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Drooling on the Pillow

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Trolling Goes Mainstream 

Quite a snarky article in the Times on the generally pro-American blog Iraq the Model that was run by three Iraqi brothers until one of them dropped out to start his own blog. Sarah Boxer uses the dark suspicions of anti-war blogs concerning ITM as her starting point repeating over and over again (with zero evidence) the notion that the only reason an Iraqi would speak out favorably of the liberation of his nation would be that they were paid to do so and probably by the CIA. She focuses on Ali, the brother who broke away. In an interview she was unable to support her notion that he did so because they had been co-opted, so she tortures a few prepositions and asserts it anyway.

She does elicit this:

"Me and my brothers," he said, "we generally agree on Iraq and the future."
. . . But there is one important difference. "My brothers have confidence
in the American administration. I have my questions."

Now that seems genuine.

The only remarks she'll take at face value are ones she can interpret as negative.

That pretty much defines a troll, to me.

UPDATE: Jeff Jarvis is all over this.

Posted by: Sluggo / 10:31 AM
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