, articles, and user comments critical of the Obama administration. Matthew Miller Director of Public Affair at the Justice Department told the Washington Times,: "There is no 'blog squad'. There is Tracy [Russo] who handles online media. It’s the policy of the office of public affairs to not post anonymous comments. We have not seen any evidence that anyone does post comments, and if we did have evidence of that, people would no longer work here."

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: agenda; bho44; bhodoj; denial; dojblogcrime; propaganda; russo; tracyrusso; weblogs
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To: MestaMachine

LoL!


21 posted on 10/08/2009 12:53:40 PM PDT by Freedom2specul8 (I am Jim Thompson............................Please pray for our troops....)
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To: GOPJ

All great points, but the following is gold-plated chocolate with just a dash of playboy bunny:
“As to Tracy Russo - I wonder how many “posts” in the net are in her name... especially since she doesn’t post anonymously”

Guys, start looking for Russo comments. This is evidence, some of it, just waiting out there.


22 posted on 10/08/2009 12:57:30 PM PDT by mudblood
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To: mudblood; LucyT

23 posted on 10/08/2009 1:03:14 PM PDT by PhilDragoo (Hussein: Islamo-Commie from Kenya)
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To: mudblood; rxsid; Fred Nerks; null and void; stockpirate; george76; PhilDragoo; Candor7; GOPJ; ...

What a tech-moron this empty-suit Miller is:

Matthew Miller Director of Public Affair at the Justice Department told the Washington Times:

“There is no ‘blog squad’. There is Tracy [Russo] who handles online media. It’s the policy of the office of public affairs to not post anonymous comments. We have not seen any evidence that anyone does post comments, and if we did have evidence of that, people would no longer work here.”

Ever heard of OUT-SOURCING?
How about INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS?


“I noticed, actually, that the posts don’t actually point to any evidence of anonymous comments coming from the Department of Justice, which of course, I believe you can trace.

Ever heard of the TOR-PROJECT?
How about ANONYMIZER?


24 posted on 10/08/2009 1:04:25 PM PDT by BP2 (I think, therefore I'm a conservative)
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To: aSimpleCitizen

Oh, just a regular ole commie troll then? I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt for now believing perhaps you were being sarcastic. If you were being sarcastic, you should say so when you are a noob. Welcome to FR.


25 posted on 10/08/2009 1:07:36 PM PDT by numberonepal (Don't Even Think About Treading On Me)
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To: BP2

Great points, all of them. You can also remote into your computer at home and post there. You can call your friend up and say “hey post this here”, or better yet, fire off an email to your own private list of folks at their various jobs to do it. Heck, that’s what I’d do - heck, I do it now. I mean, what’s “freep this poll” all about anyway?


26 posted on 10/08/2009 1:08:12 PM PDT by mudblood
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To: Gaffer

Is this the same justice department that condones voter intimidation?


27 posted on 10/08/2009 1:18:34 PM PDT by Oldpuppymax (AGENDA OF THE LEFT EXPOSED)
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To: BP2

http://muffledoar.blogspot.com/2009/10/obama-blog-propaganda-is-government.html

Regarding Outsourcing...


28 posted on 10/08/2009 1:31:03 PM PDT by mudblood
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To: ~Kim4VRWC's~

chain .................................. yank!

;->


29 posted on 10/08/2009 1:34:14 PM PDT by aSimpleCitizen
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To: mudblood
Mud - check out paragraph 4

The Department of Justice — the battered plaything of political bloggers during the Bush administration — has hired a ”new media” outreach expert to steer the Obama administration through online policy debates over torture, Guantanamo Bay and whatever else comes up, reports Greg Sargent at The Plum Line.

The new position will be filled by Democratic communications expert Tracy Russo. Russo was chief blogger (yes, that was her real title) and deputy director of online communications for the John Edwards presidential campaign. We’ve asked DOJ Public Affairs Director Matt Miller, himself a long-time Democratic political aide, to let us know more about what Russo will be doing beyond keeping an eye out for brewing on-line tempests. Tracy Russo

Tracy Russo

Until we hear back, we’ll just whistle a few tunes from this “blogger outreach” show we remember from our own years as a political reporter. We’re not saying this is how it will work at the DOJ. But in campaigns, the blogger “outreach” people are something like zoo keepers. At regular intervals, they open the online cages and throw in policy papers or news releases. Sometimes the campaigns even hold special blogger-only conference calls.

