The Nashua Advocate: Breaking News: Is GOPUSA News Client Google-Bombing?

Is this another propaganda attempt by a Republican-backed "news outlet"?

Is this another "Talon News"?

Read all about it here.

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An excerpt:

New GOPUSA News Service, Cybercast News, Replaces Talon News; Now Embroiled in Scandal Over Flooding Google News With Identical Jeff Gannon Articles

By ADVOCATE STAFF

As our readership is undoubtedly aware, Google News is one of the primary news directories utilized by online-only conservative, moderate, progressive, and non-partisan media outlets. Talon News, prior to its implosion over the Gannongate scandal, was one of hundreds of online-only media outlets which might have expected to receive additional attention from the public via a listing in Google News.

Now, the new "news service" client being contracted with by GOPUSA.com, Cybercast News Service (CNS), has found itself embroiled in a scandal just days after replacing the controversial Talon News Service for which now-disgraced "reporter" Jeff Gannon was a writer.

The U.S. Senate and U.S. House refused to recognize Talon News as a credible news organization, citing its inextricable ties to a Republican activist website--GOPUSA.com. Cybercast News Service, headed by Brent Bozell, bears striking similarities to Talon News, apart from its association as a news client for GOPUSA.com.

Bozell's bio reads, in part, as follows:

Mr. Bozell serves as Executive Director of the Conservative Victory Committee (CVC). An independent multi-candidate political action committee, the CVC has helped to elect dozens of conservative candidates over the past ten years. He has also served as National Finance Chairman for the Buchanan for President campaign, and Finance Director and later President of the National Conservative Political Action Committee.

The National Conservative Political Action Committee, or CPAC, is one of the most powerful conservative organizations in America.

And now they're in the news business.

In fact, they've been in the news business since 1998, as the CNS website attests, but their involvement with the controversial website GOPUSA.com is bound to bring them additional attention.

The question for the moment is whether that attention will be positive, or else the stirring of another, more subtle national propaganda scandal in which a conservative online "news outlet" uses the vagaries of computer programming and intranet structures to "flood" one of the most popular online news directories in America.

MORE AT THE NASHUA ADVOCATE.

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Jeff Johnson.... Can they be a little more creative?

http://www.gopusa.com/news/2005/march/0310_blogger_briefing1.shtml

edit: added link

just askin'

I don't trust Google News. The right wing appears to get immediate listing and top-billing, others, if included, are added slowly and reluctantly.

If your favorite legitimate news outlet does not appear in Google news, send a link to Google asking it be added.

While not every online media outlet is eligible for Google News inclusion, those with any sort of editorial structure and which provide up-to-date, general-interest news, analysis, and commentary (with links, as appropriate) to a dedicated and consistent readership may well be eligible.

-- TNE

Applied Public Relations School

The APR School consists of a brief series of presentations followed by the Game of Spin. The class is divided into "communications divisions" and each team faces a unique communications challenge. Each team then devises its own strategy and tactics to deal with the scenario, and then presents its plan to the rest of the class, with presentations graded by a panel of distinguished PR professionals.
What kind of challenges does Spin offer? Here are a few of the examples of scenarios from past APR Schools:
Your organization has just received a subpoena from a congressional oversight committee for all records related to your expenditures and activities in 1996. The subpoena seeks information regarding anything your group did regarding any issue or individual germane to the U.S. House, Senate or presidential races that year. Your organization is a not-for-profit group that is not permitted to engage in political activity. The scope of the subpoena will require your organization to significantly enlarge your dependency on outside counsel. The subpoena is received at your group’s office at 3:15 p.m. on Thursday.

MORE
http://www.therightvoice.org/aprs/default.asp

REAL LIFE SCENARIO
The Leadership Institute is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit, non-partisan educational foundation.
It does not support, endorse or oppose candidates or proposed legislation. The Leadership Institute does not discriminate with respect to race, color,religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, or partisan affiliation. The Leadership Institute has an open admission policy, all programs are open to the public.
http://www.leadershipinstitute.org/01ABOUTUS/copyright.htm

That’s why places like the Leadership Institute are so critical. I have a 501(c)(3) organization, the Young American Broadcasters, and when I was first starting it, Morton allowed me to come over here and train the kids here. Now one of those kids, Ben Ferguson, has gone on and spoke at the Republican Convention this summer. Ben Ferguson is one of our Young American Broadcasters. I couldn’t have done that without Morton because he knew it’s all about trying to get these young people involved.
Can you imagine how wonderful it would be if in the next 10 to 15 years we could look to any major media outlet -- whether its internet, radio, TV -- and know that someone trained by the Leadership Institute is working there?
http://www.leadershipinstitute.org/04RESOURCES/Speeches-cullum.htm

FAQ
Q: Is my donation tax deductible?
A: Yes, all contributions are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. The Leadership Institute is classified by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3).

Q: How does my donation help the conservative movement?
A:Your donation will help train tomorrow's conservative leaders to be more effective so they can win crucial campaign and legislative battles.

Q: How is the Leadership Institute funded?
A:The Leadership Institute is funded by more than 30,000 individual donors across America and private foundations. The Institute does not accept any money from the United States Government.
http://www.leadershipinstitute.org/05CONTRIBUTE/03FAQ.htm

...this is much bigger than we imagined.

-- TNE

*This* is a major Gannongate wrinkle.

Brent Bozell's Cybercast News Service (CNS), the new "news service" for GOPUSA.com, is 501(c)(3) tax-exempt. They're the replacements for Talon News on GOPUSA. A DU poster has provided, above, a link to "C3," a conservative propaganda service/school run by Brent Bozell, the head of CNS, and the school is *targeted toward conservative "media outlets" or the sort that Talon News/CNS seem to be*. One of the hypos provided to students of this "school" comes during what C3 calls "The Game of Spin."

The hypothetical details what you should do if Congress challenges your 501(c)(3) status based on your political actvities.

Is anyone looking into this?