(PB-Post2) Moore Things That Make Me Say Hmm About Project Birmingham

I wanted to write a follow up to my prior post, where I listed what I thought were questionable circumstances surrounding Project Birmingham and how the leaked documents show possible coordination between the project and the media attacks on Roy Moore during the 2017 Special Election in Alabama.

I’m focusing this post on what I like to call the eight hundred pound gorilla in the room, the allegations of sexual assault made against Moore beginning on November 9th, 2017.  In my view, and according to the polls at the time, no other attacks against Moore damaged his double digit lead over Doug Jones like those allegations did.  Prior to November 9th, 2017, Judge Moore enjoyed an 11 point lead over Jones and even remained in the single digits for a time after The Washington Post article.

Given what we know about Project Birmingham, and the allegations that are still just… well… allegations, that gorilla may be even bigger than we know.

I went back and read the original article that was published on November 9th in The Washington Post. I also studied the leaked documents from Project Birmingham’s December “After Action” meeting.  In addition, I took another look at a recent article and listened to a podcast that NPR has published.

In light of these things, allow me to give you my ideas about why I think there is a possibility that the allegations of sexual assault made against Judge Moore during the Special Election could be connected with Project Birmingham.

Based on what we can glean from the leaked documents, Project Birmingham acknowledged at least twice that the allegations affected their “experiment” as well being detrimental to the outcome of election.  An outcome that ended up exactly as the project intended.

The above image is part of the leaked documents from the December 15th, 2017 “After Action” meeting held by Project Birmingham members and associates. Notice the second bullet point in the image.  They mention the “Wapo Report” and how they “provided major news outlets” with data that indicated “anti-Moore articles were popular.”  Also notice that they provided this information to the media “Prior to the WaPo report on Moore’s alleged child molestation.”

Now take a look at another leaked document from the December 15th meeting.  This one is a timeline that shows what actions were taken and when.

You can see in this above timeline that October, the month that the writers of the November 9th Wapo article were in Alabama working on a story about Moore supporters, is also the month that Project Birmingham experimented “with tactics to push narratives from one social media platform to another and ultimately into the press.”

These documents show me that the project was definitely shaped by the November 9th Wapo hit piece and actions were adjusted accordingly after it was published.  Notice in the timeline again how they pushed the write in candidate in December just before the election and after the allegations have been published.  Promoting a write in was far more effective after the public had been fed a litany of disgusting accusations against Moore.   Republicans would have been far more likely to look elsewhere for a candidate in December than October.

We do know from the recent reporting that Project Birmingham members claim to have also acted as “media advisors,” where they arraigned interviews between the write in candidate they were promoting and the media.

Now that we have this information, isn’t all reporting that occurred during this election suspicious?   Especially from The Washington Post?  I tend to think so.

I welcome your comments below.

Author: Duncan Lindsey

blogcaster at-large View all posts by Duncan Lindsey