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May 15, 2009

Fact-checking Canwest’s Don Martin

Yesterday in the National Post, Don Martin wrote a column condemning the Conservative’s “definition” ads on Michael Ignatieff trying to find scandal where there is none.

The Conservative Web site attacking the new Liberal leader is www.Ignatieff. me. Here endeth the federal party’s free publicity.

The .me Internet domain name is registered to the tiny European country of Montenegro, incidentally governed by a coalition, and its Web administrator is based in Arizona. It is, I’m told by experienced Web surfers, often used to showcase pornography.

Columnists and (more unfortunately) reporters often use terms such as “critics say”, “experts agree”, “some suggest” in place of “in my opinion”, “I think”, and “according to me”. Perhaps “I’m told by experienced Web surfers” could be “the Liberal party told me that” but “questions surround” Don’s true source on top level domains and pornography.

I decided that I’d get to the bottom of this. I decided to check Google for the number of sites that came up when one searches for the term “porn”. If Mr. Martin is correct, we’ll see the Montenegro top level domain (TLD) populated with teh porn results. However, I wanted to take a look to be sure.

There are 251 top level domains that I checked (including the 180 or so countries recognized at the UN), the semi-autonomous regions and the other TLDs including .com, .org, .net.

Don’t worry, I didn’t do these searches one at a time, one browser-based Google search after another; I wrote a script that used the Google AJAX API to get the results and crunch them.

For a quick tutorial on google searches, a search for

site:.fr fromage

will return all sites with the keyword “fromage” in the French top level domain.

Using the Google AJAX API, I decided to check every country code for the number of results with the keyword “porn”.

http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/services/search/web?v=1.0&q=site:.me%20porn
where “%20″ is the URL encoded character for a space

I wrote a PHP script that checks each TLD for “porn” and then parses the results to extract the number of search results from the output of the Google AJAX API call.

Here are the results (you’ll want to click each graph to enlarge them)

If you click on the image to enlarge it, you’ll see that the most populated TLD for the word “porn” (as indexed by Google) is .com. In fact, Montenegro ranks at 61 for propensity of porn. In fact, if you’d be more likely to find porn on the (.cx) domain for… yes, Christmas Island. If we want to measure the proportion of porn sites in a TLD, .me is 15th behind the “porn-showcasing” countries of the Bahamas, Norfolk Island, Azerbaijan, Grenada, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Western Samoa, Bhutan, Congo, Togo, Tokelau, Georgia, Seychelles Islands, and the Virgin Islands. Just over 1% of .com domain names contain the keyword “porn”. Montenegro clocks in at just half a percent more. So, I think we can put Don Martin’s irresponsible words to rest. In terms of “showcased porn”, you’re much more likely to see it on German, Polish and Russian servers. Further, the term “showcase” is deceiving as well since most domains are open to registration to all local residents (if not all global residents) and there is generally no stipulation that states that a registrant must feature pornography.

But where did Don Martin’s assumption come from? Given the Liberal Party’s embarrassment and lack of foresight in launching a campaign at onprobation.ca when onprobation.com turned out to be a hardcore pornographic website, perhaps the Liberals were floating some bogus talking points over to Martin to get them published as fact.

Now that we’ve resolved the Montenegro issue, and now that we have a great program that sorts TLDs by search terms, let’s make sure that we’re still #1 for what matters (even though all Canadian team have been eliminated).

Take that, Sweden.

If you’re interested in the PHP program, here’s the source code.

This entry was authored by Stephen Taylor at 11:28 AM | Tweet this | Comments (33)

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Ker

Ignatieff.eh would have been pretty good, too.
Liz J

There's not much doubt the Liberals have free publicity on anything they wish to get out, Martin is a willing purveyor.
His fact checking here is a tad off, trouble is, when we all catch up with the truth this false info is spread far and wide. He may be more suited to writing books about Liberal babes like Belinda Stronach. Maybe we'll see one on “I Ruby” next.

I think the truth ads are worrying the Libs, including their leader who has come out saying he won't be making personal attacks on Mr Harper. Well, hello! Mr Harper hasn't been making personal attacks on him either.
The CPC is putting out facts about Ignatieff that all Canadians should be privy to since he's positioning himself to be our PM if the voters say so.
http://extrafuture.com/ Phil Nelson

Though I agree with the sentiment (and what's wrong with pornography, anyway? is this the 50s?), that chart is misleading at best. Of COURSE .me domains are going to be low on the list- there aren't many of them. It's not a super popular TLD.

A useful chart would be the PERCENTAGE of .me domains that are porn. Granted, that's a much harder-to-accomplish task.
http://www.stephentaylor.ca Stephen Taylor

The .xxx domain was intended to “showcase” pornography. .me is open to all registrants so it is hard to argue that it is intended to “showcase” one thing or another.

