Union-funded lobbyists launched an attack on former CNN anchor and school reform advocate Campbell Brown last week, in an attempt to undermine her campaign to reform teacher tenure rules in New York.
After BuzzFeed first reported on the attack campaign, a link to its story was tweeted out by "dozens of porn-tinged Twitter feeds," featuring photos of scantily-clad ladies and porn stars, the New York Post reports:
And by Sunday, dozens of the porn-tinged Twitter feeds repeated BuzzFeed’s headline, "Progressive Groups Launch Campaign To Paint Campbell Brown As a ‘Right-Wing Elitist’" and linked to its story.
The raunchy tweeters included @CynthiaNips—which has a picture of adult-film actress and Sarah Palin look-alike Lisa Ann as its cover photo.
Another Twitter feed, @SarahFreemen, also linked to the story amid its other tweets that included close-up crotch shots of actress Mischa Barton and model Miranda Kerr.
A rep for Brown lashed out at the seamy situation.
"To date, the teachers union and its allies have launched a Web site showing Campbell as a puppet, focused on her looks instead of her arguments and inferred that she can’t make a decision without her husband’s approval, all in an effort to distract from the fact that the families of seven public school children are so desperate for a decent education for their kids that they have sued the state of New York,’’ said Brown’s spokesman, Stefan Friedman.
The United Federation of Teachers and the Alliance for Quality Education denied any involvement in the Twitter spam in comments to the New York Post.
"We believe that’s absolutely disgusting and it distracts from the real issues of Campbell Brown’s attacks on public education," AQE spokesman Julian Vinocur told the Post.
AQE created a fake Campbell Brown twitter account and website in an effort to paint her as a right-wing ideologue. Brown has been pursuing a legal campaign against New York’s teacher tenure laws.
According to school reform advocates, the current tenure system makes it excessively difficult for public schools to fire incompetent and even dangerous teachers. Teachers unions oppose changes to tenure rules, arguing that they are necessary to protect educators from unjust terminations.
The Free Beacon reported on Friday that the AQE is a registered lobbying group in New York and receives significant funding from teachers unions.