The Rabbit Hole has an echo...

[Tempest Stormwind]

Inspired by Frank Bi. Read that before continuing, including the comments.

Basically, by using a few simple tools and a bit of internet knowhow, we've found a single server being shared by some 50 libertarian groups that otherwise appear independent. The odds against this happening are economical* -- what is far more likely is that the server space was purchased by (or donated from) a coordinating body of sorts. (By the way, the Sustainable Development Network is a spectacular example of greenwashing. Note that it was most active in opposing Kyoto and kind of petered out past then, except to publish pro-nuclear, pro-pesticide stuff. Their recent stuff is mostly on malaria, where they promote the Great DDT Hoax, just like some of the other sites there -- like FightingDiseases.org, which coincidentally has an identical site layout to several of the libertarian think tanks on the list, as if they were run by the same webmaster.)

You can sometimes guess who the site is registered to by looking at outliers -- for instance, this list includes the Calgary Interfaith Food Bank, which is the only non-libertarian-think-tank group listed on the server, and it's also the only one ostensibly in the server's location (which you can find from pretty much any whois). I don't know what connection they have to this apart from the server, but it suggests that they share a webmaster or sponsor.

The full list is available at http://whois.webhosting.info/198.161.90.18.


I'm posting this as an example of the echo chamber's transparency and of the importance of checking sources. These are obviously not independent groups, and can in fact be considered astroturfing.

(Example of interconnectedness: I did the same procedure on DeSmogBlog, which returned a list of sites connected to DeSmogBlog's founder, John Lefebvre. This is to be expected, as he likely provided the hosting. To me, since DeSmog is very open about its origins nor do they cite any other pro-environment PR groups that appear on that list (because there aren't any...), this doesn't change their credibility. If they routinely cited, for instance, the fictitious Clean Air Institute on their blog, but the Clean Air Institute showed up on the same server, that would suggest an echo chamber.)


If you see any small think-tank that you don't recognize, please do the following:
1) Run a whois on its website.
2) Run that IP address through a reverse IP tool.
3) If the results look like an echo chamber (lots of ideologically-related but seemingly-independent groups), post the list or link here.
(If this is gobbledygook, just use the site I used -- copy the URL into the box, click Go, then click on the IP address you get. Easy.)

With any luck we can expose a few echo chambers here and/or suggest the method to Joe Public.

I've already informed a few of my more connected contacts. Hopefully this proves a useful service.




*Man, did that word take on a whole new meaning this quarter.

[gigantes1966]

thank you for this. i traditionally use exxonsecrets and sourcewatch to check on think tanks and their members, but any method that gives the investigator more lookup tools and independence is a good thing IMO.

as an aside from a person who may be very naive about such stuff, how would you rate the average think tank in general- by the fact that a think tank is formed in the first place by outside money does it tend to make it necessarily biased?

any other need-to-know comments about think tanks in general?

[776281]

http://www.desmogblog.com/policy-com...urf-shell-game

Desmog Blog has uncovered an energy industry-backed astro-turf network concocted by a single PR/Lobbying firm that is working to undermine the efforts of environmental groups and organizations like the Western Climate Initiative (WCI). that are pushing for solutions to climate change

At the top of the network is a PR/Lobby firm with offices in Colorado and Washington, DC called Policy Communications Inc. The firms principals are:

Jim Sims, President/CEO

Holly Propst, Senior Vice President

Greg Schnacke, Vice President

Paul Poister, Vice President

Britt Weygandt , Vice President

Cody Stewart, Policy Specialist

Well found young Brian

[Tempest Stormwind]

It's better than you think.

1) I'm Brian D (which I indicated here). Read the comments; Frank relayed one for me as DeSmog's admin hasn't processed my application yet:

Originally Posted by Brian D

Addendum: Reverse IP lookup on the core element of the PR network DeSmog noted. All of the echo chambers they found are on the same server, along with a couple others, such as the deliciously-named Consumers for Affordable Energy (also in Lakewood, the irony is that they lobby for shale oil under a banner of “affordable”), NextGenEnergy (a clean-coal advocate, lists Jim Sims as Founder), and the Americans for American Energy (promotes American oil, lists Greg Schnacke as president/CEO).

There are also several domains on that reverse lookup that lead to a portal placeholder that had last been modified TODAY — several redirected to Policy.Policycommunications.com, but one (secure-energy-systems.com/) directed to an identical page, also modified today, but listed “Secure Energy Systems LLC” as its copyright holder. It could be that not only have we found a new Twisty Maze forming, but that we’ve found one *as it is developed*.

