Astroturfing Quotes

The thing about astroturfing is that it can be really believable.

For those of you who still believe in the Easter Bunny and that the letters that appear in your local newspaper come from concerned citizens who really care, I've got troubling news. At least in politics, most of the letters that get published on the letters-to-the-editor page originate in the campaign headquarters of the candidates.

I think 'astroturfing' goes against the conservative creed because it violates the desire we share to be self-sufficient, and this is understandable, something with which I agree.

The Tea Party ended up being a shill for corporate America.

I so often doubt how much people on television believe what they're saying. They're playing roles for think tanks or political parties or shills of whatever stripe.

The Tea Party was a grass roots movement and then the Koch Brothers came along. So now we have the Tea Party on coke.

Anytime there's an actual grassroots movement that isn't funded by people trying to create a grassroots movement, I find that interesting.

Special interests and opponents have figured out how easy it is to disrupt town halls and get their own message out. The days of the truly free-form town halls may be over.

The fossil fuel industry has taken control of, and powered up, architecture and methods originally built by the tobacco industry and others to attack and deny science.

Some issues lend themselves to grassroots campaigns - homeschooling works well - but others require contrivance and connivance to whip up support. Often, lobbyists will hire vendors to dispatch blast emails and robocalls in the hopes of bombarding Congressional offices with citizen fury.

If you have to hire paid actors to impersonate people who politically support you, people don't actually natively politically support you. You are not a political animal that exists in nature.

I can't say I'm surprised: the grassroots antiwar movement keeps turning out to be MoveOn/A.N.S.W.E.R. astroturf.