See this page 1 story in the WSJ today -- a better example of both astroturfing and mowing it down would be hard to find. Astroturfing, of course, is the tactic of someone (usually a corporation) of pretending to be someone else -- often something that looks like a populist, grass roots uprising. And what could be more grass roots than a bunch of renters complaining about the mortgage bailout? Thus "angryrenter.com" was born. And the journal quickly punctures the facade with a delightful story that spells out who is behind the site and why. Look at these gems:
Angry they may be, but the people behind AngryRenter.com are certainly not renters. Though it purports to be a spontaneous uprising, AngryRenter.com is actually a product of an inside-the-Beltway conservative advocacy organization led by *** Armey, the former House majority leader, and publishing magnate Steve Forbes, a fellow Republican. It's a fake grass-roots effort -- what politicos call an AstroTurf campaign -- that provides a window into the sleight-of-hand ways of Washington.
and then it skewers some of those behind the organization:
FreedomWorks President Matthew Kibbe, a former top aide to a Republican lawmaker, says the site is an effort to "reach out" to renters who share the free-market views of Messrs. Armey, Forbes and others. Mr. Kibbe owns his own home on Capitol Hill in Washington, valued by local tax authorities at $1.17 million. "I'm an angry homeowner who pays his mortgage," Mr. Kibbe says
Mr. Forbes -- the chairman and chief executive of Forbes, a former Republican presidential candidate and an unpaid FreedomWorks board member -- owns a 7,966-square-foot house on 9.5 acres in Bedminster, N.J., assessed by county tax authorities at $2.78 million. He owns 111.8 more acres next door, registered as farmland and assessed for tax purposes at $45,500. The county lists at least half a dozen other Forbes properties in the area. The Forbes family has sold off its private island in Fiji and palace in Morocco, but still owns a château in France.
Mr. Armey, FreedomWorks's chairman, left Congress in 2003 and now lobbies his former colleagues as a senior policy adviser at DLA Piper, an international law and lobbying firm. He earns $100,833 a year for four hours a week working for FreedomWorks Inc., the organization's advocacy arm, and an additional $403,333 for 32 hours a week working for FreedomWorks Foundation, its tax-deductible, educational wing, according to federal tax filings.
Mr. Armey owns a house on 78.5 acres in Denton County, Texas, north of Dallas. In response to a public-information request, local authorities revealed that the land and house are worth a combined $1.7 million.
There are two points worth making here. First, I think the days of astroturf campaigns are quickly coming to an end -- the level of easy transparency and information sharing available really mitigates any positive impact they might have. Second, the idea of manipulation via deception has to stop -- the stated goals of this group are not intrinsically bad -- instead of hiding behind a facade the should put them into the public square and argue them on their own merits.