newsobserver.com projects - Anti-Smithopedia - Comments

Re: Anti-Smithopedia

bnartist — Sat, 26 May 2007 06:51:30 -0400

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.

Re: Anti-Smithopedia

Horatius_Liberalis — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:44:11 -0400

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?

What's childish is having a glowing press release

Anglico — Fri, 25 May 2007 18:31:13 -0400

for that entry in the first place.

Re: If telling the truth is "vicious"

Johnburnsnc — Fri, 25 May 2007 17:37:48 -0400

I do.

Re: Anti-Smithopedia

gercohen — Fri, 25 May 2007 17:31:11 -0400

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

Re: If telling the truth is "vicious"

bnartist — Fri, 25 May 2007 17:18:16 -0400

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

Re: Anti-Smithopedia

rjgeary — Fri, 25 May 2007 17:12:24 -0400

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? :)

Re: If telling the truth is "vicious"

ryanteaguebeckwith — Fri, 25 May 2007 16:36:14 -0400

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

Re: If telling the truth is "vicious"

TarGator — Fri, 25 May 2007 16:31:18 -0400

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?

Re: If telling the truth is "vicious"

zoobatmania — Fri, 25 May 2007 16:21:08 -0400

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.

Just you wait.

Anglico — Fri, 25 May 2007 16:17:52 -0400

Re: If telling the truth is "vicious"

lefaim — Fri, 25 May 2007 16:12:33 -0400

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

Re: If telling the truth is "vicious"

ryanteaguebeckwith — Fri, 25 May 2007 16:06:00 -0400

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

— RTB

If telling the truth is "vicious"

Anglico — Fri, 25 May 2007 16:00:14 -0400

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

Anti-Smithopedia

ryanteaguebeckwith — Fri, 25 May 2007 15:28:54 -0400

Sen. Fred Smith's Wikipedia entry has swung in the other direction.

After Dome noted this morning that it — literally — read like a campaign press release, a couple of local Democrats went to work on it.

The new version excised the glowing statements about Smith's values that would likely be targeted under the collaborative encyclopedia's "neutral point of view" standard.

In their place, it substituted a few vicious attacks. To wit:

With specialties in sprawling developments, upscale golf courses and large paving contracts with the state Department of Transportation, Fred is widely known as The Asphalt King among the progressive blogger community in North Carolina.

Somehow, we don't think those sentences will survive either.