Anti-Smithopedia

The prior Wikipedia entry on Fred Smith was essentially a fluff piece written by Jim Kouri in 2006 and published to the web in various locations under the heading
NC Senator Fred Smith: From JAG to Politics and Beyond

Kouri is a friend of Nathan Tabor who has been running internet operations for Fred Smith. These activities include spamming blogs with anonymous posts that are essential cut and pasted press releases for Fred Smith.

I wrote about this before in January: Fred Smith: For Whom Tabor Trolls

In September Jim Kouri wrote a fluff piece on Smith. Kouri and Tabor are friends. Kouri writes for Tabor’s TCV and occasionally the write articles together such as this piece for "John Cox" GOP presidential candidate, apparently another Tabor/Kouri “blogging” client, while Kouri has pumped Tabor’s recent book “The Beast on the East River, trashing the UN

This stuff should not have appeared in Wikipedia unattributed in the first place and Anglico was right to skewer it.

Didn't the N&O do a story several years ago on an interesting turn of events that led to Smith's acquisition of Mangum?

for that entry in the first place.

I do.

It is really childish to trash someone else's wikipedia entry.

For the record, I also refer to the "Asphalt King" and used the term as recently as last Sunday in post that was front-paged at the Burnt Orange Report

$43,597,139.95 in paving dollars in one year can't be wrong.

gregflynn

I always thought Chris Mangum was the Asphalt King. Do I now understand, per Greg Flynn, that C.C. Mangum Inc. is a Fred Smith company? If true, that would make Sen. Smith the Asphalt Emperor, wouldn't it? :)

I'm still not sure that makes it a "widely known" nickname. But it's not up to me, it's up to the great wide wiki world out there, isn't it?

— RTB 

Ryan,

If you did not limit your search to BlueNC, you find at least two other mentions of "Asphalt King" by bloggers other than Anglico on the first page of results. What do journalists say about trends: it takes three instances to make a trend?

And, of course, funny and accurate nicknames never catch on and are then used by the masses.

Tricky Dick, Slick Willie, The Preznit, The Decider...too bad all of them never gained wide usage beyond the ONE person who coined them.

Too bad.

:)

thats because no one else likes mentioning his name. it makes people feel dirty.

Funny, that. As best I can tell, only one "progressive blogger" calls him by that moniker, and that would be you.

— RTB 

well, we're in for a long, hard slog trying to keep the many faces of Fred Smith straight over the next year.

Truth: He does specialize in large paving contracts
Truth: He does specialize in upscale golf courses and sprawling development
Truth: He is widely known as The Asphalt King among progressive bloggers