Documentation Supporting Allegations that Yahoo and AP Manipulate User Content

by Ahmed Amr / June 5th, 2010

Forward Note: On June 3, 2010, Dissident Voice published an article I wrote alleging that Yahoo and AP regularly manipulate user content. I also raised the question of whether Yahoo and AP were coordinating their activities and whether the AP journalists who wrote the articles were aware of distortion and manipulation of user feedback. I have been challenged to provide proof by a few DV readers and by other posters on sites that republished the Dissident Voice article. It’s ironic and even extraordinary that the exposure of mass media manipulation is being challenged on progressive sites and we can only speculate about the motivation of the posters who are not only taking issue with my allegations but are challenging my mental health. So in the interest of proving that I have been cured and no longer reside in an insane asylum, I’m providing documentation to back up my allegations. Before publishing the incriminating material on Dissident voice, I emailed it to AP and contacted Yahoo to get feedback to allow them a fair opportunity to explain their misconduct. I have yet to get a response. The following is part of the documentation I sent to AP.

First Email Sent to the Associated Press

Gentlemen: Regarding the allegations of Yahoo’s manipulation of user comments on AP articles. I would like to submit the following questions. If you would be kind enough to forward me the answers, I would greatly appreciate it.

1. How long has the porting of thousands of comments been going on?

2. Why is it going on?

3. Why does Yahoo only port comments on some AP articles? You don’t find this on articles from the AFP or Reuters or articles from any other source.

4. What it is Yahoo’s criteria for porting up to 50,000 comments from one article to another and does AP news staff get involved in the process?

5. Is this policy approved by Yahoo’s and AP’s managers or is it a rogue operation by individuals in the Yahoo News department?

6. Are there any kind of agreements between AP and Yahoo that promotes this kind of behavior?

7. Are the AP reporters named in the article aware of this practice and if not how could they have failed to notice?

8. Is it possible to give me contact information for the journalists named in the article so I can get personal feedback from them?

I look forward to hearing back from you.

warm regards

Ahmed Amr

Second Email Sent to the Associated Press

Gentlemen: Just so we’re clear about the evidence of my allegations. I have a couple of links to verify that tens of thousands of user comments have been ported from one article to the next and remain attached to the articles to which they were ported. On all these articles the first comment that appears is the oldest comment. In this case, a comment from a user identified as Robert. The date stamp on his comment is – Tue Mar 09, 2010 12:47 am PST. If you click on the responses to Robert’s one line comment, you will see that I have been placing an audit trail for a few days now by responding to Roberts comments from different articles. So my audit trail is being ported too. Thanks for the lift. Now please verify the accuracy of my allegations and provide me with a response to the questions I’ve already sent you. I would also like to make contact with your legal department and with some of the AP journalists I have identified in my recent article “Yahoo and AP Caught Manipulating User Content.”

1. Israel’s use of captured video draws criticism – AP article posted on June 3 9:58 EST – By Amy Teibel

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100603/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians_118

Comment Count as of this email – 50,474

2. Israel rejects international investigation of raid – AP article posted on June 3 8:09 Am EST – By Amy Teibel

Comment Count as of this email – 50,474

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100603/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians_117

3. Israel Trying To Limit Diplomatic Damage From Raid – AP article posted on 12:00 am EST – by Mark Lavie

Associated Press writers Karin Laub in Jerusalem and Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100603/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians_114

Comment Count as of this email – 50,474

4. Israel to Expel All Activists by Day’s End by Amy Teibel – AP article posted on June 2, 11:44 AM – By Amy Teibel

Associated Press Writers Dale Gavlak at Allenby Bridge, Jordan, and Karin Laub in Jerusalem, Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100602/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians_111

Comment Count as of this email – 50,474

5. Protesters march in Istanbul, denounce Israel AP Mon May 31, 5:40 am ET

Goldenberg reported from aboard the INS Kidon. AP writer Selcan Hacaoglu contributed to this report from Ankara.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100531/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians_53

6. Pro-Palestinian flotilla sets sail for Gaza AP Sun May 30, 9:27 am ET

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100531/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians_53

Comment Count as of this email – 50,474

7. Israeli airstrike kills 3 militants in north Gaza

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100601/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians_87

8. Masked men vandalize UN summer camp for Gaza kids AP Tue Jun 1, 9:54 am ET

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100523/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians_17

Comment Count as of this email – 50,474

I put in an Audit Trail to verify my allegations. I responded to the first comment from a number of articles and my comments were not only ported forward, they were ported backwards. And some of the comments that are being ported backwards just happen to be mine. And I have presented the audit trail as exhibits.

