-By Warner Todd Huston
It looks like the Washington Times and Sarah Palin have a case against the prepper company “Patriot Survival Plan” for misusing their names by making it seem as if they are supporting them–or at least using them to get people to click through to their advertisement site.
So, on my Facebook page I have been getting a sidebar ad with a (fake) photo of Sarah Palin and a dead “link” to the Washington Times newspaper (see screen shot below). But when you click on the thing it goes to some goofball prepper site trying to sell you some wacky video. It has nothing to do with either the Times or Sarah Palin. So, it makes one wonder if the paper and Palin are aware this prepper dude is misrepresenting himself using their images and faux links?
The prepper site, Patriot Survival Plan, is selling some sort of fear that the world is going to collapse because it is filled with big banks, civil unrest, Bilderbergers, Trilatteral Commissions, end of times, and aliens from outer space or some such stuff. I won’t link to them here as I won’t give them the free link. Besides, I’m sure it is jammed with malaware, too.
But what they are doing with their Facebook ad is very unethical. Firstly is the badly photoshopped photo of Sarah Palin you may have seen before. It is that one with “Sarah” in a tight-fitting, pink shirt opened wide enough to see her cleavage, an ampleness which she does not in reality possess.
Then there is the “link” typed into the ad that reads “washingtontimes.com.”
Next to that is the message, “This Video Went Viral in Mins. CLICK HERE to Watch.”
Screenshot of the original Facebook ad.
The viewer is fooled into thinking that clicking on this ad will take one to a video, one perhaps sponsored by the Washington Times and one talking about Sarah Palin or featuring her. But it is none of these.
The first click takes you to a fake LiveLeak.com page with a message that makes the visitor think they are going to see a video about how “FEMA Panicked when this Video got LEAKED!”
The first page a click on the ad takes you to is a fake page from LiveLeak.com.
Clicking on that then takes you not to LiveLeak.com but to the wacky prepper’s site.
One would think that Palin, the Washington Times and LiveLeak.com ALL have grounds to sue this prepper goofball, wouldn’t one?
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, Wizbang.com, among many, many others. Huston has also appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, and many local TV shows as well as numerous talk radio shows throughout the country.
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