If there's one argument that could be made for “showcasing” intent at .me, it would be for personal webpages… ie. john.me
Nicola Timmerman

I don't believe anything Don Martin says anymore.

So you didn't even stop to look at one porn site. A real dedicated researcher!
wilson

''His fact checking here is a tad off''

his fact checking was likely taken from a number of Libloggers who raised the Montenegro thing the day before.
Lazy lazy lazy journalism, if you can call it that.

http://scottdiatribe.canflag.com/2009/05/13/isn…

Isn’t it ironic.. don’t you think?
Posted by Scott Tribe on May 13, 2009, at 2:55 pm |
The Conservatives are using a website based on a server in Montenegro to attack Ignatieff for having lived outside of Canada for a time.

Nice to see the folks at Conservative War Room central are helping the Montenegro economy out.. but surely they had enough cash in the bank to support a Canadian server host to do this?

UPDATE: If you’re wondering where Montenegro is…

UPDATE 2 @ 3:35 pm – The plot thickens. A colleague of mine wrote this, stating it may not be in Montenegro, despite the .me domain:

“I pinged the IP address for ignatieff.me and did a geolocation trace on it. Here are the results. When you input those coordinates into google maps, the server is being hosted somewhere very close to the US capitol building. Perhaps they have employed a little help from their Republican friends in DC. I hear they have a lot of idle time these days.”
RobertMcClelland

Wisecrack #1: So you spent the day surfing for porn…just for educational purposes of course.

Wisecrack #2: I'm certainly glad you got to the bottom of that meaningless mystery.
NovaDog

Good investigative journalism, Don (double scotch) Martin might take some pointers.

Thanks,
http://www.stephentaylor.ca Stephen Taylor

*zing*
John D

Saying that most porn sites are not *.me does not mean that *.me is not “often used to showcase pornography.”
east of eden

The salient point is, of course, what does it matter if the service hosts porn? That issue is typical of Lib diversionary tactics which, IMHO, constitute deception and lies – Liberal stuff, you know.
ridenrain

.. and how's that “onparole.com” website working out for you, Liberals?
Talk about not having room to talk.
alan

Don Martin sings from “The Music Man”…

People:
Trouble, oh we got trouble,
Right here in Liberal City!
With a capital “T”
That rhymes with “.me”
And that stands for Porn,
That stands for porn.
We’ve surely got trouble!
Right here in Liberal City,
Right here!
Gotta figger out a way
To keep the young ones moral after school!
Trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble…
mecheng

I came to the same conclusion David. Both with regards to absolute numbers of sites, and to your disturbing image of Matrin with his pants around his cankles.
NeilD

You’re going to be getting spam for the next hundred years….., so I’m told.
NeilD
mecheng

That is the second chart, isn't it? That shows that about 2% of .me sites are indexed under the term “porn”?

Another question…will this blog now be indexed under “porn”? I don't know how this interweb thing works…
David

If I got this straight there is more porn (absolute numbers) on .ca than there is on .me. Does this mean we can conclude that there is a connection between this and liberal.ca? Some may say yes. Martin has been caught with his pants down here. That is not something I’d want to see on .ca, .me or anywhere else.
MaryT

And didn't the libs link to a pors site re the greenshift site.
OT but scam alert.
Re MIMI and 360 hrs or 45 days to get EI.
Had a call from an employee of a small self-employed business with a seasonal business. He is new to town and didn't know I would tell him where to go
Question, I am making 20.00/hr but will not qualify for EI by late summer. Can I ask my boss to double my hours and half my pay to get in more hours on my pay stub. Would still take home same amount. If this kid thought of that you can be sure others have also.
east of eden

Mais non. Americans use “hunh”, not “eh”. So, it would be ignatieff.hunh. LOL.
Derek

Are those “experienced Web surfers” professional masturabators ?
batb

Being a tech/Internet/etc. Luddite, I can't comment on your research, Steve, but it looks impressive!

I'd like to know what's with Don Martin. He seems to be on glib, pro-Lib autopilot, both in his articles and when commenting on Don Newman's Politics as a “political pundit” on the CBC. As you can see, I'm not watching it, as it's so predictable, though I did catch Martin doing the panelist soft-shoe last week. He's smarmy, glib, and ALWAYS shilling for the Libs as he puts down PMSH and members of the CPC with a self-satisfied smirk on his increasingly rotund face. 'Must be the great hors d'oeuvres he's eating at the LPC soirees.

Just my opinion …
Doz

And what % of pornsites use “XXX” or “sex” rather than “porn” to promote their wares on Google? Does this affect your numbers?
batb

Cross posted at SDA a few minutes ago:

[begin quote]

Yikes. Don Martin seems to be changing his tune:

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullco…

“It’s far easier to find a Liberal to badmouth the colorful MP than a Conservative willing to take a cheap shot.”

