During the recent hoopla over Deval Patrick’s role in Ameriquest, the following not very nice comment appeared in response to my post calling for Patrick to step down from the board of Ameriquest’s parent company:
Amen
Patrick should resign, you’re right. But you’re wrong on all the reasons. The guy is a fraud and he’s sitting on the board of a company that has preyed on the people of Massachusetts for its own gain.
Now that people like Tom Reilly have stepped in, their business model is failing – i.e., taking advantage of the little guy.
Patrick ought to resign in shame, not in triumph.
by: johd @ May 03, 2006 at 16:19:38 EST
Now, it wouldn’t surprise anyone to learn that the anonymous “johd” is a Reilly supporter – after all, he says so right in his comment. But I was somewhat surprised to learn that johd’s comment was posted from the IP address of the Tom Reilly Committee.
How do we know this? Well, the database that logs comments at BMG shows that the comment in question came from IP address 68.236.107.242 (you can see a screenshot from the database here – the image is too wide to post here without screwing up everyone’s browser window). And here is a screenshot with some more information about that IP address:
Looks like a match to me. (By the way, I searched the database for comments from Patrick headquarters, but I didn’t find any. We’re not being anti-Reilly here – we’re just posting the information that we have.)
It seemed only fair to check in with the Reilly campaign before publishing this post, so I called Corey Welford, Reilly’s campaign spokesman. After looking into it, Welford called me back and confirmed that the comment in question did indeed originate at Reilly HQ. According to Welford, the comment was not posted by a staffer, but by a volunteer “who got carried away.” Welford emphasized that the comment “was not authorized by the campaign,” and said that the problem will be addressed.
There are a couple of lessons here. First, as we specifically said a couple of months ago, people connected with campaigns are more than welcome to post here, as long as they disclose the connection. But we consider the use of anonymous accounts by persons affiliated with campaigns to level attacks at other candidates to be dirty pool, and if we find out about it, we’ll publish it. Second, if you didn’t know this already, you should know it now: there really is no such thing as true anonymity on the internet. IP addresses (among other things) are routinely tracked by practically every site you visit, and they probably know more about you than you think. Third, anonymous comments like johd’s, though obviously designed to help one candidate and harm another, generally accomplish the exact opposite. Rhetoric like that posted by johd doesn’t convince anyone of anything, and it creates the possibility of embarrassment for the candidate that the writer is backing.
It’s probably to some degree inevitable that blogs like this one will be used by campaign operatives as a means of saying things about other candidates that they would never say for attribution. That’s unfortunate, because we really want this to be a place that adds to, rather than detracts from, the quality of political discourse around here. So we’ll say it again: if you’re affiliated with a campaign, please join in the conversation and say what you want to say – but loudly and proudly tell us who you are before you say it.
How come that satellite shot doesn’t show any of the rain that we are supposed to be getting over the next four days? Are the meteorologists wrong again?
I think I can see my house.
I too can see your house. And if you would be so kind, please either close the drapes or stop posting while just wearing your specially fitting bra and panties.
Sorry about that.
I don’t have so much of a problem with campaign staffers or volunteers posting here. It’s inevitable. And David’s right, the unwritten laws of decorum demand that if you’re spilling dirty laundry or taking pot shots, state your affiliation so that people can take what you have to say with the appropriate grain of salt.
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No, what I have a problem with is the venom that accompanies a lot of the posts on here for one candidate or another. And maybe I need to watch it myself, but come October I’ll be standing in the rain holding whatever sign I need to in order to get a Democrat in the corner office. Reilly. Gabrielli. Or God willing, Patrick. But can the author of that post REALLY say the same thing? And if not, doesn’t that go a little bit of a ways to explain why this party hasn’t won a governor’s race in Massachusetts in 20 years?
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*and by the way, yes, in my spare time I have collected signatures for Deval Patrick.
I think it’s important to note as well that while there have been negative comments, and a particularly ugly post about Sam Kelly that I have seen while monitoring blogs, that these, I hope and trust, are not sanctioned by the various campaigns. I’m sure the campaigns themselves are concerned about over zealous supporters posting.
At least it wasn’t the work of Overzealous Republican Staffer! That guy gets around!
David,
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Kudos for this!
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Please don’t reveal my true identity!
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MFW
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Hide in plain sight MFW: that is the best way.
Is the Rielly’s staffers diary egging on the myth that Gabrieli is competitive with Patrick…
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if I did not know better I’d say that Gabtieli and Rielly are in cahoots….
Does everyone have the authority to do this? (Can any user look up other users IP addresses?) How did you acquire this info? thx!
Hi Lala. Our site, like virtually all internet sites logs the IP addresses of people who visit (including, for example, yours). Those can then be cross-referenced to a list of registered addresses, making the match to the Reilly Campaign, Verizon, etc. At the moment, only David, Charley and I and our web hosting service provider have access to this information. We’ve discussed making this information available to all of our users, so that everyone can see where everyone else is coming from, but have decided not to do that for the time being. What do you think we should do?
I can do it on my website too… and made mention of that when I posted my last diary. Websites like “statcounter.com” are soooooooo much fun. It gives location, but not names… so individual identities are safe.
This may be a bit over the top, but where are the boundaries drawn? It’s clear that posting from a Campaign HQ is out of bounds without a disclaimer, and if you’re working for a campaign, you should say so.
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But what about: * if you volunteer for a campaign * if you volunteer for a political party * if you’ve given money to a particular candidate * if you’ve given money to a particular party * if you’re a state convention delegate * if you’re a state convention delegate who has pledged support for a particular candidate
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and so on. Where exactly is the line?
JohD must be the Jon Davis who in early April sent out to a number of media outlets an e-mail (with no phone number or contact name) accusing Deval Patrick of association with Armenian Genocide deniers. A charge Patrick’s campaign successfully refuted.
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Davis’ e-mail concluded with an offer to provide further information. To date, “Davis” has not responded to any queries from the local Armenian newspaper (The Armenian Weekly); their e-mails to him remain unanswered.
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By the way, I am a supporter of Deval Patrick and a delegate to the State Democratic Convention.
I would also like to know where the line is to be drawn, and offer my input. As someone who does a lot of lurking but not a lot of commenting, I’ve gotten an idea of which people have slants towards a particular candidate. I absorb their comments accordingly.
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In my opinion, if someone wants to offer up willingly whether they volunteer donate or whether they’re a pledged delegate, that’s fine. I don’t think that those people have an obligation to do so, however.
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I think it goes without saying that posting from a campaign IP is just plain stupid. That aside, where I personally would draw the line is payment. If you are paid by a candidate, you should reveal it.
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That’s pretty much it. Thanks for the stellar information and comments here, BMG has quickly become a daily stop for me.
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Delegate pledged to Patrick and Murray
Volunteer for Patrick and Murray
Does it not? I told you all there were inside people commenting.