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KRONICLE HAS HISTORY OF USING DOCTORED STORIES, CANDIDATE HAS ANOTHER RUN-IN WITH WEB CONTROVERSY
AIKEN, S.C. (TPS) – The South Carolina blog Kaolin Kronicle, which is run anonymously by a group calling themselves the “Clay Pit Crew,” is facing a likely lawsuit after reportedly “stealing material from EdgefieldDaily.com, changing the content of a story, and publishing it as if it was reported on EdgefieldDaily.com.” The bogus story even included a doctored screenshot of the EdgefieldDaily.com website, which the Edgefield Daily said was libelous and illegal.
The story reported on EdgefieldDaily.com on September 12 is titled “Merriwether neighborhood site of recent reported frauds,” which recounts two cases of unrelated frauds on the 400 block of Big Oak Drive.
The bloggers took that story and changed the content to report senate candidate Bill Hixon placed unwanted campaign signs in a neighbor’s yard and other fictitious information relating to Mr. Hixon and his mother under the guise of making the reader believe we reported the false story. By the title of the story the bloggers were trying to insinuate Mr. Hixon was involved in a fraud. [Edgefield Daily]
An editor’s note at the bottom of the EdgefieldDaily.com story reporting on the event stated, “EdgefieldDaily.com will be pursuing further action against the bloggers and will publish their names as the matter progresses.”
The Kronicle, which has largely backed candidates Shane Massey and Chris Corley, has made a strong effort to sabotage the campaigns of Bill Hixon and Susan Swanson.
And for Massey this is the second time in as many weeks that a group supporting his candidacy has been involved in a Web-related scandal. Last Monday, the political consulting firm Tompkins, Thompson and Sullivan – which is running Massey’s campaign – was behind the short-lived website “PhoneyFred.org” which was best described as an unjust hatchet job on presidential candidate Fred Thompson.
Nor is this the first time the Kronicle has produced a counterfeit story. An August 31 post on the site presented a doctored screenshot of a newsletter from Sen. Lindsey Graham. As with the EdgefieldDaily.com story, the Kronicle apparently stole material from the newsletter and presented it as if it had been published on Graham’s website. Graham spokesman Kevin Bishop could not be reached for comment.
All told, the Kronicle’s work has largely been in vain. And because it went too far, it not only has them facing serious legal trouble, but it may have a negative impact on those the Kronicle has supported.
Banner Photo: Doctored screenshot created by the Kaolin Kronicle and archived by EdgefieldDaily.com
People in Edgefield and Aiken need to get a life… or a job. Tommy Moore worked on getting them jobs for years, now Bill Hixon will be the only candidate with know-how to do that now.
Interesting how you folks have a piece about taking online content. This site routinely takes from mine without hat tip, nod, wink, or other attribution. I’ve been tempted to do a piece logging the time a particular bit of content or youtube video goes up on my site, and when it appears here. (The Demint/Crocker exchange is only the most recent example.) IT happens too often to be coincidence.
But that seemed a little petty so I didn’t.
NVB,
Last time we gave you a hat tip, you flipped out and wrote an entire post chastising the way we used your content.
http://notverybright.wordpress.com/2007/07/29/hat-tip/
So which is it, do you want the nod or not?
Anyway, we’ve added a hat tip on the DeMint clip.
Nope. You’ve mischaracterized that.
First, I didn’t “flip out,” since that’s not exactly my style. And more to the point, my calling you to task on that entry had nothing to do with whether a hat got tipped or not. It resulted from the way you characterized an Obama speech.
Anyway, an argument about this type of sourcing is largely petty. But FYI, my practice is: If I find content on another blog and then blog about it myself, I always give a nod. For whatever that’s worth.
Looks like the Edgefield Daily / Kaolin Kronicle consipracy worked. They got Massey’s ad front and center on TPS for free.
Good work guys!