All my responses were to the oldest comment in the string, the one that appears first – given your default settings. It was posted by a user identified as ‘Robert.’ It is a one line comment (Hamas is now in control of the Gaza Strip after winning an election there against Abbas’ Palestinian Authority). Robert’s comment was posted on Tue Mar 09, 2010 12:47 am PST.

Note all the comments I placed in the audit trail were posted on or after Mon, May 31, 2010. But I am accessing all these comments from an AP article “Masked men vandalize UN summer camp for Gaza kids”. It’s time stamped AP Tue Jun 1, 9:54 am ET

Question: What is a comment like Robert’s which was time stamped March 09 doing on AP Article time stamped May 31 and June 1? And what is my Comment time stamped May 31, 2010 doing in an article published on the following day? I’m sure you’ll see what I mean as you review the following exhibits.

Audit Trail Exhibit 1:

Comment time stamped Mon May 31, 2010 09:49 pm PDT.

To the boys in the backroom. This is in response to the first comment in an article that was titled this comment was posted on an Associated Press article “Abbas Says No Need to Quit Peace Talks.” It doesn’t have a name on it but the dateline is Ramallah, West Bank. It was posted “20 minutes” ago and purported to be 1 out of 39,733 comments. The interesting thing about it is it is in response to a comment that was posted March 09, 2010, seven weeks before this article was published. The articles are completely unrelated.

Now we have a complete audit trail. Let’s see where you port it next. Tell your legal department I’m working over time today.

Associated Press Writers Tia Goldenberg aboard the Israeli warship INS Kidon, Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara, Rob Gillies in Toronto and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

Seriously, what kind of bonus do you Hasbara guys get? I told you I was charming.

Audit Trail Exhibit 2:

Comment time stamped Mon May 31, 2010 10:25 pm PDT

To the boys in the back room. I just did a search and found the 40,000 comments had been ported to this article. See how it’s done. All you have to do to establish a trail is to comment on where you found the article. “Aide: Abbas says no need to quit peace talks”

Associated Press Writers Tia Goldenberg aboard the Israeli warship INS Kidon, Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara, Rob Gillies in Toronto and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

Please inform the AP, your legal department and the journalists involved in this scam.

Audit Trail Exhibit 3:

Comment time stamped Mon May 31, 2010 10:32 pm PDT

To the boys in the back room. A few minutes later I find the same comments ported to this article. “Bloody Israeli raid on flotilla sparks crisis” by Steven Gutkin, Also of the AP.

Watch how I establish an audit trail.

Audit Trail Exhibit 4:

Comment Time stamped: Tue Jun 01, 2010 04:54 am PDT

To the boys in the back room. This comment was posted from another article titled “New boats headed to Gaza to challenge blockade” – an unattributed AP article published on June 1, 2009. So, the 40,000 comments were ported to this site.

So now we have documented evidence that these comments, with were ported to the following three articles. This comment was posted from the first article.

1. New boats headed to Gaza to challenge blockade – AP article dated June 1, 2010 posted 2 Am

2. “Aide: Abbas says no need to quit peace talks” – AP article dated May 31, 2010

Associated Press Writers Tia Goldenberg aboard the Israeli warship INS Kidon, Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara, Rob Gillies in Toronto and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

3. “Bloody Israeli raid on flotilla sparks crisis” by Steven Gutkin, Also AP, May 31, 2001, 2010

Audit Trail Exhibit 5:

