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

[Richard Loosemore]

On 8/4/11 3:11 PM, Kelly Anderson wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 4, 2011 at 11:07 AM, Richard Loosemore
> <rloosemore at susaro.com>  wrote:
>> On 8/3/11 12:27 AM, Kelly Anderson wrote:
>>> On Tue, Aug 2, 2011 at 3:02 AM, BillK<pharos at gmail.com>   wrote:
>>>> With all these cashroots campaigns, "Follow the money!"  Where does
>>>> their funding come from? Though that can sometimes be very difficult
>>>> to find out.
>>> A rather large number of them can be traced back to George Sorros...
>>> at least the left leaning ones...
>> Laughable.
>>
>> Can you cite your evidence that "a rather large number of" the astroturfing
>> organizations are traceable back to George Soros?
> 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.
>
[snipped]

Kelly, none of this is evidence for ASTROTURFING.

You gave evidence that Soros funds organizations that attract large 
numbers of REAL supporters, like me -- those are not astroturf, they are 
genuine grassroots organizations in which very large numbers of real 
people believe in a thing and try to do something about it.

Astroturfing is about setting up an organizations to give the *illusion* 
of a large movement of people who support something, but where in fact 
the organization is just a couple of guys, a big name like "American 
People for Jobs and Prosperity" (I made that up: I have no idea if there 
is a real group called that), and expensive radio advertisments.

So, once again you support your claims with smoke and mirrors.


Richard Loosemore