Not vouching for this item (via MediaPost), just saying:

Are ‘Digg Patriots’ A Harbinger Of What’s To Come With Crowd-Sourced Editorial Tools

Albeit on a very slow news day, the industry is buzzing about popular link-sharing Web site Digg, and claims that some “influential conservative” members are systematically downgrading thousands of stories they deem to be too “liberal.”

Online magazine AlterNet claims to have caught the “Digg Patriots” censuring “hundreds of users, dozens of Web sites, and thousands of stories” on Digg. Alternet claims that the group of about 100 is “able to bury over 90% of articles by certain users and Web sites submitted within 1-3 hours.”

The piece quotes sources saying Digg is “one of the most important social networking/Net story discovery services out there,” but also that “Digg has long been susceptible to external gaming.”

Who’s gaming who has yet to be resolved.