As posted yesterday, the people still pushing the Limbaugh advertising boycott rely on bombarding advertisers with Twitter messages, and have developed strategies to maximize the apparent number of tweets sent to advertisers, through retweets and multiple tweets by single users.
It is not hard to see how an advertiser could receive thousands of negative tweets generated by a relatively small number of people. Do the math, 100 people tweet 10 times, then each retweets each other and so on.
One such effort is by the “Boycott Rush” movement led by two anonymous Twitter users plus failed congressional candidate Krystal Ball. As an aside, the Boycott Rush group is upset with me that I credited Media Matters’ “Stop Rush” effort.
Although the Boycott Rush movement apparently denies a connection to Media Matters, the notice at the bottom of its website seems to coordinate with Media Matters:
The link goes to a web page which then redirects to an online collaborative project called The StopRush Project, which was set up on March 7, as detailed in this post. By that time almost all of the high profile advertisers who dropped Rush had done so. The post draws a connection to OFA, but I don’t think that’s proven yet. The post does provide interesting detail on how advertisers were tracked, contacted, and how lists were maintained of targets, and the effort continues.
Today’s target, apparently, is @Staples, although it is not on the list of targeted national sponsors.
So today, apparently, @Staples will receive hundreds if not thousands of hostile tweets, generated as part of an organized effort, but it will look spontaneous. That’s how the Twitter war is fought.
Put aside that today it’s Rush. The tactic of bombarding advertisers with organized Twitter efforts which appear spontaneous could be used against any advertiser against any person, conservative, liberal or otherwise.
There is no way to stop it, but there is a way to blunt it. The answer to the Twitter war is sunshine. Let the advertisers know that they are being contacted as part of an organized effort, not a true consumer reaction.
MacRanger had this suggestion:
I sent a message that basically said, “Did you know that you responded to pressure not by consumers but by democrat operatives?”
That’s why Rush had no choice but to get active on Twitter. With over 150,000 followers on his two Twitter accounts, there is plenty of sun to shine.
Update: I discuss the Limbaugh boycott on Pundit Review Radio:
And here’s some of the @staples activity today:
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