This comment is time stamped – Tue Jun 01, 2010 04:59 am PDT

To the boys in the back room. This comment was posted from another article titled “New boats headed to Gaza to challenge blockade” – an unattributed AP article published on June 1, 2009. So, the 40,000 comments were ported to this site.
So now we have documented evidence that these comments, with were ported to the following three articles. This comment was posted from the first article.
1. New boats headed to Gaza to challenge blockade – AP article dated June 1, 2010 posted 2 Am
2. “Aide: Abbas says no need to quit peace talks” – AP article dated May 31, 2010
Associated Press Writers Tia Goldenberg aboard the Israeli warship INS Kidon, Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara, Rob Gillies in Toronto and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
3. “Bloody Israeli raid on flotilla sparks crisis” by Steven Gutkin, Also AP, May 31, 2001, 2010

Audit Trail Exhibit 6:

Comment time stamped: Tue Jun 01, 2010 05:34 am PDT

To the boys in the back room, just so we keep the audit trail in Sync – the 40,000 plus comments have now been ported to yet another article posted 6 minutes ago “Egypt lifts its side of Gaza blockade for aid.” It’s still June 1, 2010. And it’s yet another AP article.

Audit Trail Exhibit 7:

Comment time stamped Tue Jun 01, 2010 05:46 am PDT

To the boys in the back room. Now you’re deleting the audit trail. Well, more evidence that you know exactly what you were doing. Porting 40,000 – sorry 41,000 comments – dating back to March 09 from one AP article to another. This comment was posted on the message board of a story posted on June 1, 2010 – 17 minutes ago as of this writing. It’s the same comment stream that was attached to three other articles.

Now, I warned you a few days ago that I would be conducting a forensic examination. Delete my articles at will. But make sure you advise your legal department that I tried to establish an audit trail to prove how you port tens of thousands of messages from one article to another. Now I have concrete proof that you have been doing exactly that with this stream of comments and you’ve been doing it since March 09, 2010.

Audit Trail Exhibit 8:

Comment time stamped Wed Jun 02, 2010 01:04 am PDT

To the boys in the back room. The number of comments ported is now over 45,000. This comment is being posted from the latest article to which the comments were ported. It is titled – ‘Israel deports activists from Gaza-bound flotilla’ another AP article.

By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer Amy Teibel, Associated Press Writer – 36 mins ago

Audit Trail Exhibit 9:

Comment time stamped Wed Jun 02, 2010 07:33 am PDT

To the boys in the backroom, you’ve been porting these comments from one article to another since March 09, 2010. That’s going on two months. And the number of comments you keep attaching has grown to over 46,000. So the audit trail continues. Please advise your legal department that this audit trail is being documented.

This comment is posted to yet another AP article titled “Israel to expel all activists by day’s end”

By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer Amy Teibel, Associated Press Writer – 41 mins ago

Associated Press Writers Dale Gavlak at Allenby Bridge, Jordan, and Karin Laub in Jerusalem, Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.

Audit Trail Exhibit 10:

To the Boys in the back room – this article is titled ” Israel’s use of ‘captured’ video draws criticism.”

This number of comments is now up to 50,056. This thread dates back to March 09, 2010. But you knew that already.

Check out an article titled “Yahoo and AP caught Manipulating User Comments.”

Tell your legal department I just placed another audit marker.

Conclusions: Yahoo has been porting tens of thousands of user comments on AP articles forwards and backwards. The question is why? I’ve sent you a number of questions in an earlier email and would appreciate a response. I think that the documented evidence I have accumulated clearly documents that Yahoo and AP have been selectively manipulating comments. The least you can do is offer a rationale for why you do this.

Warm Regards

Ahmed Amr

Forensic Analyst

Author of The Sheep and the Guardians – Diary of a SEC Sanctioned Swindle

Ahmed Amr is the author of How to Steal a Billion Dollars – the Confessions of James Li. The initial draft is available free of charge on TooBigToSanction.com. He can be reached at: Montraj@aol.com. Read other articles by Ahmed.

This article was posted on Saturday, June 5th, 2010 at 8:16am and is filed under Media.

25 comments on this article so far ...

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  1. hayate said on June 5th, 2010 at 11:53am #

    Nice work.

    Both yahoo and ap are goebbelsian slimeballs throughout.

  2. dan e said on June 5th, 2010 at 12:24pm #

    second the motion!