Sated and happy (it’s so cool to have access!), and dazzled to have information from a source other than Google, the bloggers start writing fewer conspiracy theories. They become less hostile when the campaign’s paid bloggers join their online conversations. The paid campaign bloggers then subtly start spinning their candidates’ talking points.

Soon, the bloggers are as tame as the mainstream media (”MSM,” in blogger speak). They start going on TV. And to the White House Correspondents Association Dinner. Where they hobnob with the same Washington, D.C., insiders who once used to be the exclusive dates of the MSM. That’s right - the same MSM the bloggers once screamed were too close to their sources. Because they socialized with them. Just like the bloggers are now doing. And which the bloggers find is actually fun. And useful. So now it’s not so bad to go to the White House Correspondents Dinner, even if you’re a blogger.

http://www.mainjustice.com/2009/05/27/doj-hires-blog-outreach-expert/

30 posted on 10/08/2009 1:34:28 PM PDT by GOPJ (MSM BIAS: grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome. George Orwell)
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To: BP2; All

Miller, 35, is the front man for repairing DOJ’s damaged public image after the scandals of the Bush years. “We took office with enormous challenges,” he says. “People at the department were demoralized.” Miller, who landed his job as a result of his work on Eric Holder’s confirmation team, praises the new AG for his efforts to increase professionalism and transparency, specifically citing the release of the interrogation and executive power memos earlier this year.

During the last election cycle, Miller ran communications for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Previously, he was communications director for Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., a position he also held in Florida with the Kerry-Edwards campaign in 2004. A true Texas son, the Amarillo native and University of Texas graduate lives in the District with his chocolate Lab, General Sam Houston.

National Journal

............................
Politicization Alert:Matthew Miller to Justice?
posted at 3:50 pm on January 26, 2009 by Ed Morrissey

Remember when Democrats screeched about the politicization at the Department of Justice when George Bush replaced nine at-will political appointees? I’ve written that AG nominee Eric Holder’s work at Justice in the Clinton administration demonstrated a lot more political hackery than anything seen under Bush, and apparently that won’t be the end of politicization at Justice under Barack Obama, either. Chris Cillizza notes that Matthew Miller has taken the job of spokesperson for the DoJ despite his past history of politicizing an actual investigation:

Matthew Miller, who spearheaded the communications operation at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee during the 2008 election, is moving inside the walls of the Obama administration as chief spokesman for the Justice Department. With Eric H. Holder Jr. expected to be confirmed as attorney general this week, Miller will be jumping from the frying pan into the fire. He’s had good practice. Before working under Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) at the DSCC, Miller was communications director for the successful 2006 Senate campaign of Robert Menendez (D-N.J.).

If you don’t remember Matthew Miller, it’s a shame — because he played a central role in a scandal that helped put Republicans in the minority in 2006. Miller got the e-mails between disgraced Congressman Mark Foley and underaged interns, but instead of giving them to investigators, Miller instead tried giving them to reporters in Florida, Foley’s home state. When that apparently didn’t work, Miller turned the material over to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The Washington Post reported after the election:

“Democratic Caucus communications director Matt Miller saw the e-mails as inappropriate, but rather than taking them to authorities, he shopped them to the press, first to the Miami Herald and the St. Petersburg Times that November, then to the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call. He also gave the e-mails to the communications director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, a point apparently validating Republican charges that senior Democrats were behind the revelation of Foley’s conduct.”

Republicans objected to the handling of the e-mails and accused Miller of politicizing Foley’s conduct rather than ensuring that the House interns were safe from any potential predatory conduct. In fact, a familiar name headed the DCCC and knew about the e-mails long before the Ethics Committee was apprised of their existence:

“The head of the House Democrats’ campaign committee, Rep. Rahm Emanuel, had heard of former Rep. Mark Foley’s inappropriate e-mails to a former male page a year before they became public, a campaign committee aide told CNN. …

In his deposition to the ethics committee, Miller said he also sent Foley’s e-mails to the St. Petersburg (Florida) Times, the Miami Herald and Roll Call, according to the report.”

