What's in a Name?

by Barry Artiste | July 28, 2007 at 06:57 am

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Opinion
Barry Artiste, Now Public Contributor

Conrad Black's use of "Socks Puppets" is a term I have never heard of, somehow it conjures up images only the Porn Industry could come up with, along with Sweater Puppets, Booty Call, Pup Tent, Pork Sword, Mall Skanks, Baloney Pony Rides, Cougars, Biff Beefcake, Bling, Bling, to name a few. Terms some people are familiar with. I for one must have lived a sheltered life not to know all this or my rock was too heavy to come out of.

My Final Thought
Pretty depressing when your internet savy teenage son and two daughters have to explain it to you. Somehow I wish I hadn't asked in the first place.

Internet's 'sock puppets' are threatened species

Lawsuits grow comments on message boards

Craig Offman, National Post

Published: Friday, July 27, 2007

During Conrad Black's recent trial, prosecutors insisted that the former press baron had engaged in unseemly act known as sock puppetry: an Internet user who logs on to a message board or any other Web community under an assumed name for deceptive purposes. It was alleged that Lord Black himself signed onto a Yahoo Finance message board under the handle "nspector" and did battle, trashing speculators shorting shares of Hollinger International.

Whole Foods chief executive John Mackey was also recently outed as a virtual ventriloquist. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission revealed two weeks ago that for eight years, the green giant of grocers would sign on a Yahoo board with the variation of his wife, Deborah's name ("Rahodeb") and churn out black propaganda about his takeover target, Wild Oats. While hoping to drive down his rival's stock value.

For years, everyone from CEOs to everyday Joes thought they could sign on to these low-tech sites with an invented name or just be anonymous to diss their nemeses, never for a moment worrying they might be nabbed for libel or corporate skullduggery.