March 28, 2010 06:44 PM UTC

Sock Puppets and 'Google Monkeys' Abound

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• by: redstateblues

(Or, maybe Kenney’s just not very good at it? – promoted by Colorado Pols)

Ah, the information age. As the Denver Post business section reports:

Armed with talking points, volunteers and staff members – even independent contractors paid several hundred dollars for a couple days of work – serve as “Google monkeys” and “sock puppets.” They monitor stories and post under pseudonyms to dispute or support a view, or simply to generate interest in a topic.

Of course, this isn’t news to anyone who has been reading internet message boards for any amount of time. What’s a little more eye catching is when people like GOP Chairman Dick Wadhams and Democratic political consultant David Kenney are quoted as saying it’s common practice:

“They’re all doing it,” said David Kenney, a Democratic political operative whose clients include Gov. Bill Ritter and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper. “There’s not a campaign in the state of Colorado that doesn’t have some paid staff posting stuff.” [rsb emphasis]

…

As campaign manager for Republican John Thune’s bid against Democratic incumbent Tom Daschle in the South Dakota Senate race in 2004, Wadhams hired two bloggers who consistently criticized the local paper’s coverage as pro-Daschle. At the time, the bloggers didn’t disclose they were being paid by the Thune campaign to post comments.

…

“The blogosphere has definitely become a real factor in campaigns,” Wadhams said. [rsb emphasis]

Sock puppets are nothing new to those who read blogs like Colorado Pols on a regular basis, but the term Google Monkey was a new term for me. Another political consultant who’s no stranger to online political communities, Tyler Chaffee–who was a little more discreet in his quote to the Post–explains:

…[T]he term “Google monkey” refers to workers who set up news alerts through the Internet search engine. “Every time a campaign is mentioned, they’re paid to . . . see if there are comments they can leave.”

It’s a brave new world in the blogosphere, kids. You have to really pay attention, because that person you thought was a really nice guy who agrees with you a lot could turn out to be… that’s right, you guessed it–triguardian.