  3. MichaelKenny said on June 5th, 2010 at 12:52pm #

    When it comes to criticising journalistic dishonesty, Mr Amr is hardly in any position to point the finger! Only a few days ago, he was spinning the Gaza fiasco as a great triumph for Israel! Carefully planned in advance too! And don’t forget the author (I mention no names!) who told us, with a perfectly straight face, about the planes spraying Kiev with swine flu virus or the US nuclear bomb destined for Iran that set off the Hatian earthquake. An anecdote from my own days as a press spokesman: an article appeared in a newspaper depicting my employer in a very unfavourable light and claiming to quote the proverbial “unnamed official”, which every one assumed to be me since I was the only person who spoke to that press outlet. In fact, I had never even heard of the journalist, who wasn’t my regular contact on that paper, and, indeed, had spoken to no journalist on the subject of the article! I assume the article was a total fake and that the journalist assumed (through ignorance) that my employer had many spokespersons and that no one in particular would be “fingered”. Anyone who has ever worked with the press has a story like that to tell. The level of cynical dishonesty among journalists is unbelievable if you haven’t experienced it first hand. Yahoo and AP are no worse than the rest.

  4. Jonas Rand said on June 5th, 2010 at 1:45pm #

    Jon S, that is completely wrong. It is propaganda from Tel Aviv that took an act of self-defense against pirates completely out of context. I advise you not to listen to any reports from Tel Aviv as the military has imposed what is basically a communications blackout that only allows propaganda from the IDF to reach people in Israel.

    I am even trusting what CNN reports, but do not believe what the press conferences say, as they are composed of lying politicians building up their propaganda apparatus for people to be misled into believing. The pols keep lying, but I am not believing what they say. I am making sure that I listen to what is actually being reported. When officials speak, rather than witnesses, organizations, etc. I pay attention to what they are saying, but do not believe a word of it. However, I trust nothing coming out of Telaviv. It is all lies and deception.

  5. Ahmed Amr said on June 5th, 2010 at 3:23pm #

    Michael: You made two allegations against me. “I Only a few days ago, he was spinning the Gaza fiasco as a great triumph for Israel! Carefully planned in advance too!”

    What I said in the article was it was premeditated and not just planned but calculated to achieve a result and that was for Netanyahu to weasel his way out of a meeting with Obama and derail the so-called Proximity Talks. I didn’t “spin” anything. I presented a well-formulated analysis that stands on its own merits. Netanyahu did manage to avert a meeting where he was going to be pressed to give a little. I also predicted that the United States would let the slaughter slide. So far Obama hasn’t bothered to utter a word of criticism and the United States used its considerable influence in the Security Council to water down the resolution and managed to even remove any mention of Israel. Now the United States is saying that Israel is qualified to investigate itself.

    I also wrote that it was a risky manuever. And it turns out that Israelis and a lot of other people, including myself, did not correctly factor in the Turkish response. I’m not an oracle but I’m happy to be wrong on that count.

    Now, getting to the substance of the subject at hand. I’ve presented you with the evidence you insisted on it. Analyze it and explain. Also explain why Yahoo has taken steps to correct it in the last forty-eight hours. You won’t find the comments by Robert or my audit trail out there anymore because Yahoo got the message and suddenly got a little religion – if you know what I mean. Maybe you ought to get some too. I’m sure you know all about the Hasbara project. I’m not accusing you of anything but it’s always worth checking why somebody gets so worked up defending Israel and its apologists and in the mass media. So tell me again why you’re getting worked up defending Yahoo and trying to berate my analysis because maybe I missed your explanation.

  6. jon s said on June 5th, 2010 at 9:57pm #

    Jonas, I don’t see how you can be so sure that what’s coming out of TelAviv is lies, but not , say, what’s coming out of Gaza and Istanbul… The IDF soldiers were clubbed , knived and shot – as can be seen on the videos and audios and in the debriefings.

  7. jon s said on June 5th, 2010 at 10:02pm #

    Jonas, also I can assure you that there is no “communications blackout” in Israel. The people in Israel are acutely aware of the the anti-Israel media .

  8. Andres Kargar said on June 5th, 2010 at 11:08pm #

    Yahoo regularly censors users and blocks email users from sending email messages it does not like. I am not certain if it is the organization itself, or if it is being manipulated by Zionist cyber-terrorist hackers (see Israeli Cyber-Warriors Crash the Internet <>).

