Conservative talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh (AP Photo)

(CNSNews.com) – A small group of liberal activists who want conservative talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh off the air are not denying--as stated in an investigative report posted on Limbaugh’s website--that they have used automated software to generate massive numbers of negative tweets to companies they apparently have never patronized but that advertise on Limbaugh’s show.

The automated generation of massive numbers of Tweets may be in violation of Twitters own rules. However, Twitter declined to directly comment on the matter—instead pointing CNSNews.com to its user rules.

On Sept. 23, the rushlimbaugh.com website posted an extensive investigative report, The Hidden Story Behind Stop Rush. This report presented details about 10 liberal activists whom the report described as “Top Members of the Stop Rush Conspiracy.”

In addition to naming names, Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, and some e-mail addresses for the activists, the report said this small group of anti-Rush activists did not constitute a grassroots movement but were “just a small number of hardcore political activists founded by Angelo Carusone, EVP [executive vice president] of Media Matters for America.” Media Matters is a left-wing media monitoring group.

The report said only “10 Twitter users account for almost 70% of all StopRush tweets to advertisers.” It also said that many of the anti-Rush communications sent by this group originate “from outside the State of the advertiser,” and that their “only role is to harass small businesses in an attempt to interfere with their operations, as long as they are advertising with Rush.”

Twitter image. (AP)

These activists, the report said, are “distributing target lists indiscriminately, and annoying small businesses until they give up the advertising deals that help them grow, or risk being unable to conduct business at all. This is not activism, the report concluded, but “blackmail.”

The Sept. 23 rushlimbaugh.com investigative report also said that the “Stop Rush” campaign had “deployed custom automated tweeting software, in violation of Twitter’s rules, that lets their activists send tweets at a rate far faster than any unassisted person could do manually. They send barrages of thousands of messages through this software until advertisers are bullied and harassed into cancellation.”

CNSNews.com contacted two of the small group of liberal activists cited in the report--Lauren Reynolds and Linda Kotsenburg Swanholm—and asked them questions about the report’s allegations. Did they use automated software to target tweets at Limbaugh advertisers? Were any of the allegations in “The Hidden Story Behind Stop Rush” inaccurate?

Neither responded to CNSNews.com’s questions.

A search of some of the activists’ Twitter accounts by CNSNews.com, using the software program Snap Bird showed that Linda Kotsenburg Swanholm (@socallks), for example, had sent out approximately 2,822 tweets and/or retweets between Sept. 23 and Oct. 15 that referenced “#stoprush.”

That means this one person was sending out about 122 tweets a day about Limbaugh.

Swanholm, who lives in Covina, Calif., has sent (as of Oct. 15) a total of 104,000 tweets since she opened that Twitter account in March 2012.

Screenshot from @socallks Twitter page.

A review of her tweets shows that she regularly sends complaint-tweets to advertisers of the Rush Limbaugh Show, including some that are doing business far from California.

For example, she has tweeted or retweeted the Golisano Children’s Hospital in Ft. Myers, Fla.; Leader Bank in Arlington, Mass.; Express Franchising in Oklahoma City, Okla.; the Kentucky Lottery; Heritage for the Blind in Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Brand Republic in London, England; and the Circle of Life Hospice in Reno, Nev., among many other businesses.

One typical complaint that Swanholm sent to a small business advertiser on Oct. 8 reads: “@ColumbiaHonda Emails from Limbaugh Listeners, your target Audience? … Best to #stoprush ads and association w/him.”

Another tweet sent on Oct. 15 to Medifast reads: “Any business with ads on Rush Limbaugh’s show is helping to promote Misogyny, Racism and Bigotry. Should #stoprushads.”

Swanholm sends similarly worded complaints to numerous other advertisers apparently every day. (Tweets can be read here.)

Lauren Reynolds, using the Twitter account @chloesty, has sent a total of 35,100 tweets (as of Oct. 15). A search using Snap Bird shows she sent approximately 1,493 anti-Rush Limbaugh, #stoprush tweets (or retweets), between Aug. 26 and Oct. 15, or 29 tweets and retweets a day.

Screenshot from @chloesty Twitter page.

Reynolds lives in Los Angeles, Calif., but many of her anti-Rush tweets are sent to small businesses in other states, such as Oswego Mortgage in Oregon; Dove Lewis animal hospital in Oregon; the Waltzer Law Group in New York and New Jersey; Anchorage Concerts in Alaska; Triangle Tube in New Jersey; Kristan Cole realty in Alaska; Breitling Energy in Texas; Georgia Boot in Ohio, and so on.

Sue Bryce, identified as Sarah Smyea Rivers in the Sept. 23 rushlimbaugh.com article, has sent 97,600 tweets (as of Oct. 15) since she opened her Twitter account in November 2011. Between Sept. 7 and Oct. 15, she sent out 1,904 #stoprush tweets and/or retweets—or an average of 48 #stoprush items per day.

