Where did that video spoofing Gore's film come from? (Exxon Lobbying Firm)

[AlGore-08.com]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06215/710851-115.stm

By Antonio Regalado and Dionne Searcey, The Wall Street Journal

Everyone knows Al Gore stars in the global warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth." But who created "Al Gore's Penguin Army," a two-minute video now playing on YouTube.com?

In the video, Mr. Gore appears as a sinister figure who brainwashes penguins and bores movie audiences by blaming the Mideast crisis and starlet Lindsay Lohan's shrinking waist size on global warming. Like other videos on the popular YouTube site, it has a home-made, humorous quality. The video's maker is listed as "Toutsmith," a 29-year-old who identifies himself as being from Beverly Hills in an Internet profile.

In an email exchange with The Wall Street Journal, Toutsmith didn't answer when asked who he was or why he made the video, which has just over 59,000 views on YouTube. However, computer routing information contained in an email sent from Toutsmith's Yahoo account indicate it didn't come from an amateur working out of his basement.

Instead, the email originated from a computer registered to DCI Group, a Washington, D.C., public relations and lobbying firm whose clients include oil company Exxon Mobil Corp.

(more... )

[last1standing]

1. There is nothing these monsters will not destroy for their short term gain

The economy, the climate, the US, the human race, it's all the same for them. The worst thing is we continue to feed them by buying their products, using their services, and working in their offices. The question is what can we do to stop it? We cannot live in today's world without oil. We can't get information without their radio, TV, or newswires. We can't feed ourselves or our children without the money we get from their paychecks.

I've cancelled my satellite TV service, I raise some food in my garden, I try to buy as little as possible, I even work freelance, but it's not enough. I still have clothes from sweatshops, I still have to drive to get to my customers, I still have to buy food for the table, I still need electricity and gas to light and heat my home, I still use their newswires when searching for information on the internet. It can be very depressing when you think about it.

Does anyone know how to stop the monster?

[tanyev]

2. Right wing noise machine.

And a well-lubricated one, at that.

[Blue_Tires]

12. you would think their billions in quarterly profits

would buy some better-produced propaganda

[Junkdrawer]

3. Build an audience, and the propagandists will take it over...

Hmmm...reminds me of a political discussion board I used to know...

[SpiralHawk]

4. republicon oil cronies stoop to the lowest moral level

over and over to maximaze their obscene profits

[Uncle Joe]

5. These people are morally and intellectually bankrupt, this paragraph

sums it up nicely.

"Internet videos could prove particularly potent, because they may influence watchers in ways they don't realize.Nancy Snow, a communications professor at California State University, Fullerton, viewed the penguin video and calls it a lesson in "Propaganda 101." It contains no factual information, but presents a highly negative image of the former vice president, she says. The purpose of such images is to harden the views of those who already view Mr. Gore negatively, Dr. Snow says."

[glitch]

6. The only people who believe these cons are the fools who want to believe

And they'll believe anything to support their fears. I love that this "individual" was busted so soon though!

[MrPrax]

7. What a dummy...

That's what 'free email' accounts are for...they are like throwaway cels. Hard to trace if not impossible...

Why didn't they use a mask, public proxies or IP router spoofing? Rookie astroturfing...

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[bananas]

9. No, it's not IMAGE, he's a moderate Democrat, not a liberal Green.

This country has gone so far to the right that Al Gore and Bill Clinton are considered radical left-wing liberal socialists.

[hedgehog]

10. Exxon-Mobil should get their money back.

I saw that video and it was so dumb I didn't see the end of it. The humor is right up there with Mallard Fillmore.

[dalaigh lllama]

11. Exxon -- experts in "truthiness"

Exxon seems to believe there are only 59,000 humans worldwide:

<snip>
Toutsmith didn't answer when asked who he was or why he made the video, which has just over 59,000 views on YouTube.

<snip>
Dave Gardner, an Exxon spokesman, confirms that Exxon is a client of DCI. But he says Exxon had no role in creating the "Inconvenient Truth" spoof. "We, like everyone else on the planet, have seen it, but did not fund it, did not approve it, and did not know what its source was," Mr. Gardner says.

Come to think of it, maybe there are only 59,000 people on the planet whom Exxon consider of any value -- that would be waaaay less than even 1% of the total world population.

[Robb]

13. Important sidenote on this story:

Yahoo, like Hotmail, leaves an originating IP address in the full header.

NOT anonymous by any means.

[ThoughtCriminal]

14. 59,000? Over how long?

Upload a video of a dog humping a teddy-bear and it will get that many views in a day.

[LiberalEsto]

15. Relax. Their parody only gives free publicity to Gore

and his film.

The more they complain about "An Incovenient Truth," the more the film will embed itself into the American public consciousness.