Astro-turfed....?

[Steely_Dan]

Can someone help me here? I've been hearing the term "Astro-Turfed." What does this mean?

Sorry...I must be falling behind with the lingo.

-Paige

[salvorhardin]

1. Fake grass roots campaign

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing

[madfloridian]

2. People pretending to be who and what they are not.

There is a load of it on forums now. Some push issues that way, or candidates. It gives the impression of huge support for something, when there really may not be.

When you see all the forums hit with something at once, it can either be fed up people sounding off or true concern. Sometimes easy to tell, sometimes hard to discern.

Sometimes it is paid astroturfing. If you do a search you will many companies have done that. On political forums you need to be on guard.

[Hello_Kitty]

3. Pseudo-grass roots, basically.

It's when a fake organization is set up, supposedly representing the interests of "regular voters". But it's really backed by certain political or corporate interests. There are numerous types of groups, funded by the tobacco, oil, pharmaceutical, and defense industries. The Center for Consumer Freedom is a good example of this. A supposedly non-profit organization that has patronage by certain industries. http://www.sourcewatch.org/wiki.phtml?title=Center_for_Consumer_Freedom