Astroturfing

People that follow the FOP are familiar with the term astroturfing. It is a bogus political movement that was actually conceived corporate sponsors of the GOP. In this case Fox News. Longtime lefty journalist William Greider perfectly described astroturfing.

Greider: "Grassroots program that involves the instant manufacturing of public support for a point of view in which either uninformed activists are recruited or means of deception are used to recruit them."

Nancy Pelosi called out the tea bagging miovement as astroturfing.

What we want is a new direction. In fact, in the President's initiative - in the Recovery and in the Budget - 95% of the American people get a tax cut. This is a tax cut for the great middle class. This initiative is funded by the high end - we call call it astroturf, it's not really a grassroots movement. It's astroturf by some of the wealthiest people in America to keep the focus on tax cuts for the rich instead of for the great middle class.

Astroturfing can also be done for political campaigns. The McCain campaign was attempting to get Hillary Clinton supporters. The group P.U.M.A. (People United Means Action) pretended to be Democratic. P.U.M.A. founder Darragh C. Murphy is a longtime Republican contributor.