Tuesday, June 15, 2010

PAB-Bot Visit Of The Week

AllTheMonitoringThatFits
MediaVille


____________

Update, 12 noon Tuesday June 15/10:
Neal Hall in the VSun is reporting that K McCullough, after ending with allegations about shooting monkeys or some such thing, is now done with M. Brown....M. Bolton is now having a go....And the subject is.....Patrick Kinsella.....'Allegedly'.....
______________

It's interesting to me that the subject of media monitoring has come up repeatedly during the last few days of cross-examination of Premier Gordon Campbell's chief of staff, Mr. Martyn Brown during the RailGate trial.

A good example was an exchange from late last week between Robert Virk's* lawyer Kevin McCullough and Mr. Brown which was recorded for posterity by Bill Tieleman:

McCullough: "Media monitoring - that was part of your job?"


Brown: "Part of it - not hour to hour, minute to minute issues management. Media monitoring people advise us of issues by the hour."


Now, of course, all this hourly advising by the fine 'media monitoring people' from the Public Affairs Bureau (ie. PAB-Bots) which, as we've discussed in the past, are part of a massive apparatus that includes hundreds of employees hired by Martyn Brown himself that cost tens of millions of dollars every single year, is really just to keep track of the utterances of the heavyweights like Vaughn Palmer, Mike Smyth, Gary Mason, and Keith Baldrey** .....

Right?

Wrong.

****

How do I know that the PAB-Bots are watching/monitoring way, way more than more than just the heavyweights amongst the puffed-up proMedia punditry?

Well.....

It turns out that sincce the Railgate Trial started for real I am now visited, on average, much more than 'hourly' from the "gov.bc.ca" domain.

In fact, this tiny little F-Troop list blog is visited, on average, more than 50 times a day from folks whose computers originate there.

Now, I also know that not all of those fine folks are PAB-Bots because a number of them have contacted me off-line to tell me they are not, but instead are just as interested as any bonafide Railgate Cult member in what is really going on.

But.....

Many of them are definitely PAB-Bots that I have gotten to know by their sub-domains, their specific locations, and, in particular, where they come from (ie. they really like to land here after visiting the Tyee's blog-listing page, for example).

And then, there are times, you can tell based on what they're looking for.

Like the visit shown below that took place late last Thursday just minutes after I posted up a piece titled, 'RailGate Goes Boating To Savary Island....Allegedly' (note the PAB-Bot's google search word string outlined in red as well as the fact that they left by clicking out to Mark Hume's Globe piece that I quoted on the matter):
(click image above to enlarge)


So....

For the Bots that are sure to land here today - How do you like them apples?

And/or road signs.


_________
*Why, all of a sudden are all the proMedia folks calling the fine fellow formerly known as Bob from Burnaby "Bobby" anyway?
**Whoops, of course there is no need to monitor Mr. Baldrey....My mistake...Which really makes you wonder, given the withering of the 'foot the fire' folks round here - just who the heck are they monitoring, really?....
Finally, I am under no illusion that it is anything more than the low level worker bees-bots that I can actually identify via the domain mentioned....After all, as we have learned from trial testimony as well, there is this little matter of 'parallel private computers' in PAB-Bot offices that we have to contend with also...And then there are the 'cloaking service' domains that have suddenly started popping-up like little exploding kernels of buttery goodness on my site-meter as well in the last few weeks....

.

19 comments:

deeby said...

Gee Ross, by outing them like this, don't you increase the likelihood that they'll just use those parallel private computers, or cloaking services...?

Everyone knows they're out there, but why make it more difficult to track their attention?

kootcoot said...

And then there is the amazing six to a dozen daily visits from the network of the Victoria Public Library, even when school's out....I really wonder about them apples - daily, in a block, like a flock of flying monkeys, monkey see, monkey do (do what, tell Martyn what mean Mr. Kootcoot had to say about his boss today?)

I swear Ross, we should sign up with Google ads, we could retire on the income from PAB bots alone!

Anonymous said...

Great stuff Ross. I pray each day that the average Joe in BC would read this site to educate themselves about the dirty tricks this government plays to try and stay popular. Keep it up.

Guy in Victoria

( That's right my first name is Guy & I live in Victoria ans NO I don't work for Campbell's PAB )

Grant G said...

Ross K....How come comments aren`t being record under your post on the home page...

It appears your affected, Mary..Myself....

Blogger problems or sabatoge?

Norm Farrell said...

