Banged in Iowa
I have long predicted that this presidential election would be typified by internet dirty tricks. It has already started, albeit with a whimper so far; the bang presumably coming in Iowa.
Wired has a couple of interesting articles this week. One analyzes the recent curious spate of emails coming from the Ron Paul campaign that apparently initiate from Korean spambots. This junk mail, replete with random string headers to circumvent spam filters, have actually accomplished their job, increasing media awareness of Paul, who did not have a ghost of a chance a few months ago.
There have also been several fake political websites springing up, purporting to be for a candidate, but actually lambasting him/her.
The interesting thing about these deceptive sites and to some extent, the email, is who is affected by this. The theory is that the dumb ol' electorate is getting swayed by these deceptions.
I'm afraid that the truth is that it is the media are the ones mostly affected by this trickery. In their ever-increasing attempt to scoop the other channels, conventional news outlets have taken to scouring the Internet for real-time stuff and they sadly do not do a lot of fact-checking. We, the electorate, do not have the time or the inclination to scour the Internet looking for a new political website and maybe we don't care so much anyway. It's the media's reporting that becomes newsworthy--they are the targets for this manipulation.
Wait until we get close to the primaries. I predict a three-ring circus with crazy websites, some satirical, some nasty, some pornographic. It's so easy to copy the pictures and other stuff from the official website and therefore easy and quick to create a fake one.
Posted on November 06, 2007
