Astroturf and manipluation of the media

Trying to sort out the facts from the fiction is getting tough these days. Sharyl Attkisson has presented a strong TED presentation about the practice of Astrotufing, which is the development of fake grass roots campaigns. Social media, wikipedia and even google is at risk of manipulation to present and reinforce certain agendas.

Things to watch out for are those that attack the people and not the topic with terms like crank, nutter, conspiracy and others. Digging behind the story and where it comes from can also help identify fake and manipulated information. Overall there is a good heads up with this video as we all sift through this quagmire of information.

She nails it.

A new term.

Nameless astroturfers…

(btw, don't believe wiki)

a reply to: kwakakev

Saw this vid and a few others on this subject by her a few months ago. She is one of the last true journalist left, and not without harassment by the gov. for her revelations.

An important and informative video to present.

Congrats for posting.

S&F

I haven't watched the video. But the internet has been around long enough and enough people are on social media now to build credible looking AstroTurf movements.

One of the biggest that many aren't aware of is the Tea Party. It's a big reason why the establishment GOP is so ticked off at Trump. Their AstroTurf movement really played out well and became a legitimate grassroots movement. I just read another post about how Rove(I think it was Rove correct me if I'm wrong) wanted to move the Republicans to the right.

The Tea Party offered the perfect platform for that. Paint the Tea Party as an extreme right and move the establishment and it's base further to the right. It seemed to have worked a little too well and left the party open to a takeover and Trump just happened to fit the bill for the what the Tea Party was missing. Someone they perceive with economic credibility.

It's also an example of how AstroTurf movements can be used by established movements to nudge their constituency or supporters in a direction that they want.