Astroturfing, David Axelrod & the Smearing of Sarah Palin
A little investigative blogging by The Jawa Report indicates interesting ties between Obama’s chief media strategist, David Axelrod (the supposed master of phony grass roots campaigns, known as “astroturfing”), and the smearing of Sarah Palin.
That’s supposed to be transcending politics? By creating innovative and new ways to spread lies and conduct personal smears against your political opponents?
UPDATE: The aforementioned link has been updated. Overnight, in the wake of the posting, efforts began by whoever had the various accounts on YouTube and other sites to delete those accounts and eliminate all traces of their activities in smearing Sarah Palin. Ace has more. It’s never the act itself that gets you, as the saying goes, it’s the coverup.
September 22nd, 2008 at 11:34 am
ok sorry–what, exactly, is astroturfing?
other than a means to help line irsay’s pockets…
September 22nd, 2008 at 11:59 am
The Jawa Report talks about it being fake grassroots campaigns (i.e. it looks like a grassroots campaign, but there are really no grassroots people doing anything–it is paid for).
September 22nd, 2008 at 11:59 am
“Astroturfing” is the creation of fake grassroots efforts (usually for political purposes). Basically, it is bottom-up political activity that is, behind the scenes, actually being orchestrated from the top-down or by a campaign or party organization. It appears to be homegrown, but is actually manufactured.
An example would be a “draft so-and-so” movement where the names on the signature or petition website are either fake, or are obtained by an organized political campaign or political party that is acting on behalf of the supposed draftee.
In this case, it appears that Axelrod and the Obama campaign created a video for YouTube smearing Palin (or hired this media firm to create it), and had the firm put it out on the Internets in such a way that it looked like it was done by some ordinary person and was being spread from website to website by ordinary people, when in reality it was all being orchestrated centrally, apparently by this Winner PR firm.
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:13 am
aha–sneakiness is afoot! this is interesting. whatever happened to telling you opponent that he is no jack kennedy?