When Martyn Brown is finished testifying, is he likely to allow Keith Baldrey to do a report from the trial? I thought maybe the main political reporter for BC's largest TV News broadcster might be interested in covering the province's most important political trial in half a century.

Kim said...

I noticed the comment problem too.

kootcoot said...

"I thought maybe the main political reporter for BC's largest TV News broadcster might be interested in covering the province's most important political trial in half a century"

Apparently not Norm. Squirrel Cheeks Baldrey is more concerned with trying to scare people about going to jail for misappropriating signatures from HST petitions to Recall petitions. It must suck to be Keith these days.........

RossK said...

deeby--

Ha!

With all snark off....Clearly, most of the low level ones don't care, they are just combing through and recording....The upper levels, probably don't spend any time here at all.

It really is amazing though how much the visits have jumped up since the trial began.

.

RossK said...

Koot--

What is that VPL thing all about....Is it possible that that is the 'parallel' network the private machines patch into?

(to be honest, I always thought it was just good citizens without boxes taking the best advantage of an important public service)

.

RossK said...

Hey Guy!

You made my day - thanks.

And thanks for stopping by.

.

RossK said...

GrantG and Kim--

Re: the weird comment thing....Personally, I think we should blame it on Accenture.

And/or the ghost of Kenny Boy Lay, just for good measure!

.

RossK said...

Norman--

Nawwwww....

Way more likely to get an all expenses-paid helijet ride to a semi-secluded nearby island so that he can wax poetic on how much more responsive folks with hide-away mansions are to his 'questions' than are cabinet ministers.

Oh.

Wait.

What's that you say?

David Hahn doesn't have a cabin on Savary?

Pity.

_____

btw - Kootcoot's take on Mr. Baldrey's latest 'scare' tactic is a good one. It can be found at the bottom of this post.

.

Norm Farrell said...

RossK: "It really is amazing though how much the visits have jumped up since the trial began."

I'm thinking we have a lot more citizens interested in figuring out what is going on. The 30 day average of visitors is up over 50% from start to finish at my place.

I think BC Liberals are going to feel a big sting from ordinary folks who don't usually follow politics but know now that this government is rotten to the core and the professional media hasn't noticed.

kootcoot said...

"to be honest, I always thought it was just good citizens without boxes taking the best advantage of an important public service)"

I don't think it is random citizens without "boxes" at home! They would trickle in at various times of various days - not arrive in a block of visits EVERYDAY sometime between late afternoon and early evening - EXCEPTING weekends and holidays (when the general public not being paid by us would be more likely to go to the library).

Fools, scoundrels and venal A-holes the lot of 'em!

RossK said...

koot--

Interesting.

I think you may be on to something...I had noticed the time of day also, which is, in retrospect, usually just after the 'official' PAB-Bot visits have ended for the day...

I'll start keeping track of the in-and-outs to see if there is a pattern, or if they are hanging around for a bit on info-laden posts which would suggest that there might be a whole lotta archiving going down (ie. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't want some of my stuff to be 'found' on their official computers, even if it is just the verbatim quotes from Handsard like, for example, this).

.

Anonymous said...

A picture is worth a thousand words, eh.

Who else gets to sit directly behind L. Krog?

Who else it in attendance at the trial of BC Rail Raid, with Martyn Brown on the stand? None other than Ian Reid,
Chief of Staff to Carol Taylor.

http://reidandwrite.ca/blog2/

East of the Sun

"“I don’t remember” sounds a whole lot better than “I’ve got something to hide.” And that’s what I think Martyn Brown’s testimony at the BC Rail Trial adds up to.

In fact what Martyn Brown’s testimony does reveal is his MO as Chief of Staff to the Premier: Brown may be the most secretive operative to ever work in government. He leaves no clues, hides all business and generally leaves no trace of his existence in the big office at the end of the corridor of power in Victoria.

Here’s an example of a typical workweek for Mr. Brown as recorded in his calendar and released under the Freedom of Information Act." SNIP

RossK said...

Thanks Anon-Above--

Mr. Reid comes by quite often, and adds a lot to the discussion 'round here.

And while he was a longtime left-sided pol, I have no knowledge of him having worked for Carole Taylor.

Are you sure you weren't thinking of Darlene Marzari?


.

Anonymous said...

my apologies..... Carole James.....

RossK said...

No worries Anon.

Thanks.

(I'm sure Ian would have filled us in if we hadn't self-corrected)

.