Astroturfed audience plants gain credibility from displacing party authorship

Evidence

The Tory narrative of Labour profligacy was once again established as a self-evident truth that only a fool and/or a brazen liar would contest. This narrative was all the more convincing when it was re-cycled/re-cited by a “concerned businesswoman”, “struggling to survive in a tough climate”. The subsequent exposure of Shuttleworth as a probable Tory plant will not erase the impact of her TV encounter with Miliband, if only because complaining about the audience not only implicitly concedes defeat, it makes Labour look like sore losers. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1792

Categorization

• XREF: Instantiation of capitalist realism’s claim that dominant narratives get re-cited through third parties to seem self-evident. — connects to: Online activism for the Syrian opposition was built on fabricated personas — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 307; Conspiracy theories gain credibility when respected mainstream figures endorse them — Matt Carr, You Are Now Entering Eurabia, 46; Some fake news outlets deliberately mimic legitimate news brands to exploit trust — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 194 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• The Tea Party’s apparent spontaneity was manufactured by networked astroturf organizations #exemplifies (0.85) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 131
• Some fake news outlets deliberately mimic legitimate news brands to exploit trust #expands (0.75) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 194
• Unchallenged assertions gain credibility with passive audiences #corroborates (0.74) — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice, 263
• Conspiracy theories gain credibility when respected mainstream figures endorse them #expands (0.72) — Matt Carr, You Are Now Entering Eurabia, 46
• Fake news softens trust in sources before status-based propaganda replaces persuasion #qualifies (0.71) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 229