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#AttackWatch -- There is no monopoly when it comes to hashtags

BarackObama | 9/13/2011 | 3:37 PM | We've launched a new way to track and respond to attacks against President Obama: #AttackWatch. Check it out: http://t.co/ruYN3kA

I am reasonably confident this is the first of what would turn into a torrent of messages using the hashtag #AttackWatch.

3:37 Tuesday afternoon the 'I am not really Obama because his tweets will contain -BO' announced a new Twitter campaign. In addition to being available to his 10 million followers a fuller statement of the purpose of the campaign was included in an announcement sent to some or many of their mailings lists.

Here's the deal: We all remember the birth certificate smear, the GOP's barrage of lies about the Affordable Care Act, and the string of other phony attacks on President Obama that we've seen over the past few years.

There are a lot of folks on the other side who are chomping at the bit to distort the President's record. It's not a question of if the next big lie will come, just when -- and what we're prepared to do about it.

AttackWatch.com is exactly what it sounds like: a resource that allows us to nip these attacks in the bud before they show up on the airwaves and in emails -- and then fight back with the truth. [Jim Messina, Sept 13, 2011]

Anyone paying the slightest attention to comments about Obama on Twitter will know that vitriol is the word of the day, week, month, year. It is barely civil. It is almost wholly based on miss-truths or claims about his being a socialist or communist, which are so far from the mark that it is difficult to characterize them even as miss-truths. They are something else.

So a Twitter campaign to take on the miss-truths was launched.

I capture 1,500 Twitter messages containing "Obama" every 5 minutes 24 hours a day. I did not start searching specifically for #AttackWatch until much later than its initiation. I was capturing tweets containing Obama and many also included the hashtag. Based on the number of #AttackWatch messages containing Obama after I started specifically searching for #AttackWatch the search for Obama probably picked up about one-third of the #AttackWatch messages. So the numbers I report for the first day and a half can, with a good deal of caution, be multiplied by three.

If the above was first what was the second tweet containing the hashtag?

SilverXGames | 9/13/2011 | 3:37 PM | RT @BarackObama: We've launched a new way to track and respond to attacks against President Obama: #AttackWatch. Check it out: http://t.co/ruYN3kA

It was a retweet within seconds -- the same 3:37 pm. The announcement was retweeted 525 times on Tuesday. The last retweet was at 11:57 pm. Since the retweets contain Obama this is probably all of them. For the afternoon and evening the number of messages containing #AttackWatch numbered 5285, which might be multiplied by 3. That looks like a big number, of course. But there were 92,977 messages on the 13th containing Obama. That number assumes that there were no periods during the day when messages containing Obama came faster than 1,500 in 5 minutes; any more than 1,500 per 5 minutes are missed in my collecting. There were more Twitter messages about 9/11 for a few days, but nothing else in politics even approaches this quantity of speaking out.

On September the 14th there were 109,843 messages containing Obama. 18,371 of those messages contained #AttackWatch. This may well be a case for multiplying by three. Whether 18K or 55K the campaign has garnered quite a lot of attention. But RT @BarackObama We.ve . . . the original announcement was retweeted only 133 times.

TheNewDeal came through with a tweet that was positive.

RT @TheNewDeal: It's Really Simple, The Republican Party Hates Obama More Than They Love America. They Will Screw You to Spite Him. #AttackWatch #p2

It was retweeted about 150 times. The rest were:

RT @Mitch_Stewart what is up with @attackwatch? This is your plan for 2012? Obama looks like a joke. Nice Nazi... http://t.co/8e8yURgF

RT @jamestaranto: ATTACK: #attackwatch is a laughingstock. THE FACTS: The Obama campaign has no sense of humor whatever.

Is Obama a republican stooge to make democrats look bad? #attackwatch

RT @jamestaranto: Somebody has already set up AttackWatchWatch.com. Obama has to fight back with AttackWatchWatchWatch.com! #attackwatch http://t.co/hgdga52p

RT @BradThor: Is #attackwatch just another incarnation of flag@whitehouse.gov? Wow, not only are #Obama & Co. incredibly thin-skinned, they're paranoid.

RT @TexasRV: Every time Obama speaks, debts increase, markets fall, jobs are lost and real estate loses value. Please investigate @AttackWatch

RT @aheram: Hey, @AttackWatch, someone is spreading the rumor that Obama attacked Libya without Congressional approval. FACT OR FICTION? #attackwatch

RT @velvethammer: W/ #AttackWatch Obama inadvertently gave the public campaign-approved outlet 2 mock him in 140 characters or less http://t.co/2WnK67aX #p2

It is very hard to find an #AttackWatch message that is not turning it into criticism of Obama in one form or another. I think the last of the quoted messages is the one with the most bite: "public campaign-approved outlet 2 mock him in 140 characters or less."

And the ratio of retweeting the original announcement to the messages prompted is not very good. On Tuesday it was 525 to 5285 and Wednesday it was 133 to 18K [or three times as many]. And what may be most distressing is 658 retweets to 10 million folllowers. If the messages had been favorable to Obama the first two would be very good ratios. But they were largely negative. The original message prompted an outpouring of negation.

There are many ways to use hashtags, but the most fundamental is establishing a domain for communication. If you wanted to argue about health care reform before it was passed you included #hcr in your message. That is 'where' the argument raged. #Teaparty and #p2 are used to bring together communication of the same spirit -- teaparty people and progressive people. But #teaparty and #p2 are also used to tell the others that they are crazy because you know they will be 'there' to read what you have to say.

There is no monopoly control on the use of hashtags. They can be used against you as well as for you. At least initially the 'no's' have it with #AttackWatch. The 'domain' is full of anti-Obama messaging and very little nipping "these attacks in the bud."

Perhaps they anticipated this as a first reaction. It is hard to imagine anyone familiar with Twitter and the messaging about Obama not anticipating this. If they did not anticipate it they were not thinking very clearly. However, one might argue for a longer view. Spikes pass away very quickly on Twitter. The anti-Obama messangers will move on to newer and 'greener' fields for their vitriol. And Obama partisans may be the followers who remain to get the word of the day.

But in the short run it is an embarrassment. In the short run one really should know that there is no monopoly control of hashtags. And one really should be smarter!

Next day 9/15/2011 -- the story continues. 27K #AttackWatch tweets. And the Washington Post was called in to deliver the coup de gras

"Attack Watch, new Obama campaign site to 'fight smears,' become laughing stock of conservatives."