    My own email messages containing the words “Israel”, “Apartheid”, etc have time and again been blocked with, among others, the following excuse:

    “Your message was not sent
    Suspicious activity has been detected on your account. To protect your account and our users, your message has not been sent.
    If this error continues, please contact Yahoo! Customer Care for further help.
    We apologize for the inconvenience”

    Needless to say my efforts at contacting “Yahoo! Customer Care” have been to no avail.

  9. hayate said on June 6th, 2010 at 2:11am #

    MichaelKenny said on June 5th, 2010 at 12:52pm

    it’s a pity you put all that effort into israeli hasbara. You could be selling elderly widows fraudulent insurance policies.

    ;D

  10. lamella said on June 6th, 2010 at 9:21am #

    “I have been challenged to provide proof by a few DV readers and by other posters on sites that republished the Dissident Voice article. It’s ironic and even extraordinary that the exposure of mass media manipulation is being challenged on progressive sites and we can only speculate about the motivation of the posters who are not only taking issue with my allegations but are challenging my mental health.”

    What’s wrong with demanding some evidence for the allegations that you have made? It’s wrong to challenge your sanity, but it’s only healthy to be skeptical until we’re provided with some documentation. On the contrary, it would be “ironic and even extraordinary” if we were to fully believe you at face value, just like so many have unwavering trust in the mass media and its manifold lies.

  11. lamella said on June 6th, 2010 at 9:47am #

    If you wish to be honest you should probably include TechDirt’s findings on how this could be and probably is a simple technological issue, and how a similar problem can be found in the comment streams to the Gulf oil disaster…

    http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100603/1653109680.shtml

  12. hayate said on June 6th, 2010 at 4:24pm #

    The techdirt guy explains how yahoo/ap are transferring the comments from one article to another, but his analysis that it is incompetence is pure speculation. Probably biased speculation. The wording of his piece towards Amr shows a distinct hostility from the very beginning.

    Yahoo has been around since before google and ap much longer. To think their programmers would be so incompetent to be doing this by accident, and never changed it even though they knew it was messed up is either stupid or a dishonest framing of the issue to let yahoo/ap off the hook. I suspect this comment porting has been going on for years probably. There is no way yahoo/ap would let such an error slide unless they liked the results of it. And face it, having all those comments after each article does make them look more popular.

  13. Mike001 said on June 6th, 2010 at 6:27pm #

    Thank you, hayate, for hitting the nail on the head. I view the situation exactly the same way.

  14. mary said on June 6th, 2010 at 9:59pm #

    Me also Mike001 and Hayate.

    British Telecom, the UK telecoms company, once publicly owned as Post Office Telecommunications (who had created the national infrastructure) but privatised by Thatcher in the 1980s, has a tie up with Yahoo in its broadband provision. Pretty dreadful service, low speeds etc and you can’t easily get hold of somebody when you have a complaint or problem. The whole setup is monolithic and distant from its customers. The Yahoo search engine which I once had as my default, is also a complete waste of time.

    I don’t know anything about the Yahoo management but this is about BT where a strike by the workers is looming.

    http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/91147

    and from an earlier report detailing the company’s 2% pay offer –

    ‘Mr Kerr (CWU) attacked the company’s “double-standard” attitude to pay as it emerged that Mr Livingstone, the Chief Executive, had received a bonus of £1.2 million last year on top of a salary of £860,000.

    Company chairman Sir Michael Rake pocketed £670,000 last year for doing part-time work and former Labour Cabinet minister Patricia Hewitt, who is a BT director, was paid £128,000.’ and

    ‘The decision came just hours after BT’s annual financial report revealed that its chief executive Ian Livingstone and three other directors had raked in bonuses totalling £2.7 million last year.’

    Enough said.

  15. hayate said on June 6th, 2010 at 10:50pm #

    Thanks Mike001 & Mary.

    Before coming here, I had done a quick scan of the yahoo/ap headlines and took a look at 1 article and there was ole “robert” with his March post. 😀 The article has “50,000” plus comments and is less that 2 hours old. Here:

    4 Palestinian divers killed by Israeli navy fire 1 hr 7 mins ago

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100607/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians

    50,463 Comments

    Robert Tue Mar 09, 2010 12:47 am PST

    Hamas is now in control of the Gaza Strip after winning an election there against Abbas’ Palestinian Authority,

    Replies (204)

    There is no way yahoo or ap or whever cant know and approve of this crap. It’s not the result of incompetence, it’s plain old fraud.

