Tweet

PolluterWatch is serving up a great tongue-in-cheek “memo to the Koch PR team” tonight, noting the obvious blunders from Koch Industries’ astroturfing and attack squad lately. The Kochtopus keeps revealing just how highly coordinated its media and blogger network is, mysteriously generating defensive and offensive pieces in quick succession at the drop of a billionaire’s hat.

If it weren’t so blatantly obvious in slinging the same mud and honey around the media Koch-o-sphere, perhaps Koch’s ever-ready defender squad might be worthy of compensation? Oh wait, New Media Strategies does get paid by Koch to blatantly and disastrously attempt to edit the Koch profile on Wikipedia. 

And even if Koch’s friends in media claim to rush to the company’s defense out of pure ideological zealotry and not for compensation, there are a few instances where that argument fails to impress.  As PolluterWatch points out, Koch’s PR team recently posted on the company’s Facebook page about a piece written by Steven Hayward that seemed to support Koch’s anti-science position on climate change and predictably tooted the old Climategate dud.

Tweet

Lawrence Solomon - he of the imaginary legion of top scientists who deny climate change - has launched an attack on the credibility of Wikipedia, complaining especially that Wiki has the temerity to acknowledge climate change and to censor unfounded counter arguments.

Unfortunately, Solomon pegs his own case to the reputation of the notoriously unreliable Benny Peiser, leaving the Wiki editors looking admirably clever.

Tweet

Last week I highlighted a brilliant piece of programming called Wiki Scanner, which cross-reference known IP addresses with revisions to Wikipedia entries.

For example, an astute Wiki Scanner found that someone using a computer with an ExxonMobil IP address revised the entry for the Valdez oil spill. Whoever was using the ExxonMobil IP address edited the Valdez entry in a way that downplayed the environmental devastation it caused.

So here's some interesting things we've been able to find so far using Wiki Scanner:

Tweet

Ever wonder who's behind some of the outrageous edits to Wikipedia? Has an underhanded auto manufacturer been editing the Wikipedia entry for global warming?

Check out Wikipedia Scanner, an amazing piece of programming that is rightfully getting the attention it deserves. The program can trace Wikipedia edits back to known IP addresses of corporations and organizations.