Some people will adamantly deny that paid comment trolls are a real thing that exists, but employing paid trolls is exactly what Fox News now stands accused of.
According to an NPR reporter, Fox News’ PR staff created at least one hundred fake accounts to troll blogs. via Media Matters
In a chapter focusing on how Fox utilized its notoriously ruthless public relations department in the mid-to-late 00′s, Folkenflik reports that Fox’s PR staffers would “post pro-Fox rants” in the comments sections of “negative and even neutral” blog posts written about the network. According to Folkenflik, the staffers used various tactics to cover their tracks, including setting up wireless broadband connections that “could not be traced back” to the network.
This is not to suggest that most trolls are actually paid to be concerned — they aren’t — but paid trolls do exist and Fox News is not the only organization to employ them.
The sad truth (for them) is that most comment trolls are working for their masters, unwittingly, for free. Suckers.