the Pasadena Newer Progressive is launched

NOTE: this post was published September 17, 2009

The Pasadena Newer Progressive blog,

launched by trolls on July 1, 2009.

The first attack blog launched against my blog came a couple of days after I had spoken on the public forum of a Monday night city council meeting. I had asked there, that the council open an investigation into the associations of Aaron Proctor with our press. I mentioned that it seemed to me that Ann Erdman, the chief information officer for the City of Pasadena, was supporting him also. This had been recommended to me to do. It was supposed to be an effective way to get help for this situation.

But exactly the opposite happened. I knew the meetings were filmed, but it was shock when I first saw the Pasadena Newer Progressive blog.

Authored by a troll calling itself “Caroling Logue” (who turned out to be the guy from Philly himself) the blog was built on Blogger to exactly match the look of my blog. It used the same fonts and colors and even provided the same links. There on the top post was me, standing behind the podium of the council meeting. The troll had made a YouTube video of my speech, and posted it on the blog.

The blog opened with several “posts” in place, posts which mocked the issues on my blog but not only that. The blog lifted content, images and comments from my blog and re-posted them, at random and often skewed.

The blog was also “live”. As I wrote new posts on the Pasadena New Progressive (I posted there once a day), the trolls would lift content minutes after I had posted it, skew it, and re-post it on their blog.

I was also “trolled” (trolls sending in frequent harassing comments*) day and night.

*For example, I was sent a page copied from a mental health guide. I was called names, I was threatened, etc. etc. etc.

In the most public display of abject lack of care for the rights of other bloggers, the trolls would snatch up my commentator’s names, and write in comments using them! This resulted in confusion and annoyance on the part of my commentators, who resented (of course) something being posted in their name that they did not write! The intent was to scare them off and it worked. By separating me from any support, the trolls could harass me unimpeded.

The most alarming part of all was the fact that Ann Erdman, Chief Public Information Officer for the City of Pasadena (who was the subject of an investigation on my blog into her associations with trolls), openly posted the link the the Pasadena Newer Progressive (after taking down the link to my blog) on her Pasadena PIO blog, commented on the blog and allowed herself to be pictured on it several times. Much of the copy was written in her defense.

Erdman was deeply ingrained with the trolls and blogged with the worst of them all over the local blogsphere.

The sham blog was also, extremely politically incorrect.

It attempted to "parody" the issues on my blog, the primary one being was Racism. In a series of unbelievably insensitive posts, the author of the blog mocked Martin Luther King and Jackie Robinson! Robinson came in for special assault, as I had mentioned him (and his memorial) in by speech to the City Council. The Jackie Robinson memorial in front of City Hall, was pictured several times with mocking commentary.

Carolina also attempted to defend the Star News, which I had often criticized for its focus on the crimes committed by kids of color rather than their common humanity.

She posted a picture of a Star News reporter Frank Giradot and one of his columns about a drunken Mexican involved in a shooting (the usual portrayal of Hispanics by Frank), as if to somehow "prove" that Mexican's were in fact, dangerous criminals and not human beings.

It was lunacy on parade, Pasadena's right-wing bloggers defending their indefensible positions,

and by attacking me, serving right-wing power (Ann Erdman herself, who happily participated).

I was trolled so frequently, I set up a defense system on my blog. For every troll comment, I posted another picture of Ann Erdman and Aaron Proctor at his birthday party, naming the post "A picture for every troll comment". I offered the guilty troll and "commemorative pic" for their comment.

Of course I followed every option available to me, to address this ugly, unethical attack. I wrote to Blogger. I attempted to file a police report, but was turned down (as usual) and told to find a lawyer. I could count on no press covering this (I had been writing press critiques for years).

I was starting to realize that my options were few to none.


© 2010 Virginia Hoge



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