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Glenn Greenwald Hiltzik?

posted at 9:21 am on July 20, 2006 by Bryan
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I love puppet shows. Punch and Judy, Bert and Ernie…Glenn Greenwald and Ellison. Good stuff, good stuff.

Never heard of that third duo? Then you’ve got some blog reading to do.

First, Ace:

This unsavory blog points out something curious — curious, but quite easily explained, as we shall soon see.

Several commenters, it appears, have appeared on several different blogs, under several different names, all defending Glenn Greenwald in not-so-different language, making not-very-different-at-all points about Mr. Greenwald’s accomplishments and career and all-around fabulousness.

This blogger — this internet smear-merchant — hints, rather nastily, if you ask me, that perhaps these defenders of Glenn Greenwald are all, in fact, the same man. Go over to that blog to read these scurrillous suggestions.

Ace then proceeds to demonstrate that, in the fine tradition of slightly unhinged leftwing writers, Glenn Greenwald has been using a—wait for it—sock puppet to defend himself and praise his own brilliance. Do read Ace’s post. You’ll find it enlightening. The puppet’s name: Ellison. As in Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man. Ellison and Greenwald share common word usages, syntax, and the all-important IP address. Ace alleges, with a great deal of evidence, that “Ellison” is in fact Greenwald sporting a mask, lurking in the comment threads of blogs far and wide to defend and praise…Greenwald.

Dirty deeds, done at the price of internet service. But that’s not all.

Patterico finds three, count ‘em three, different entities praising Mr. Greenwald over at Ace’s site, Riehl World and Jeff Goldstein’s blog, using remarkably similar language. And like Greenwald and “Ellison,” these three share the same IP address.

I’m sure there’s an innocent explanation for all of this. Perhaps there’s yet another identity at the top of all this called Sybil. Perhaps Mr. Greenwald just lives in a crowded house where everyone just happens to spend a lot of time on the internet praising Greenwald using very similar language. And they’re all deeply familiar with Greenwald’s career. Yeah, that must be it.

Or…well, I just can’t think of another explanation that makes any sense. Greenwald is always badgering everyone else to be honest and forthright. Surely he’s not a dishonest hack dumb enough to think he can spread sock puppets all across the blogs of some of the sharpest conservatives around (one of whom busted a real live LA Times columnist’s sock puppetry) and get away with it.

Surely it’s not that.

We all await Mr. Greenwald’s explanation.

Update: A fourth sock puppet? Pretty soon we’ll need a chart to keep track.

Update: Greenwald defends. His basic defense, once you get past the grandstanding, is that he didn’t do it, and insinuates that his partner did. Which may be true–it’s at least possible on the facts and could explain why four identities have used the same IP but different names to defend him. But his defense post does follow the basic pattern of those sock puppet comments that defended him on several conservative blogs. Which is interesting, if not enough to convict.

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Comments

It boggles me that supposedly intlelectuals who use the internet regulaly have no concept of ip tracking.
I mean, at least once a month a sock puppet story comes out. Several times a month you read about someone tracking a posters IP to a competing blog or business.
Do these people live in a vacuum???

Wyrd on July 20, 2006 at 9:27 AM

Having noticed the recent, troubling rise in blogospheric nastiness, duplicity and deceit, I am compelled to say:

Bwaaaahahahaaaa!

Nice going, GiGi!

Pablo on July 20, 2006 at 9:31 AM

Darn - I’m jealous. Now I want to create a sockpuppet for ME — to praise my brilliance on this board — but I can’t, because of Hot Air’s ultra-fascist, racist, sexist, bigoted, “registration is now closed” policy.

Why should I have to defend my own posts over here while Greenwald, Hiltzik, and whats-his-face from the Times get all the serious sockpuppet glory?

RD on July 20, 2006 at 10:08 AM

Great post, RD!

RD on July 20, 2006 at 10:08 AM

Yeah. Thanks for the support, RD…

RD on July 20, 2006 at 10:10 AM

I concur RD, best post ever!

(you did deposit the cash to my pay pal account, right?)

Wyrd on July 20, 2006 at 10:12 AM

For the record, I am not Glenn Grenwald. It might be easier to make the list that way, based on who isn’t GiGi.

Pablo on July 20, 2006 at 10:15 AM

I’m not in the least bit surprised. Glenn Greenwald is about as intelligent and humble as Howard Dean is meek and shy.

RobertHuntingdon on July 20, 2006 at 10:40 AM

:-D

These guys need to do it the right way, buy a DSL line and a cable modem line, and keep their identities separate. But no, they take the cheap way out… and now look where that gets ‘em.

RD on July 20, 2006 at 10:45 AM

Remember that to a liberal any means justifies the ends. This, their supreme commandment, overrides everything else.

docdave on July 20, 2006 at 11:08 AM

Typical childish behavior.

Chas on July 20, 2006 at 11:21 AM

I’d like to state for the record that I’m not Glenn Greenwald, although I play him on television from time to time.

jaleach on July 20, 2006 at 11:37 AM

I will give him exactly as much benefit of the doubt as he gave Misha.

None.

