The blogosphere is buzzing with rumors about a strange viral marketing campaign concerning CNN, that may be promoting the cable channel or squelching criticism of it -- or perhaps both at the same time.
Earlier this month, blogger Nick Lewis noticed a strange post about CNN on his blog. The comment was critical of some new shows on CNN, but also included detail about the shows, their show times and the anchors hosting them. The same terms were repeated over and over, making it appear like spam. Something was not right.
Suspicious, Lewis checked other blogs and soon noticed a pattern: He found a lot of similar comments about CNN on sites like DesperateHousewives, CrankyGreg and BradBlog. All the comments were posted by someone called Joseph or Thoth, and used the same language. Lewis came across roughly three new spam comments a day.
Lewis initially suspected CNN of being behind the mysterious posts. Lewis thought CNN might be trying to jam blogs critical of the network by spamming them. The network, or a surrogate, was posting comments on blogs using a technique called "keyword stuffing," Lewis claimed.
Keyword stuffing was a technique commonly used at the height of the dot-com boom to raise a site's search-engine ranking. Stuff a site with common search terms, or keywords, and its ranking would rise. But search engines are wise to the technique. Now, when search sites detect blatant keyword stuffing, they often penalize the offending site by delisting it from their indexes, or removing it from the first 100 results.
Lewis said CNN may be keyword-stuffing sites critical of the network, causing the sites to be delisted by search engines.
"I don't think their motivation is malevolent so much as experimental," said Lewis. "My guess is that this was a pilot experiment, to see if it would fly."
Lewis also suggested the network may be trying to create buzz with a viral-marketing campaign. Even if the buzz is negative, chattering on blogs may encourage viewers to watch the network's new programming.
CNN recently introduced several shows in an attempt to compete with Fox News. One of the shows, Showbiz Tonight, was described in one of the suspicious comments as "trashy and un-newslike."
"They seemed to have put a lot of effort into casually dropping all of the times, names, etc. (of CNN shows)," said Lewis. "I think they were hoping we might watch the shows and create a buzz about how 'trashy and un-newslike' the new CNN is, and in effect advertise for them."
A CNN spokeswoman denied the network is behind the posts.
"CNN has not created such a campaign," she said.
Lewis, an independent web designer, said he also called CNN for comment, but so far hasn't received a reply.
After Lewis published his suspicions, several other sites took note, including the Washington sex-and-politics blog Wonkette, MetaFilter, Techdirt and adland.
Some bloggers said the comments are reminiscent of CNN's response to the Eason Jordan controversy.
When CNN fired its former chief news executive, over remarks he made about journalists being targeted by U.S. forces in Iraq, the network sent unsolicited e-mails to several bloggers in an attempt at damage control. The e-mails attempted to explain Jordan's comments, but served to whip up a storm of criticism on conservative blogs.
But critics say this is pure conspiracy theory: There's no proof CNN is behind the posts, directly or indirectly.
"What, besides pure speculation, links this to CNN or Time Warner?" said Brooks Jackson, a veteran journalist and director of the University of Pennsylvania's press-monitoring project, FactCheck.org. "It could be anybody."
Whoever is behind the posts, a lot of companies are starting to pay close attention to what's being said about them on blogs.
Issue Dynamics, a veteran public-affairs company, just launched a special blogger relations unit to liason between companies and blogs.
"They are either embracing (blogs) or worrying about it," said Ken Deutsch, executive vice president of Issue Dynamics.
It's no secret that CNN has taken the backhand from bloggers in the past. When The Daily Show host Jon Stewart appeared on CNN's Crossfire, only to embarrass the show's presenters, bloggers everywhere hosted clips from the show.
But Jackson, a former CNN reporter, said accusations of blog spamming are contrary to what he knows of CNN and Time Warner management.
"They are quite used to fielding calls, letters and e-mails from people who don't like something they saw on CNN," said Jackson.
Jackson questioned why CNN would pay any attention to what a handful of mid-size bloggers had to say.
