The Daily Background

The ABC News Investigative Team (Brian Ross’ office) has picked up the scoop originally and exclusively reported at The Daily Background involving the Republican ad firm Stevens, Reed, Curcio & Potholm and a series of naughty viral videos posted on YouTube.

On July 13th, I published this report, which garnered some attention around the blogosphere. In it, I alleged that SRCP, the ad firm responsible for the 2004 “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth” ads, was behind a series of mock Giuliani ads posted on YouTube. SRCP subsequently contacted me and demanded I remove the initial report from my website, which I declined to do, although I did add an update to the original post saying I could not vouch for the authenticity of my report.

I have since been in contact with ABC News, which today reports a key new detail in the story:

The MySpace profile that appears to belong to a firm employee boasts 91 friends and belongs to several Republican discussion forums. On July 13, after a blogger noted apparent connections between the ads and the firm employee, someone with access to the profile commented on another MySpace user’s page, “Issues with the ‘campaign’ really heated up at work today; big time. I might have royally screwed something up. Though I could probably use a stiff drink, I don’t think I should go out in public much in the next few weeks.”

In a July 16 letter, the firm’s lawyer asked at least one blogger to cease his “false assertions” linking SRCP to the ads. The firm said the lawyer had sent copies of that letter to MySpace and the online video hosting service YouTube, where an account was created to host the spots under a name similar to the firm’s employee.

Needless to say, I’ll be following any new developments in this story in the future.

Filed under: Z-Feature