[ExI] Astroturf - Is anything 'real' out there?

[Kelly Anderson]

On Thu, Aug 4, 2011 at 1:38 PM, BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 4, 2011 at 8:11 PM, Kelly Anderson wrote:
>> Sure, in fact it is very easy.
>>
>> George Soros And His Open Society Institute gave at least $21,223,500
>> To 23 Groups working against President Bush’s Legislative Agenda and
>> $5,235,000 to groups that blocked Bush appointees.
>>
> <big snip>
>
>
> Soros might well have done this, but it isn't astroturf.
>
> Astroturf creates a pseudo popular campaign by use of hundreds of
> aliases, generating thousands of emails, phone calls, newspaper
> articles, etc, pretending to have a groundswell of popular support
> where none exists in reality.
>
> Supporting real-life campaign groups is not astroturfing.

Fair enough. Admittedly, I provided a very long list, without a lot of
detail... and I can't blame you for missing this one, which I believe
does meet the definition of astroturfing.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=498740

'So what looked like a wildfire grassroots movement really was a
manipulation from OSI's glassy Manhattan offices. The public had no
way of knowing until the release of OSI's 2006 annual report.'

I would be willing to bet a significant sum that this is not the only
case. If this doesn't meet the definition, then I do not understand
what astroturfing is. The point for me is that Soros is creating
opinion, not supporting it.

-Kelly