The Herald Sun’s social media expert, Andrew Bolt, let his attention wander from the federal election for a moment today to ask this question:
So which organisation is implicated in this dishonesty?
It shouldn’t need saying, but I do not have a Twitter account and the fake one seems to be the work of people whose employer will be very embarrassed to find its staff once more engaging in deceitful slurs. A little warning there. A tearful sorry afterwards will be both too late and insincere, especially from people with their record of sliming.
Man I wouldn’t want to be whoever it is that he’s talking about, the punishment for parody of a high profile journalist is being stoned to death if my memory serves me correctly.
Parody is perfectly fine, but identity theft is low.
Oh, so it’s identity theft? Has the twitter account been taking out mortgages and credit cards or making restaurant reservations in Andrew Bolt’s name? It’s pretty obvious that the @andrewbolt twitter account that he’s talking about is a parody, surely there’s no chance that anyone could possibly believe the absurdities tweeted by that account were actually the thoughts of the real Andrew Bolt?
That said, I must admit that I didn’t realise how serious the issue of people taking the mickey on twitter was until the real Andrew Bolt pointed it out:
as I’ve so often noted among Leftist activists from the French Revolution to the Internet revolution, many have a curious belief that their moral cause entitles them to act as barbarians.
There you go, this fake twitter account is right up there with the beheading of Louis XVI in 1793, I just hope that whoever turns out to the internet’s Napoléon Bonaparte realises that he’ll end up being exiled.
The irony of this little temper tantrum from Bolt is that his vague claims about people with their record of sliming ends up being an invitation to his readers to speculate about the identity of the organisation that is responsible for what he describes as deceitful slurs.
Mark replied to Marty
Tue 03 Aug 10 (11:33am)
My bet is It’s either the Age, “our” ABC, or some dank pit deep within the public service
I predict the offender has the following 5 characteristics:
1. male
2. Leftist
3. current or former blogger
4. was in receipt of a state or federal government pay cheque
5. Now employed by either the ABC or Fairfax.
Peter M of Melbourne (Reply)
Tue 03 Aug 10 (11:21am)
Reeks of GetUp! or their ABC.
Rosemary of Queensland (Reply)
Tue 03 Aug 10 (11:34am)
What was that about slurs?
As for the real impact of Andrew’s post, I’ll leave the last word to his online caricature.
71 Comments
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I have a theory….
I think the Andrew Bolt who writes for the Sun is in fact the imposter parodist.
@andrewbolt is in fact the genuine right-wing nutcase who has had his identity stolen for years, has been imprisoned in a cellar and has only recently been able to express his true opinions to the world via Twitter from his place of imprisonment.
Nice piece over at the Drum on this. The comments are interesting as well, certainly a bit more lively than are allowed here. (note to Dave, Tobs etc)
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2972981.htm
The fake Twitter Bolts have been a bit of fun to follow over lunchtime, but I should get back to doing some work.
bpobjie@40
My Point exactly. Dead Ringers cast should be arrested forthwith.
I note in the News.com story about this that Andrew says he has asked twitter to do something on three occasions and they have done nothing.
Podrick: thanks for pointing to Jason’s article —
for Crikey subscribers(not paywalled, it seems), Fake Andrew Bolt also has an article today. Regarding the comments, past experience dictates what we can publish without Crikey being threatened and/or misrepresented. The ABC gets to make its own assessments about policy and risk.Surlysimon: And I note he says that as though it reflects negatively upon Twitter; the alternative view is that it’s a sign that they have repeatedly decided his complaint about “impersonation” lacks merit.
Everyone’s getting into the act
Talk about solemn. Or more like it a pompous populist preening with self-righteousness and a permanent sense of his self-importance. Never has such a sense of self-esteem so infested a commonplace hack scribbler for a tabloid, with delusions of being an expert scientist, politician and sociologist.
http://loonpond.blogspot.com/2010/08/fake-andrew-bolt-pranks-real-andrew.html
There’s at least one comment which is obviously from someone who has no idea about Bolt’s writing. He’s the one News Ltd columnist who consistently refuses to tolerate homophobia on his blog, and should be congratulated for that. Trying to tie him to “gay hating” is as ridiculous as it is wrong. Over-reachers just make it more difficult for the genuine criticism of his output.
Tobias
I was going to say that but thought I should just leave it for readers to come to their own conclusions.
Certainly nothing so far has frightened @andrewbolt into silence, so the ball would appear to be in the other court for now.
Interesting that since pedro gave up none of the fans have tried to defend Andrew.
Nice touch putting Bolt’s head on Piers Akerman’s body.
confessions @56;
Hear! Hear!
It shits me when people tell lies and misrepresent the comments of others.
Our political opponents deserve not to be verballed by overly rambumctious keyboard warriors.
As you rightly point out, our side takes a credibility hit everytime it happens.
Cheers
Marek Bage: it pisses me off too. It’s also worth remembering that Andy copped it from his regular readers for defending David Campbell from the OTT Ch7 intrusions, and for his attack on Tony Abbott’s self-confessed homophobia.
Still waiting for the naming of names, it does seem that @andrewbolt isn’t going to go away, and nor should he.
Nice piece at OzPolitik on same …
http://ozpolitik.wordpress.com/2010/08/04/is-andrew-bolt-implicated-in-this-dishonesty/
“I’m Andrew Bolt and so is my wife”
Damn – LacqueredStudio got that one in before me (on the Fake Andrew Bolt article on Crikey)! A pox on you!
I am still waiting for the funding to come in for my movie:
http://img43.imagehaven.net/img.php?id=OEIA4I1046_Being_Bolt.JPG
Next I will be calling on Eminem to re-hash his song so it goes:
“Would the real Andy Bolt please stand up”
Just about everything I’ve seen written about this business, I’ve agreed with. But particularly, the astute observation that, had he not made his threat, a whole lot of people would never have heard of this guy.
I learned of PP when AB went on another hissy fit a while back. Long-termers will remember the whole “ERIC BEECHER’S SITE” fiasco, and the Incredible Disappearing Posts phenomenon. I might have actually never heard of you guys had it not been for AB. I’m not sure that’s not he intended it.
C’mon Andy, let’s have those names…let’s see if the predictive powers are any better than the scientific ‘interpretations’….we’re starting real low now.
Good lord. Two men arrested for card skimming ….
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/accused-atm-skimmer-just-a-soldier-for-much-bigger-players/story-fn3dxity-1225901636203
… and they’re not sri lankan!
{Removed – continuation of personal grudges will not be published – Tobby}
Even Annabel has mentioned this http://tinyurl.com/23xsoc5
But still no names from the Real and @ is still out there
{I’m going to remove that – we’re not going to go down that off-topic path – Tobby}
{We’re not going to argue the call — don’t attempt that again — Tobby}
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