I’m bringing this up here since I’m awaiting confirmation to comment at DeSmog.

(That's the same technique I suggested in this thread, by the way.)


2) Check out the followup. These assmoles (no, not -holes, -moles, this implies some burrowing is going on) had the gall to admit they were doing this on their public website and then tried to remove the evidence.

[wonderingmind42]

You guys are amazing.

I haven't the time to be involved, but have a thought. In trying to research the controversy around AAPG's changing position statement on climate change, I discovered that they had taken down the earlier embarrasing statement, which is now only available on Global_Warming_Art's wiki page. So I started using WebCite to archive whatever I could, to keep the rats from covering their tracks. The WayBack machine does this automatically, but only periodically. One problem with both of these is that once a website places some sort of "do note archive" function on their site, both services DELETE ANY EXISTING ARCHIVES they have of that site, destroying the evidence.

I suggest archiving slimey stuff, and perhaps coming up with a way to archive it even further so that it's protected when a savy webmaster gets their stuff delected from those services. Not sure of the function (beyond my Papa-Bear vindictiveness), but better to have it and not need it in the future than need it and not have it. Looks like we may well end up in Climate Hell sooner than we thought, and some justice might salve the suffering. (Recall Hansen's predictions of trials of the Oil CEOs for crimes against humanity. We can not justly pass judgment right now, but it's not beyond the realm of possibility, and I for one would like to preserve the option.)

Grumpily,
Greg

[frankbi]

Hello all!

Well, as you've probably guessed, I'm the bloke behind the International Journal of Inactivism. I can't exactly claim credit for finding Grassroots Power though -- turns out the New Scientist had already discovered it back in November.

I don't know about WebCite removing past archives -- I've not yet encountered this problem. But I've seen it refuse to archive pages which are excluded by /robots.txt. Also, none of the on-demand archival services I've tried -- WebCite, Furl, Spurl -- was willing to archive the audio or video of Tom Harris's "coordinated local activism" speech at the Heartland Institute, probably because the files are too big. (WebCite decided to just fail silently, instead of returning an error e-mail.) Still, at the moment it seems that the Wayback Machine and WebCite are our best bets when it comes to archiving stuff.

[frankbi]

I see that DeSmogBlog is running another story on astroturf, this time on the ACCCE's "clean coal" campaign.

[Tempest Stormwind]

Michael Tobis spots another paid provocateur. These people still exist, and it's important to remember that it's sometimes individuals rather than full think tanks. The key is that they can be traced.

[wonderingmind42]

Originally Posted by frankbi

I don't know about WebCite removing past archives -- I've not yet encountered this problem. But I've seen it refuse to archive pages which are excluded by /robots.txt.

frankbi! It feels like manpollo.org has finally arrived on the scene with your posting. (No facetiousness there. That's really what I thought and how excited I felt when I saw you had posted here!) You do amazing things, man.

As for WebCite, as I recall, the way it works is that when a page places the little flag that gets it excluded from archiving by robots, WebCite then retroactively deletes all the archived versions of that page. Or, maybe that's the WayBack Machine. Hm. I've forgotten which, but I'm sure one of them operates like that. I came across it twice: once when trying to track down exactly what happened with AAPG's changed statement on AGW (and the controversy that caused the change), and when trying to research about that tragic case of a kid getting killed at a machine gun shoot a few months ago.

Cheers,

[frankbi]

frankbi! It feels like manpollo.org has finally arrived on the scene with your posting. [...] You do amazing things, man.

Thanks a lot, I'm... flattered. Though from what I can tell I'm still just a minor character on the Wild Wild Web... writing about global warming inactivism is just something I do in my spare time.

Or, maybe that's the WayBack Machine. Hm. I've forgotten which, but I'm sure one of them operates like that.

Interesting. I'd guess it's the Wayback Machine. The way most (well-behaved) web robots work is that they'll read /robots.txt on the web site to see if they should try caching the page. WebCite only archives web pages on demand (unlike the Wayback Machine), and I don't see much reason why it'll want to consult /robots.txt on its own at random moments.

(And speaking of /robots.txt... )

* * *

About echo chambers, I recently found that many (but not all) of the domain names for the IP address 202.174.103.137 are owned or administered by Graham Young's National Forum. Haven't had the time to explore this further myself though...

Thanks again!