Fake question in the Obama AMA?

52  2012-08-30 by Draft_Punk

I'm not sure if this has been brought up before, but I found one question in the Obama AMA very suspect. User "hmlee" submitted a question about how he was graduating grad school and there were no jobs, etc. Obama replied with a 300 word piece straight from his campaign about how much he's doing/done to create jobs.

My main concern with this are a few things:

1) User "hmlee" was created moments before the question was asked. 2) The user's story is strikingly similar to political stereotyping. They might as well have led off with "I'm an 18-24 male who is concerned about the economy". 3) The tone used is in no way Redditesque. 4) Finally, the closing comment/question is VERY slanted call to action:

"What can I say to encourage those in similar situations as I am to show up again in November? What hope can you offer us for your second term?"

I fully believe user "hmlee" is a campaign staffer.

21 comments

21  Texas_ 2012-08-30

Here are 5 other questions to consider.

  1. What were the terms that President Obama was given the username PresidentObama when it was already an active account. http://web.archive.org/web/20090221153248/http://www.reddit.com/user/PresidentObama

  2. Why was access restricted to only this post when I was allowed to log in everywhere else? I was only able to view the post after logging out.

  3. Why were some of the more provocative questions deleted when it was an AMA?

  4. Why was President Obama sitting at his laptop accepted as proof when it could have been and most likely was a staffer answering questions?

  5. Were there any guidelines or restrictions that President Obama requested in order to do the AmA?

2  oarabbus 2012-08-30

Another one: there were several typos in PresidentObama's posts. I find it hard to believe that an intelligent Harvard Law graduate would make more grammatical errors while typing than I.

-5  [deleted] 2012-08-30

[deleted]

4  AmoDman 2012-08-30

but it doesn't change my vote.

Why should we care? No one was talking about your vote, we were talking about blatant deception in this situation.

1  tripsick 2012-08-30

its like every part of every side is rigged.

1  kyr 2012-08-30

Why was access restricted to only this post when I was allowed to log in everywhere else? I was only able to view the post after logging out.

This might have a perfectly innocent reason, as the rapidly changing comments page probably wreaks havoc on reddit's caching and the logged out version may be easier to cache than the individual logged in version.

1  zwartelola 2012-08-30

Just a thought in answer to the PresidentObama active account.. Maybe he has been an active user? But only until the AMA, was it verified as to be him?

1  Texas_ 2012-08-30

The date of membership changed to the same day as the AMA.

0  DocSporky510 2012-08-30

I too had problems accessing the AMA, but was able to get on other subreddits. There's a rumor that 4Chan DDOSed the AMA page. I've never seen anything like it on Reddit and doubt I'll ever see it again (unless Romney is stupid enough to do an AMA)

6  KisaruBandit 2012-08-30

In his defense, during the AMA a lot of the login servers were screwed up. I can see someone making a new account to bypass not being able to log onto their regular account. He does sound pretty generic though, and it does sound very slanted.

6  [deleted] 2012-08-30

[deleted]

1  FemaCampDirector 2012-08-30

I don't think so.

0  HAIL_ANTS 2012-08-30

Clearly a Zionist plant.

2  [deleted] 2012-08-30

[deleted]

1  HAIL_ANTS 2012-08-30

Sorry, I was under the impression that anyone who disagreed with the /r/conspiracy hivemind was a zionist plant. Like that guy.

5  TotallyKidding 2012-08-30

If it is or if it isn't, it sure isn't going to change how you feel about the situation.

5  TheFinalJourney 2012-08-30

Obama was probably on his desk doing other stuff while some guy on the laptop was doing the answering

4  [deleted] 2012-08-30

Reddit is owned by corporations so what do you expect

3  LegioIXHispana 2012-08-30

This AMA is further proof that TPTB do know about and monitor Reddit.

3  choomouse 2012-08-30

Could it just someone who saw he was doing an AMA on twitter and made an account to ask a question?

1  MrMaybe 2012-08-30

Yeah, this. Tons of non-Redditors were drawn to Reddit because of his AMA. It's not really a stretch to think ONE of those random people would create an account to ask a question.

2  [deleted] 2012-08-30

Millions of people coming here, I suppose that it isn't likely that one person fits that description without being paid.

-1  FemaCampDirector 2012-08-30

I believe you are possibly right.