At the Minnesota Reformer, the ever-intrepid Deena Winter digs into What is that crass billboard about Gov. Tim Walz? And what does “rocks and cows” mean?. It looks like Bluestem was so beguiled by the large (and mostly former) Rocks and Cows Facebook pages we neglected to follow the money being gathered in the GoFundMe account post pinned to the top of the now defunct page.
Winter reports:
As it turns out, however, this campaign against Walz did not spring from the grassroots, nor the rocks. It sprang from a billboard company. Specifically, Dan Franklin,director of operations of Franklin Outdoors in Clearwater. Franklin set up a gofundme.com campaign on July 27 to pay his own company for the billboards and yard signs. Dan Franklin did not return a phone call and message seeking comment.
That's entirely accurate.
UPDATE October 24: Here's a July 25th version shared by Glencoe Republican state representative Glenn Gruenhagen on his personal Facebook page. It's not a Franklin Outdoors billlboard (note the branding at the bottom middle of the frame):
[End October 24 update]
The Fargo Forum reported on July 27 that Franklin took over the campaign after an different sign company backed out. Matt Henson reported in Group fundraising to dot Minnesota with controversial, anti-Walz signs:
The billboard was sponsored by the Facebook group Rocks and Cows of the North, in reference to a comment the governor made during his campaign that northern Minnesota tends to be more Republican.
The group said a local small-town sign company put it up for them July 24. However, the company decided to take it down the next day when a major buyer threatened to stop advertising. The group feels that buyer, not the sign company, is trying to silence their First Amendment rights with cash.
"Everything offends people these days. You sneeze in the wrong place and everyone looks at you like you just gave them COVID," Hassel said.
However, now a bigger billboard company with statewide advertising is taking over the campaign. Franklin Outdoor, located in the suburbs of Minneapolis, has agreed to plaster the image on billboards and signs across the state as money is raised to pay for them.
Rocks and Cows of the North declined an interview but said, "The intent of the group is to awaken the silent majority."
Other evidence that the billboard predates Franklin's Go Fund Me account, set up on July 27? Minority leader Kurt Daudt's July 24 or 25 tweet:
Hmmm. pic.twitter.com/FkuORnKAK0
— Kurt Daudt (@kdaudt) July 25, 2020
The date stamp above says July 24, but the text in the code reads July 25, 2020.
Confused by satire
We reported in Rocks & Cows & National Guard Cooks of the North is no more; welcome the RCNGC sequel that the original Facebook group was no more, but a sequel had been launched.
Despite the fresh start, the Rocks and Cows and National Guard Cooks of the North The Sequel, Facebook group members continue the earlier iteration's satire-challenged tradition.
Most of those commenting on the post in the screenshot below failed to recognize that America's Last Line of Defense is a "satire site known for trolling conservatives with unbelievable claims, hoping they will believe them and share."
Even after someone posts the site's banner (at the top of this article).
The member who shared the post doesn't seem to be a bot or progressive making trouble, but a legitimate conservative fellow from Park Rapids.
Lead Stories provides the fact check that Facebook shares about the America's Last Line of Defense item, Fact Check: Nancy Pelosi Did NOT Say She Wants To Remove Votes From Soldiers Overseas:
Did House Speaker Nancy Pelosi say that she wants to remove votes from soldiers overseas? No, that's not true: The story was published by a satire site known for trolling conservatives with unbelievable claims, hoping they will believe them and share. The story was then copied, shared and commented on by people who apparently thought it was real.
The satire site is part of the "America's Last Line of Defense" network of websites run by self-professed liberal troll Christopher Blair from Maine, along with a loose confederation of friends and allies. He runs several websites and Facebook pages with visible satire disclaimers everywhere. They mostly publish made-up stories with headlines specifically created to trigger Republicans, conservatives and evangelical Christians into angrily sharing or commenting on the story on Facebook without actually reading the full article, exposing them to mockery and ridicule by fans of the sites and pages.
Every site in the network has an "about" page that reads (in part):
About Satire
Before you complain and decide satire is synonymous with "comedy":sat·ire
ˈsaˌtī(ə)r
noun
The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.Everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real. If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined. Any similarities between this site's pure fantasy and actual people, places, and events are purely coincidental and all images should be considered altered and satirical. See above if you're still having an issue with that satire thing.
Bluestem first encountered the satirical network in 2018 when a Kandiyohi County conservative activist shared a post about a fake quotation by Malia Obama, a incident we shared in West Central MN conservatives completely bamboozled by Christopher Blair's trolling:
Conservative activist Gary Swenson of Spicer, MN, has led crusades against transgender students and the like, but a recent Facebook post sharing a meme from America's Last Line Of Defense suggests that there's a limit to his powers of discernment.
His friends' comments also raise questions about critical thinking skills as well--and more.
The America's Last Line Of Defense Facebook page is part of the Christopher Blair network described in the Fake News Codex:
A collection of “satirical” websites that post false and extremely inflammatory articles intended to gain social media shares by gullible conservatives....
Most recently, Blair was profiled in the Boston Globe's One of the country’s biggest publishers of fake news says he did it for our own good:
Fact-checking organizations like Snopes and PolitiFact have labeled Blair one of the Web’s most notorious creators of fake news. Hidden behind his Internet persona, “Busta Troll,” he has for several years pumped out geysers of newsy-looking posts for an audience eager to believe them, with headlines like “College Prank Kills 2 — Malia Obama a ‘Prime Suspect’ ” and “Emma Gonzales attacks a 2nd Amendment supporter’s truck at a March for Our Lives rally.”
His headlines often pinball across the Internet, propelled by thousands of shares and “likes,” generating advertising revenue for Blair in the process — and bringing a chorus of critics who accuse him of fanning the flames of a divided country for personal gain.
He doesn’t deny that he intentionally fools people. But Blair says he does so for an unusual reason — because he’s a hard-core Democrat, a “liberal troll” with a mission of undercutting the far right. His work, he says, is satire, meant to expose what he views as the bigotry and hypocrisy of those willing to accept his inflammatory fictions as truth. And he claims that it is working, that he — with the aid of an army of about 100 other liberal trolls — has actually helped stanch the tide of fake news online. . . .
Polifact reported in 2017 that If you're fooled by fake news, this man probably wrote it.
Summer of 2020 was no better for the keyboard warriors, as we reported in Rocks & Cows Facebook group members decry Ilhan Omar's son John--er Bruno Mars.
We suspect that those members who post to tell others that America's Last Line of Defense is satire assume their peers understand the meaning of that literary term. The lack of that understanding should surely prompt grandparents everywhere to encourage their children to stay awake in their high school English classes when the name Jonathan Swift comes up.
Related posts:
- Conservative Facebook group members think MNGOP absentee ballot mail is DFL Party scam
- Rocks and Cows of MN supports MacDonald for state Supreme Court because tyranny
Images: The banner from America's Last Line of Defense (top); Screengrab from Rocks and Cows and National Guard Cooks of the North The Sequel timeline.
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