RobertHuntingdon on July 20, 2006 at 1:18 PM

Uh Bryan,

If different individuals were posting from the house, why would they have the need to email greenwald questions?

Such was claim of sock-puppet “Ryan” (that he had to email Greenwald), which pretty much blows that line of retreat.

Nice of Glenn to insinuate his boyfriend was the dupe though, wasn’t it?

Bob Owens on July 20, 2006 at 1:27 PM

If different individuals were posting from the house, why would they have the need to email greenwald questions?

Good eye there, Bob Ownens.

EFG on July 20, 2006 at 1:43 PM

It is simply stunning to think that ANYONE on Earth would fall for the “my roommate/mom/partner/dog did it” excuse.

How could anyone, no matter how dumb (or how liberal … which may be needless repetition), no matter how deep in the partisan Kool-Aid … actually believe that story even for an instant?

And how could Mr. Greenjeans be so intellectually insecure to actually try to use that excuse?

Puh-leeeeeeeeeeze.

Liberal group-think sheep-behavior is just out of control if they’ll swallow this. They seem to have willingly surrendered the ability to open their eyes and think for themselves.

Unbelievable.

Professor Blather on July 20, 2006 at 1:44 PM

I had no idea who this Greenwald was, and now that I’ve checked his blog, I want to go back to not knowing. But, as lawyers are wont to mention, “You can’t unring a dumbell.”

Doug on July 20, 2006 at 2:01 PM

Blather… if they ~~could~~ would think, they wouldn’t be lieberals!

RobertHuntingdon on July 20, 2006 at 2:02 PM

Let’s compare the kids at Hot Air and Glen, shall we:

Glen: Right-wing bloggers have increased their incindiary and violent vitrol towards their list of “enemies.” They have posted satellite photos of people’s houses, listed their personal information, and openly endorsed the jailing, torture, and even execution of prominent journalists, judges, and other liberal/dem politicians.

Hot Air: OMG! Glen is like, SOOOO totally busted! He posted under more than one moniker. Glen = PWNED!

Final Score:
Glen: 1
Hot Air: 0

better off blue on July 20, 2006 at 2:19 PM

EFG,

that wasn’t my observation. Credit goes to “Birkel” in the comments at Ace’s site for catching that. I blogged his credit, just forgot to post it here…

better off blue,

Greenwald has a long and well-documented history of half-truths, purposeful misinterpretations, and straight out lies. This latest incident merely serves to further establish a continuing pattern of unethical behavior.

Bob Owens on July 20, 2006 at 3:01 PM

You would think that even a far left wing fringe lunatic like better off blue would condemn Greenwald. How low does a democrat have to go before fellow democrats condemn them?

Capitalist Infidel on July 20, 2006 at 3:03 PM

First comment from Greenwalds defense

Anonymous said…
Glenn, we support you. We have your back. These scum bags are going down and they know it. They are wounded animals. Dangerous but about to die a miserable political death!

11:31 AM

Oh Yes, “The Kids” at Greenwalds site wax so brilliantly and with such nice tone and well thought out comments….

BoB - I too can search the comment strings of any blog for the worst examples of replies. That was the first comment to Greenwalds response. Maybe it was Greenwald himself. Who is to know? Why you continue to troll here is beyond me. Maybe it’s because ‘real news’ needs to be found somewhere. Kind of similar to Reuters reading LGF every day.

Psycotte on July 20, 2006 at 3:09 PM

Missing the point as usual, better off troll. The chorus praising Glenn is Glenn. The chorus defending Glenn is Glenn. He’s all hype. And he’s dishonest.

You don’t see the problem with that? That says more about you than me.

Bryan on July 20, 2006 at 3:29 PM

Oops! I’m trying to make a fake trackback on my site for humor, and I accidentally sent two trackbacks to you (instead of myself). My apologies.

Kevin M on July 20, 2006 at 3:49 PM

Do we have a fifth sock puppet in better off blue???

Rick on July 20, 2006 at 3:57 PM

Do we have a fifth sock puppet in better off blue???

I checked, and no.

Bryan on July 20, 2006 at 4:58 PM

BoB, for perspective - showing Barbra Streisand’s mega-estate from the air (when her stables are airconditioned and she claims that we should drive smaller cars to conserve energy) is different than when your side publishes state secrets in its defense and security cameras on high level officials’ properties.

Your hypocrisy reeks.

Bryan & Co. at HotAir, no matter what BoB writes or breaches, never ever consider removing him/her from this blog. Provides too easy/amusing a target…

Entelechy on July 20, 2006 at 6:45 PM

What gets me is that anyone would even try to pull a sock puppet trick on Patterico, the blogosphere’s top expert on catching sock puppeteers. Especially after he busted and embarrassed Michael Hiltzik and the LA Times.

Carvin Guitar Man on July 20, 2006 at 6:50 PM

His partner did it? Just like his mysterious source said it.

People like this are crackers [nuts], but perhaps a better word for them are crockers [as in, what a …].

DannoJyd on July 20, 2006 at 8:17 PM

BOB is in denial again, or maybe his real name is Glen?

DannoJyd on July 20, 2006 at 8:20 PM