Miller also sent the material to Harper’s Magazine “and possibly others,” the report said.

“Miller told the ethics committee he had sent the e-mails to the media because he considered them inappropriate and predicted “nothing would come” from giving them to the ethics panel or the House Page Board, according to the report.”

Matthew Miller had evidence of possible pederastic predatory behavior, and instead of acting to protect the interns, he tried to make political hay out of the e-mails. I guess he’ll fit right in at a Holder-led Department of Justice. Will that be normal procedure for investigating potential crimes at the Obama DoJ?

HOT AIR

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2353325/posts?q=1&;page=101


31 posted on 10/08/2009 1:38:09 PM PDT by thouworm
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To: GOPJ

Dear lord man, gratz - bingo. You win the “awesome award” :)


32 posted on 10/08/2009 1:47:25 PM PDT by mudblood
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To: GOPJ

Saturday, October 3, 2009
Obama Blog Propaganda is Government-Wide

The Washington Post today provides context to the story the Muffled Oar first broke about the aggressive DOJ Blog Squad mission. The DOJ has hired a team of bloggers to influence the blogosphere and online media. Tracy Russo, a partisan campaign blogger for John Edwards, the DNC and Obama Campaign is leading the Blog Squad at the Department of Justice. So much for a non-political Department of Justice. That dream is dead.

The Muffled Oar has learned from Department sources that Russo is spending a great deal of time keeping angry gay and transgender partisans quiet and in line regarding the Department’s Defense of Marriage Act. Russo is primarily tasked with spinning the blogosphere about Obama and Holder policies by whatever means necessary. Russo’s mission is to babysit the left and get them energized, or get them quiet, depending on the issue and circumstances.

Today the Washington Post demonstrates that the effort to propagandize to the blogosphere is a government-wide campaign.

http://muffledoar.blogspot.com/2009/10/obama-blog-propaganda-is-government.html

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2009/10/justice_departments_online_rev.html

Cross-link thread — BREAKING: Dept. of Justice hired anonymous, partisan Democrat bloggers to bolster image [& troll FR]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2353325/posts?q=1&;page=201


33 posted on 10/08/2009 1:51:37 PM PDT by thouworm
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To: MestaMachine; ~Kim4VRWC's~
Head Deputy of the Blog Squad.


34 posted on 10/08/2009 2:19:08 PM PDT by 444Flyer ("Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers."--Mignon McLaughlin)
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To: HollyB; Saoirise

Apparently, it’s all a fligment of our imaginations. RIGHT O!


35 posted on 10/08/2009 2:21:00 PM PDT by 444Flyer ("Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers."--Mignon McLaughlin)
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To: mudblood

Fortunately, there is a large patriotic contingent of real Americans who blog and post in opposition to Obama. Actually, all patriotic Americans who post online post in opposition to Obama and his socialism.


36 posted on 10/08/2009 2:32:56 PM PDT by TurtleUp ([...Insert today's quote from Community-Organizer-in-Chief...] - Obama, YOU LIE!)
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To: 444Flyer; ~Kim4VRWC's~; HollyB; Saoirise
ALL RIGHT!!! I am Now under the influence. Of nicotine. MUCH nicotine.


37 posted on 10/08/2009 2:44:17 PM PDT by MestaMachine (One if by land, 2 if by sea, 3 if by Air Force 1.)
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To: MestaMachine
I think we Zotted the one on the right this morning.


38 posted on 10/08/2009 2:45:28 PM PDT by 444Flyer ("Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers."--Mignon McLaughlin)
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To: numberonepal; aSimpleCitizen
Welcome to FR.

Something tells me that aSimpleCitizen has been here longer that you...;)

39 posted on 10/08/2009 2:50:06 PM PDT by TankerKC (No Taxation Without Lubrication)
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To: mudblood

” Washington Times: DOJ denies existence of a “blog squad” “

“All you’ve got to do is deny.”

Looks like the messiah has learned well from a previous occupant
of The White House.


40 posted on 10/08/2009 2:54:10 PM PDT by VOA
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