What I want to know, then, is how come Martin, just a few days ago, was saying that the Conservatives were “gleeful” at Ms. Dhalla's dilemma? I didn't see or hear one CPC member voicing any joy at the allegations of nanny abuse on the part of Ms. Dhalla. Martin's comment about gleeful government members was predicated, I suspect, on his default pro-Liberal position.

So, whose LPC members' side is Martin on now? It's difficult to imagine he's swung right and is batting for the Honourable — and, now, the Popular — Jason Kenney, voted last night Parliamentarian of the Year by MPs from all parties.

This whole episode is getting curioser and curioser.

[end quote]

The problem, of course, is that once Martin's allegations of glee on the part of government members have been made public via the MSM, how many will read this article a few days later that seems to distance Martin from those remarks? I saw or heard no evidence that CPC members were “gleeful” over Ruby Dhalla's predicament, and regard Martin's reporting of such joy as pure partisan MSM cheerleading, trying to paint the CPC, as per usual, as the meanies.

Having said that, I'm delighted to hear via Martin's National Post article today that the Honourable Jason Kenney has been voted as Parliamentarian of the Year by MPs from all parties: the Popular Jason Kenney.

Thank you, Mr. Martin, for making this public.
enkidu

Just another casual drive-by smear from just another Gliberal sycophant. Honesty, integrity and impartiality are foreign concepts to this guy. Who needs fact-checking or research when you have ready access to unnamed (and untrustworthy) ‘sources’?
terry1

Maybe this will clear it up further for you;
http://www.calgaryherald.com/columnists/Kenney+…

It was a shocking choice, given that Kenney is considered an ideologue who never hesitates to use a hatchet to eviscerate rivals who stand in the way of his party's agenda.

And minutes after the announcement, he suffered an emotional letdown of sorts linked to the suspicion that Kenney will stop at nothing to eliminate a Liberal to make way for a Conservative.

It all started when the new immigration minister found a hot-off-the-presses copy of Maclean's. He was under the impression winning the title put him on the cover of the contest-sponsoring magazine, but that was definitely not his face, often described as Fred Flintstonesque, on the front.

In his place was an eye-popping, cleavage-busting shot of Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla, which would not look out of place fronting an edition of the men's magazine Maxim, which rated her third sexiest politician on the planet last year.

Kenney thumbed the pages filled with 20 flattering photos framing a lengthy article on Dhalla's life story and the latest brouhaha over the treatment of nannies in her family home and suddenly burst into laughter: “I put her there!” he howled, jabbing the magazine cover.
Ker

Exactly. It'd be ironic! And it sounds like a question. “Ignatieff, eh? On second thought, I'll pass.”
gimbol

From the looks of the response from Iggy, I’d have to say that they where not expecting this.

Couple this with Iggy’s direction to have some policy in place for early June, and you could presume that the rush at lib HQ just got a bit more intense.
Now, I’m not going to base any truth to these assumptions, merely point out possible outcomes. The one possible outcome now is that in an urgent push to get out something big like Iggy has been telling us we need, thats the time that the law of unintended consequences kick in.
He won’t touch a new tax…that one is toxic.
Will his big idea be a new highway? That won’t really catch on with the left progressives that are agianst developement especially roads fo those nasty ghg spewing autos.
Hmmm, what could Iggy trot out as the “big idea” ™?

A national energy policy?
Distinct society clause in the constitution?
A new measuring system?
Another official language?
Renaming every federal building, airport, school, and major landmark after Pierre Trudeau?
Changing the name and mandate of the Canadian Armed Forces to something more progressive like “Peace And National Security Institution Encouraging Safety” or PANSIES?
James

Good work Stephen, but I think the real counter argument is that the “.me” is intended solely to highlight ignattieff's self-absorbed nature. It doesn't really matter whether the TLD is used for porn or not, in this case it is being used to highlight a flaw of Iggy's.
batb

Here's Paul Well's weighing in on a “pronoun problem” that Count Iggula has — you know how he uses the royal “we” a lot and how he's used it to mean THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA?

The guy's definitely got a credibility problem. I love one of the last lines of Wells' column where he refers to Iggy's book as “I Swear to God I’m Canadian [scratched out] True Patriot Love.”

LOL!!!!
Big Daddy

You have way too much time on your hands.
Omanator

I dont know what came over Don Martin. He never used to be so anti Conservative. I wonder if the PMO forgot to invite him to some shindig.
Big Daddy

You have way too much time on your hands.
Omanator

I dont know what came over Don Martin. He never used to be so anti Conservative. I wonder if the PMO forgot to invite him to some shindig.