  16. hayate said on June 6th, 2010 at 10:54pm #

    Mary

    Bt was hot to trot with the phorm israeli data mining scheme. As were yahoo internet provider afiliates in the usa and other outfits in Canada and Australia.

  17. lamella said on June 7th, 2010 at 12:07am #

    The Yahoo! comment porting conspiracy is so pervasive it even extends to their coverage of the MTV Movie Awards!

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100607/ap_on_en_mo/us_mtv_movie_awards

  18. lamella said on June 7th, 2010 at 12:09am #

    Look out- stories about drug violence in Mexico are also party to the conspiracy:

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100607/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_drug_war_mexico

  19. lamella said on June 7th, 2010 at 12:14am #

    Even AP entertainment writers covering Sandra Bullock are in on the fraud:

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100606/ap_on_en_tv/us_people_bullock

    In fact, it’s becoming clear that any continuing news topic from AP seems to have its comments ported from story to story on Yahoo!, no matter how major or how trivial the issue. This is NOT something just involving Israel-Gaza, and is instead a systematic, probably lazy technical glitch. Get over yourselves.

  20. lamella said on June 7th, 2010 at 12:30am #

    And just in case anyone was wondering…yes, it even happens to a degree in their sports articles:

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100606/ap_on_sp_te_ga_su/ten_french_open

  21. mary said on June 7th, 2010 at 1:41am #

    Is Lamella a fan of NetanYAHOO?

  22. hayate said on June 7th, 2010 at 3:34am #

    😀

  23. lamella said on June 7th, 2010 at 5:45am #

    No, I just don’t go around making wild accusations when all available evidence points to a simpler, much less sinister explanation.

  24. lamella said on June 7th, 2010 at 6:26am #

    That’s not to say I think the porting of comments is right or even excusable- comments should start as a blank slate for each new article. But face it, it’s Yahoo’s site and they don’t even need to provide you with a comment box at all. If you feel strongly enough about it that you want it fixed, just write to them and complain about it. Threatening them with legal action over a free and unnecessary feature on their site is ridiculous.

  25. Ahmed Amr said on June 7th, 2010 at 9:10pm #

    LaMella, help me out here.
    Here’s the link to the first documentation article I sent DV.

    https://new.dissidentvoice.org/2010/06/documentation-supporting-allegations-that-yahoo-and-ap-manipulate-user-content/

    Notice the date stamp on it June 5, 2010.

    1. The count of the comments as of the article on that string is 50,474.

    2. I sent my article to DV by email at Sat, June 5, 2010 6:04:10 PM

    Of course, it took me a while to write it and edit it. Look at the last article that I mention in that documentation and look at the comment count.

    3. Israel’s use of captured video draws criticism – AP article posted on June 3 9:58 EST – By Amy Teibel

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100603/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians_118

    Comment Count as of this email – 50,474

    4. go back and scroll to the last hunded comments.

    look for this one by Arash Fri Jun 04, 2010 04:16 am PDT
    “Please check out AIPAC.org if you are an American and wish to support Israel in difficult times, like now with increasingly radicalized Turkey and nuclear Iran.” date stamp

    5. Now look at the next one by Paisan Fri Jun 04, 2010 07:31 am PDT

    “Foreign Press Association” should be busy condemning Iran or China for freedom of the press violatons and honoring the memory of Daniel Pearl instead of battling the Israeli gov. And Israel
    should throw the biased SOBs out
    There’s a four hour gap between those two comments. over the last three days there hasn’t been a 100 comments posted on this string. And it’s hard to tell how many stories attracted ‘so many’ comments. These could be straggler comments from people who read the story late. In which case – this string was parked and now they’ve taken it off the shelves and redeployed it. So, it’s not programmatic.

    So on June the 3rd, the comment count was 50,474 and now it is 50413. And there’s been a whole number of comments posted since. So I guess the first ammendment doesn’t apply to all comments. If they haven’t taken out the derogatory comments – which ones have they removed?