Obama Blog Propaganda is Government-Wide

The Washington Post today provides context to the story the Muffled Oar first broke about the aggressive DOJ Blog Squad mission. The DOJ has hired a team of bloggers to influence the blogosphere and online media. Tracy Russo, a partisan campaign blogger for John Edwards, the DNC and Obama Campaign is leading the Blog Squad at the Department of Justice. So much for a non-political Department of Justice. That dream is dead. The Muffled Oar has learned from Department sources that Russo is spending a great deal of time keeping angry gay and transgender partisans quiet and in line regarding the Department’s Defense of Marriage Act. Russo is primar...

Obama Blog Propaganda is Government-Wide

The Washington Post today provides context to the story the Muffled Oar first broke about the aggressive DOJ Blog Squad mission. The DOJ has hired a team of bloggers to influence the blogosphere and online media. Tracy Russo, a partisan campaign blogger for John Edwards, the DNC and Obama Campaign is leading the Blog Squad at the Department of Justice. So much for a non-political Department of Justice. That dream is dead. The Muffled Oar has learned from Department sources that Russo is spending a great deal of time keeping angry gay and transgender partisans quiet and in line regarding the Department’s Defense of Marriage Act. Russo is primarily tasked with spinning the blogosphere about Obama and Holder policies by whatever means necessary. Russo’s mission is to babysit the left and get them energized, or get them quiet, depending on the issue and circumstances.

Today the Washington Post demonstrates that the effort to propagandize to the blogosphere is a government-wide campaign.

The essential function of this effort involves government employees spinning bloggers and keeping the left wing net-roots as a vehicle for dissemination of government spin. Direct contact with the left wing blogosphere allows the Obama administration to preserve the left leaning blog community as an activist base to support Obama policies. Engagement with the centrist media and right wing online community allows government officials to rebut stories they disagree with directly. Who is paying for this government-wide effort?: you are. Here is the important part from the Post story:

White House New Media Director Macon Phillips has coordinated the hiring of online and social media experts like Roberts to redesign or launch Web 2.0 offerings across the government and update and maintain the pages for their respective agencies. Phillips' office also keeps a list of potential candidates to hire once other agencies are ready to make the jump, according to an applicant familiar with the process.


A credible news organization should FOIA all communications between these Blog Squads across all Federal agencies. They should obtain salary levels, and staffing numbers as well as all emails and communications with non-governmental groups. Those emails are not protected, and will ...

White House New Media Director Macon Phillips has coordinated the hiring of online and social media experts like Roberts to redesign or launch Web 2.0 offerings across the government and update and maintain the pages for their respective agencies. Phillips' office also keeps a list of potential candidates to hire once other agencies are ready to make the jump, according to an applicant familiar with the process.


A credible news organization should FOIA all communications between these Blog Squads across all Federal agencies. They should obtain salary levels, and staffing numbers as well as all emails and communications with non-governmental groups. Those emails are not protected, and will reveal much. You can be sure that all "potential candidates" will be like Russo at DOJ - a participant in the fringe-left netroots and blogosphere.

The Muffled Oar broke the story how the Department of Justice is engaging in this internet propaganda effort. It is up to the rest of the media to do the work to fully expose the corruption.

Posted by Isaac Muzzey