Home | Menu
MANDATE MEDIAdigital strategy for people changing the world

Cornyn staffer caught trolling Burnt Orange Report

It's happened again. Another GOP staffer has been caught red-handed trolling anonymously on a progressive blog.

From Burnt Orange Report:

Many of you have become familiar with user Buck Smith's abusive comments that troll the site, attack and personally insult users and writers, and impugn the integrity of our community, our Democratic candidates and our Democratic values.

We have a policy that our commenters have helped enforce that requires us to disclose our jobs and who pays us. Our commenters have done the same. When political consultants or staffers post on this site, we know who they are and where they are coming from, ensuring that no false representation is being had. ...

In 2007, user Buck Smith began posting on this and other sites, mainly on threads involving Lt. Col. Rick Noriega or Sen. John Cornyn. He attacked diarists and commenters and provided pro-Cornyn spin on many items. In the interest of full disclosure, and in order to keep everything fair, and since Buck Smith has not disclosed who he is, we thought we would clue you in that he is David Beckwith, John Cornyn's senior staffer.

We found out his identity because Mr. Beckwith's email on file with the site is the same email listed on the webpage for his high school reunion class. (We also have a screenshot in case the site is removed soon.)

Will these people ever learn?

Posted on July 1, 2008 in GOPWatch | See full archives

Phone‪503-609-0561‬