Others in the small group of activists identified in Limbaugh’s report also sent large numbers of #stoprush tweets/retweets on a daily basis:

Matthew Mitchell in Florida (@CaptMurdock), sent about 2,201 anti-Rush tweets/retweets between Aug. 31 and Oct. 15. That equaled about 47 a day.

Cherie Richards (@KittyFitz50) sent 1,840 #stoprush tweets/retweets between Sept. 26 and Oct. 15, or about 92 per day.

Screenshot from @KittyFitz50 Twitter page.

Carol Kernahan Wallin (@carolkernahan) sent around 2,311 #stoprush tweets/retweets between Sept. 1 and Oct. 15, or about 51 a day on average.

On Oct. 7, CNSNews.com sent questions by e-mail to Linda Kotsenburg Swanholm and to Lauren Reynolds, asking them specifically:

“Do you use ‘custom automated tweeting software, in violation of Twitter’s rules,’ to send tweets to advertisers? Yes or no?”

Neither Swanholm nor Reynolds responded.

In an earlier e-mail to Reynolds on Sept. 24, CNSNews.com referenced the rushlimbaugh.com report and asked: “Do you deny that you are involved in the campaign urging small businesses not to advertise on the Rush Limbaugh radio program?”

Reynolds did not answer the question directly but said: “I contact ALL businesses and organizations if I hear their ad aired during the Rush Limbaugh Show.”

Subsequent e-mails from CNSNews.com to Reynolds were not answered.

Screenshot from @carolkernahan Twitter page.

CNSNews.com also contacted Twitter’s media relations office and asked about the use of “automated tweeting software, in violation of Twitter’s rules,” as noted in the Limbaugh report. Twitter spokesman Nu Wexler responded on Oct. 6 by e-mail saying, “We don’t have a comment for your story, but I can point you to our rules, which outline conduct and content boundaries on Twitter.”

Wexler provided links to the Twitter rules.

In the section on “Abuse and Spam,” Twitter says, “You may not engage in targeted abuse or harassment. Some of the factors that we take into account when determining what conduct is considered to be targeted abuse or harassment are: if you are sending messages to a user from multiple accounts; if the sole purpose of your account is to send abusive messages to others; if the reported behavior is one-sided or includes threats.”

Angelo Carusone, executive vice president of Media Matters for America. (Photo: Village Voice.)

It further reads, “You may not use the Twitter service for the purpose of spamming anyone. What constitutes ‘spamming’ will evolve as we respond to new tricks and tactics by spammers. Some of the factors that we take into account when determining what conduct is considered to be spamming are: … If your updates consist mainly of links, and not personal updates; … If you post duplicate content over multiple accounts or multiple duplicate updates on one account; … If you send large numbers of duplicate @replies or mentions; … If you add a large number of unrelated users to lists; ….”

“Your account may be suspended for Terms of Service violations if any of the above is true,” says Twitter.

In addition to the question about automated tweeting software, CNSNews.com asked Reynolds and Swanholm, “Are you a customer of all those businesses that you tweeted #stoprush?”

Neither Reynolds nor Swanholm responded.

CNSNews.com also asked the two activists, “Do you deny what the article says about you, that your ‘only role is to harass small businesses in an attempt to interfere with their operations’?” They did not respond.

Finally, CNSNews.com asked them, “Do you deny any of the claims about you in the rushlimbaugh.com article and, if so, what specifically do you deny?” Neither Swanholm nor Reynolds answered.

In the rushlimbaugh.com article, it lists Media Matters for America Executive Vice President Angelo Carusone as among the activists targeting Rush Limbaugh.

David Brock, founder of the left-wing Media Matters for America. (AP)

Carusone, as discussed in a 2012 Village Voice article, started an online campaign (@StopBeck) against Glenn Beck’s advertisers and he also started the Stop Rush campaign.

Media Matters for America has received funding from billionaire leftist George Soros, and is headed by David Brock, who describes himself as a “Democratic political activist” on his Twitter account.

The other people listed as Stop Rush activists in the Sept. 23 article are: Matthew Mitchell of Altamonte Springs, Fla., Captain Murdock/@CaptMurdock; Nancy Padak, facebook.com/nancy.padak; Jason Rey of Georgia, Frantic Quark/@FranticQuark; Lauren Reynolds of Los Angeles, Calif., @chloesty, facebook.com/lauren.reynolds.946179; Cherie Richards of Powell, Ohio, Kitty Fitzgerald/@KittyFitz50, facebook.com/cherier1; Sarah Smyea Rivers of Whittier Calif., SueBryce/@eurekasue49; Dennis William Rohner of Gainesville, Fla., Shawtoo@Shawtoo; Linda Kotsenburg Swanholm of Covina, Calif., CMMorgan/@socallks; and Carol Kernahan Wallin of Anaheim, Calif., facebook.com/carol.kernahan.7.

CNSNews.com sent e-mails with questions to those listed who have e-mail addresses – Padak, Reynolds, Richards, Swanholm and Wallin – and tried to contact the other activists through their Twitter accounts. Discounting Reynolds’ Sept. 24 e-mail, none of the activists responded to initial questions or follow-up questions.