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Tuesday, October 30, 2012

2012 Republican Campaign Manager Spreads Misinformation About Hurricane Sandy on Twitter

Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Oct 30, 2012 at 10:14 AM

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At their emergency Tumblr, Buzzfeed reports:

During the storm last night, user @comfortablysmug was the source of a load of frightening but false information about conditions in New York City that spread wildly on Twitter and onto news broadcasts before ConEd, the MTA, and Wall Street sources had to take time out of the crisis situation to refute them.

What leads a person to do such a thing, which his critics have likened to shouting “fire” in a crowded movie theater? It’s unclear. But perhaps it has something to do with the nature of anonymity. If there are no consequences for posting false “BREAKING” news, there’s an incentive to do it to an accumulate a large audience.

What @comfortablysmug didn’t count on, apparently, was losing that anonymity. Based on photos he censored and posted to the account but I found unedited elsewhere, @comfortablysmug is Shashank Tripathi, a hedge-fund analyst and the campaign manager of Christopher R. Wight, this year’s Republican candidate for the U.S. House from New York’s 12th congressional district.

Comfortably Smug is also a rabid Romney supporter. Of course.

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I saw this but I haven't seen anything about what misinformation this person was spreading. What was he saying and why was it dangerous, exactly?

Posted by care bear on October 30, 2012 at 10:56 AM

Am I the only one who's playing a song from Pink Floyd's The Wall in my head right now?

Posted by Some Old Nobodaddy Logged In on October 30, 2012 at 11:47 AM

New York's version of John Bailo. Christ, what an asshole.

Posted by Dr_Awesome on October 30, 2012 at 11:55 AM

Are we supposed to be surprised that a Romney supporter is a rabid liar, just like the man he wants to be President? Glad that his anonymity has been stripped away.

Posted by Patricia Kayden on October 30, 2012 at 11:59 AM